In this example we’re configure an agent to run as a service on Windows, under the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account. This agent will enable Azure DevOps YAML pipelines invoke the MettleCI command line on a dedicated Windows server. This is required because the DataStage compilation process still requires the Microsoft Windows-based components.
Note that these configuration options work for Azure DevOps running either in the cloud or on premises.
There are three steps to follow:
Create a PAT (Personal Access Token)
From the User settings menu select Personal access tokens
Select New Token and enter the name of your Windows machine, select your Azure organisation, specify your token’s expiry period, and select a scope of Full access.
Copy the generated token and keep it somewhere secure. You’ll need it in subsequent steps.
Trust Azure Certificate (Azure DevOps Server only)
If your Azure DevOps Server instance is using a self-signed certificate, you will need to trust that certificate from the machine that you are going to run your agent on.
Navigate to your Azure DevOps Server instance in the browser on the machine you will install the agent on and click “Continue to this website”:
Click “Certificate error” in the address bar, then “View certificates”:
Click the “Details” tab then click “Copy to File…”:
Select the P7B certificate and check the box to Include all certificates in path
Select the path to save the certificate to
Locate the file in File Explorer, right click and select “Install Certificate”
Download and configure an Agent
Under Project Settings create an Agent Pool for your agents. For example, here’s a list including a pool of agents across Data Migrators' AWS infrastructure:
Select the Agents tab,
Click New agent
Download the appropriate agent (e.g. Windows x64 for traditional DataStage v11.7 instances) on to the server you intent to use for CI-related job compilation and follow the PowerShell instructions provided.
Azure DevOps Services
Server URL: https://dev.azure.com/[ORGANIZATION]
Azure DevOps Server
Server URL: https://[AZURE_SERVER_URL]/[AZURE_COLLECTION] <---- This is different from the Azure documentation but is what worked for us
Your PowerShell output should look a little like this:Windows PowerShell Copyright (C) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. PS C:\Users\Administrator> cd c:\ PS C:\> mkdir agent ; cd agent Directory: C:\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 12/08/2020 8:12 PM agent PS C:\agent> Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem ; [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirecto ry("$HOME\Downloads\vsts-agent-win-x64-2.173.0.zip", "$PWD") PS C:\agent> .\config.cmd ___ ______ _ _ _ / _ \ | ___ (_) | (_) / /_\ \_____ _ _ __ ___ | |_/ /_ _ __ ___| |_ _ __ ___ ___ | _ |_ / | | | '__/ _ \ | __/| | '_ \ / _ \ | | '_ \ / _ \/ __| | | | |/ /| |_| | | | __/ | | | | |_) | __/ | | | | | __/\__ \ \_| |_/___|\__,_|_| \___| \_| |_| .__/ \___|_|_|_| |_|\___||___/ | | agent v2.173.0 |_| (commit ecd4119) >> Connect: Enter server URL > https://dev.azure.com/mettleci Enter authentication type (press enter for PAT) > Enter personal access token > **************************************************** Connecting to server ... >> Register Agent: Enter agent pool (press enter for default) > AWS DataStage Agents Enter agent name (press enter for DEMO4-CLNT) > Scanning for tool capabilities. Connecting to the server. Successfully added the agent Testing agent connection. Enter work folder (press enter for _work) > 2020-08-12 10:24:26Z: Settings Saved. Enter run agent as service? (Y/N) (press enter for N) > Y Enter User account to use for the service (press enter for NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE) > Granting file permissions to 'NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE'. Service vstsagent.mettleci.AWS DataStage Agents.DEMO4-CLNT successfully installed Service vstsagent.mettleci.AWS DataStage Agents.DEMO4-CLNT successfully set recovery option Service vstsagent.mettleci.AWS DataStage Agents.DEMO4-CLNT successfully set to delayed auto start Service vstsagent.mettleci.AWS DataStage Agents.DEMO4-CLNT successfully configured Service vstsagent.mettleci.AWS DataStage Agents.DEMO4-CLNT started successfully PS C:\agent>Now you’re ready to use that agent in your pipeline YAML definitions!