Automatically start/stop Existing Azure VM as build agent in VSTS

Question

I'm able to register my existing Azure VM as build agent in VSTS. Build works fine but I would like to turn the machine on and off only if there is any work for it. Is there any way how I can turn on the VM if I see there is some work for it in a queue and then turn it off if the queue is idle for let's say 5 minutes?

Answer 1

Add a hosted agent job to the start to start the VM and add an agent job or additional step to the end to shut down the VM when finished.

Add an Agent job to run this as hosted to start the VM. Then use all build steps as self-hosted(private).

Add your Azure subscription

Choose Inline Script to add the following to start it with VM name and resource group

start-AzureRmVM -Name ""-ResourceGroupName ""

Add another Agent Job or additional step as the last Step To shut down the VM when the build has finished. With the following Script

stop-AzureRmVM -Name ""-ResourceGroupName "" -Force

Answer 2

I'm wondering if this could be helpful for you because this is not exactly what you asked for. I used REST API calls before the build and after the build to start and then stop a specific VM. See how to start and power off a VM in the API documentation.

I created an agentless job as the first step, with a task entitled Invoke REST API. The task lets you authenticate to your Azure account, so you don't have to handle that manually. All you have to do is specify the URL suffix. For instance, to start a VM named MyVm, you add a suffix similar to the following one:

/subscriptions/subscription-id/resourceGroups/resource-group-name/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/MyVm/start?api-version=2018-06-01

where the subscription ID and resource group can be verified in the Overview page of your virtual machine in Azure.

After the build you can add another agentless job, but this time with a REST call of the powerOff endpoint:

/subscriptions/subscription-id/resourceGroups/resource-group-name/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/MyVm/powerOff?api-version=2018-06-01

Answer 3

There isn’t the good way to start/stop azure VM when build in VSTS. Regarding WebHook, there isn’t the event for queue build, for other events, they aren’t meet many requirements (e.g. non-CI build, queue build manually)

I recommend you use Hosted agent, with free Hosted Pipeline, you get 4 hours (240 minutes) per month and maximum duration of 30 minutes per build or deployment in Team Services.

How to buy more pipeline capacity for builds and releases in Visual Studio Team Services

Workaround:

1. Queue build at the specify time, for example, 7:00 am on Monday and Thursday, then you can auto-start and auto-shutdown the VM
2. Run on Hosted agent (Execute Powershell to start VM)=> Run on private agent

More information, you can refer to: How to Create a Monster Build Agent in Azure for Cheap