azure devops self hosted container agent with custom image

Question

We have source code with combination of .net 4.0 and C++ (CLI C++). To build this code we use visual studio 2015 and visual studio 2010 both at the same time. To build the C++ source code we using VS 2010. Now as we are migrating to azure devops we need create build pipelines. One way to achieve this is to create a self hosted windows agent and install vs 2015 and vs 2010 on it.

Is there a way to make this containerized? Can we create a custom container image with vs 2015 and vs2010 already installed?

Answer 1

You can use docker inside virtual machine for containerization, You can set up a self-hosted agent in Azure Pipelines to run inside a Windows Server Core (for Windows hosts), or Ubuntu container (for Linux hosts) with Docker. This is useful when you want to run agents with outer orchestration, such as Azure Container Instances. Both Windows and Linux are supported as container hosts. Windows containers should run on a Windows vmImage. To run your agent in Docker, you'll pass a few environment variables to docker run, which configures the agent to connect to Azure Pipelines or Azure DevOps Server. Finally, you customize the container to suit your needs. Tasks and scripts might depend on specific tools being available on the container's PATH, and it's your responsibility to ensure that these tools are available.

Here is the reference doc https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/docker?view=azure-devops

Answer 2

As per my knowledge number of container we run inside the VM is completely depends on the VM size( hardware configuration)we choose. we do have different VM size available in azure.

if you want to run more containers, I would recommend to go with AKS,Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) simplifies deploying a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure by offloading the operational overhead to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks, like health monitoring and maintenance. Since Kubernetes masters are managed by Azure, you only manage and maintain the agent nodes. Thus, AKS is free; you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.