Do Self Hosted Agents require dedicated machines?

2
votes

I am migrating XAML Builds to Azure Devops. Goal is to remove the dedicated Build Staging server to cut costs.

Following is the process: 1) Build ASP.NET Web Application. 2) Copy configs, assemblies, WebPackage from Build output to various folders in UNC share which will be later picked up by a Release Pipeline Job.

Since Microsoft Hosted Agents dont allow usage of UNC share, I wanted to use Self Hosted Agent.

Question: Can I use a Self Hosted Agent without the necessity of a dedicated server to hold the Build Output in Image or Container which can then be copied to the UNC Share? I am new to Devops and hence the articles on MS confused me if I need a dedicated server or not.

Tried to set up a Self Hosted Agent pool, but the steps suggest that I require a machine where the Self Hosted Agent need to be setup. If this is the case then it means I will be requiring a dedicated machine like in XAML process. Am I blabbering? Please excuse if yes :-)

Expected Result: Run a Build Pipeline with Self Hosted Agents on Cloud without the requirement of a Dedicated Server.

2
azure-devops

2 Answers

1
votes

UNC Shares or not, the "self hosted agent" is an agent you install on your own server, there can be multiple reasons for that, for example accessing an sql server for testing that is on your own local network, to perform tests against during builds.

If you are trying to reduce costs, a self-hosted agent can be benefitial if you already have server hardware it can run on. If not, you might aswell just use a hosted build agent, anything build on that can be published directly azure devops or other places though various build tasks.

0
votes

...Since Microsoft Hosted Agents dont allow usage of UNC share...

This is not a problem, there is no reason for you to use UNC shares.

You don't need to access UNC shares to store artifacts for later consumption; use the Publish Artifacts build activity. That will store your build outputs internally and make them available to downstream releases.