Running Build service as Interactive in Lab

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to deploy our application using the TFS Build-Deploy-Test methodology.

Our application is an Azure application, and is deployed using an in house build server. So the only thing the Build actually builds is the Integration tests, and deploys them to the PCs in the environment. 

I've written a Console Application which surfs (using Selenium) to our website, registers a user, downloads the agent, and installs it. When I run it from my pc it works fine. However, because the build service is running as a service in the VM in the Lab, it doesn't work at all (both our installer and selenium needs ui). I've tried manually changing build service to Interactive inside the Team Foundation Administration Console, but then I just get an error - same one which other , and workflow capability is broken.

I've tried impersonating the logged in user from the process that is run by the Build Service, but that didn't help either. My last resort so far is for the build service to run a process which communicates using a named pipe to a different process already running on the PC - haven't finished writing it yet though ;)

Hopefully, I'd rather just configure the build service as an Interactive Process and have it directly run my program. Any idea if it is at all possible? Or is this post true: http://automationdude.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/error-running-build-service-as.html

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi hellspam2,

Another community member encountered the similar issue as yours. Please see: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/682778/build-service-crash-when-configured-as-interactive-process-in-windows-7-ultimate-with-sp1#details

And as it mentioned above, it is fixed in the next version.

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

Thanks vicki.

Ended up just creating a client/server program that the build service runs and the client actually runs the UI (the service runs in session 0, the client in the user session.)