DevTest Labs - avoid shutdown of VMs when builds are running

Question

We use VMs in DevTest Labs as build agents for Azure DevOps. The VMs have auto-shutdown turned on. Now the issue is they get turned off even when builds are running on them. How to avoid this? The notification about the shutdown time approaching won't help as build jobs run in an unattended manner.

Answer 1

I believe that best way in your scenario is ether not use auto-shutdown or identify better time to shutdown build agents when you are sure that build is not happening.

Honestly, it's better to manage agent lifecycle from Azure DevOps like Microsoft does for Microsoft hosted agent. You may also can try new feature of Azure DevOps called Scale Set Agents which is in preview now. It's designed exactly to manage your self-hosted agents and scale them up and down as needed. That will allow you to keep agent cost usage on optimal level possible.