Are there seperate VSTS agents for build vs release?

Question

I am getting my first VSTS build and release definitions setup.
Test server destination, on prem project is using VS 2017 professional

Earlier I setup a private agent for doing the build, following this. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/build-release/actions/agents/v2-windows?view=vsts

The agent installed fine and I can see it from build & release / agent pools

However, have now switched to using a hosted agent for that so I can remove the need to install visual studio on a test server.

Now I want to deploy the build to my test server, which is on premises. Do I need yet another agent or can I use the one I setup already. In other words are build agents separate from release agents? The agent I setup earlier is running as a service.

Answer 1

The build agent can be used in VSTS build and release, also the deployment group agent is configuring with build agent too.

You don’t need to setup another build/release agent, there are many tasks to deploy app to another server, such as IIS Web App Deployment Using WinRM, PowerShell on Target machine, Windows Machine File Copy.

Answer 2

The build and release agents are the same, but you have to install an on-premise agent to deploy your projects in your network. Is not that you can not use the hosted agent, but you would have to use WinRM and open you network, which may not be a good idea.

After you installed your on-premise agent, you don't have to install VS on the machine to run tests. You can add the following task to your release.