DeployVisualStudioTestAgent@1 - Visual Studio Test Agent Deployment v1 task

Article
02/24/2025

This task deploys and configures the Test Agent to run tests on a set of machines.

Important

This task is deprecated. Use the Visual Studio Test task to run unit and functional tests.

Syntax

YAML

# Visual Studio Test Agent Deployment v1
# Deploy and configure Test Agent to run tests on a set of machines.
- task: DeployVisualStudioTestAgent@1
  inputs:
  # Test Machine Group
    testMachineGroup: # string. Required. Machines. 
    #adminUserName: # string. Admin Login. 
    #adminPassword: # string. Admin Password. 
    #winRmProtocol: # 'Http' | 'Https'. Protocol. 
    #testCertificate: true # boolean. Optional. Use when winRmProtocol = Https. Test Certificate. Default: true.
    #resourceFilteringMethod: 'machineNames' # 'machineNames' | 'tags'. Select Machines By. Default: machineNames.
    #testMachines: # string. Filter Criteria. 
  # Agent Configuration
    machineUserName: # string. Required. Username. 
    machinePassword: # string. Required. Password. 
    #runAsProcess: false # boolean. Interactive Process. Default: false.
  # Advanced
    #agentLocation: # string. Test Agent Location. 
    #updateTestAgent: true # boolean. Update Test Agent. Default: true.
    #isDataCollectionOnly: false # boolean. Enable Data Collection Only. Default: false.

Inputs

testMachineGroup - Machines
string. Required.

This input has three options:

Provides a comma separated list of machine IP addresses or FQDNs along with ports. The default port is based on the selected protocol. For example, dbserver.fabrikam.com,dbserver_int.fabrikam.com:5986,192.168.12.34:5986.
Provides the output variable of other tasks. For example, $(variableName).
Provides a machine group name. If you are using HTTPS, the name/IP of the machine should match the CN on the certificate.

adminUserName - Admin Login
string.

Specifies the administrator login for the target machines.

adminPassword - Admin Password
string.

Specifies the administrator password for the target machines. This input can accept a variable defined in build/release definitions as $(passwordVariable). You may mark the variable type as secret to secure it.

winRmProtocol - Protocol
string. Allowed values: Http, Https.

Specifies the protocol to use for the WinRM connection with the machine(s). The default value is HTTPS.

testCertificate - Test Certificate
boolean. Optional. Use when winRmProtocol = Https. Default value: true.

Provides the option to skip the authenticity validation of the machine's certificate by a trusted certification authority. The parameter is required for the WinRM HTTPS protocol.

resourceFilteringMethod - Select Machines By
string. Allowed values: machineNames (Machine Names), tags. Default value: machineNames.

testMachines - Filter Criteria
string.

Provides a list of machines like dbserver.fabrikam.com, dbserver_int.fabrikam.com, 192.168.12.34 or tags like Role:DB;OS:Win8.1. Returns machines that have either of the tags. For Azure Resource Group, provide the VM host name for the machine name. The default deploys an agent on all machines represented in the Machines field.

machineUserName - Username
string. Required.

Specifies the username with which the test agent needs to run.

machinePassword - Password
string. Required.

Specifies the password for the username given above.

runAsProcess - Interactive Process
boolean. Default value: false.

Denotes if the test agent needs to run as an interactive process. This input is needed for Coded UI Tests.

agentLocation - Test Agent Location
string.

Optional. Supplies the path to vstf_testagent.exe from the network or local location. If no path is provided, it will be downloaded from the download center.

updateTestAgent - Update Test Agent
boolean. Default value: true.

Optional. Specifies if the test agent needs to be updated.

isDataCollectionOnly - Enable Data Collection Only
boolean. Default value: false.

Optional. Specifies if the test agent is used only for data collection and not for running tests. This can typically be found on the application under the test (AUT) machine group.

Task control options

All tasks have control options in addition to their task inputs. For more information, see Control options and common task properties.

Output variables

None.

Requirements

Requirement	Description
Pipeline types	YAML, Classic build, Classic release
Runs on	Agent, DeploymentGroup
Demands	None
Capabilities	This task does not satisfy any demands for subsequent tasks in the job.
Command restrictions	Any
Settable variables	Any
Agent version	1.104.0 or greater
Task category	Test

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