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tfsmsbuildazure-devopstfsbuild

determining number of build servers to create

We are creating a build infrastructure. I need some suggestion over number of build servers to create.

We are having around 7+ branches. One solution contains around 140 projects. Currently on one agent it takes around 3 hours to build. for server (16GB RAM, 2.5GHz 4 core, 4 agents)

Problem is that gated builds are taking long time.

Could anyone provide me some guide lines for setting up the build infrastructure.

Thanks.

Solution

  • You have to do multiple things

    1. Reduce dependencies between projects so that more projects can be built parallely.
    2. Identify the bottleneck in your build process. It would either be processor, disk or memory. Buy appropriate hardware for the same. I would recommend SSD and huge ram since it helps in file system caching.

    Our infra: We have 2600+ projects and our gated checkin machines are 48 cores 3.5 Ghz ( 24 physical cores), 128 GB ram and 1 TB SSD machines. Our build takes 7 - 10 mins to complete.