[FIXED] What is the purpose of a build agent in continuous integration and continuous deployment?

Issue

What is the purpose of a build agent in continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment? Is this something that impacts all CI servers (e.g. Jenkins, TeamCity, TFS, etc.)

On the TeamCity license types page I noted that the professional server license, which is free, only includes three build agents.

https://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/buy/#license-type=new-license

Solution

The expression build agent basically describes an environment in which builds or jobs of the CI pipeline are run. There are multiple synonyms for this part of the CI infrastructure. TeamCity seems to define a build agent as an environment where one build at a time can run.

Jenkins would define the machine which runs builds as a slave with a (different) master machine that coordinates which builds runs where. Multiple builds can run on the same slave in Jenkins in different executor slots.

Another system using a build agent is a Team Foundation server which should be structured similarly to TeamCity's solution. There has already been a more detailed answer here.

Answered By - Bricktop

Answer Checked By - Clifford M. (PHPFixing Volunteer)