To execute an Azure DevOps pipeline, you need an Azure Pipelines agent. This is a standalone program that’s similar to a Ranorex Agent. You install it on a physical or virtual machine, connect it to Azure DevOps, and then pass pipelines to the agent for execution.
On this page, you’ll find out how to set up and start an agent. This article only covers what’s relevant for executing a Ranorex Studio solution through an Azure DevOps pipeline. For all other topics, please refer to the official Azure DevOps documentation.
Download an agent
To download an agent:
- In the bottom left of your Azure DevOps project, click Project settings.
- Click Agent pools.
- Select an available agent pool. You can select from a hosted pool or from a local pool (default).
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In the agent view that appears, click New agent.
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Select Windows as OS, your OS’s architecture (x64 or x86), and click Download.
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Unpack the downloaded .zip file to a folder of your choice.
Note
The following instructions assume a default local pool.
Configure the agent
To configure the downloaded agent:
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Double-click the file config.cmd.
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Configure the agent as follows:
This is a basic user guide text with all paddings and margins set correctly. Just use all text styles H2, H3 etc… as you want. If you need to define Keystrokes like CTRL do it like this here. - Paste the Azure-DevOps project URL from your browser’s address bar.
- Press Enter to use PAT as the authentication type.
- In the Security menu of your Azure DevOps account, create a full-access PAT and paste it here.
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Press Enter to select the default local pool.
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Press Enter to confirm the agent’s name or change it.
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Press Y if you have previously had an agent installed on this machine; press Enter if not.
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Press Enter to confirm the work folder or change it.
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Press N. The agent must not be run as a service.
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Press Y.
Attention
The generated PAT is visible only once and can’t be recreated. Copy and paste it immediately after generating it.
Start the agent
To start the agent:
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In the folder to which you unpacked the agent files, double-click run.cmd.
The agent starts, connects to the server, and idles until it receives a pipeline to execute.