Configure Your Build System

To use Team Foundation Build, you must set up a build system. A build system can be as simple or as complex as needed to match the scale of your organization's efforts and the specific technical requirements of your software projects.

The topics in this set include information about how to install Team Foundation Build Service, how to direct it to work with a specific team project collection, and how to use build controllers and agents.

A simple build system

A single-machine system (stand-alone)

Before reading these topics, you should first read Understanding a Team Foundation Build System.

Common Tasks

Tasks

Related topics

Dedicate and configure a Team Foundation Build computer. Install Team Foundation Build Service on a dedicated build machine and then choose which specific project collection it will work with, how many build agents to use, and what security configurations to use.

Scenario: Installing Team Foundation Build Service

Configure a Build Machine

Set up a build service account for your project collection. Direct your build machine to build projects for your team project collection.

Add the Build Service Account to the Project Collection Build Service Accounts Security Group

Create and modify a build controller. Create a build controller to manage the services of one or more build agents for your team project collection or modify an existing controller.

Create and Work with a Build Controller

Create a build agent. Create a build agent to handle requests from the build controller and do work such as getting files from version control, provisioning the workspace, compiling the code, running tests, and merging files back into version control.

Create and Work with Build Agents

Set up drop folders. You must designate and prepare one or more drop folders so that your build system can deliver output to your team.

Set Up Drop Folders

Building the Application