TFS2010 - Parallel Build - Single solution, single build agent

Question

We have TFS2010 and a single solution with nearly 200 hundred projects (Yes, I know, bad idea, not mine!). I have the build time down to circa 30 seconds on a 4 core (8 hyper) machine from 4 minutes done sequentially by decoupling code to enable a high level of build concurrency. I would now like to get the benefit of that on the build server, this must be possible as MSBuild supports parallel build. How?

Answer 1

You can run builds in parallel in Team Build 2010 by editing your build properties.

1. Open the list of builds in Team Explorer
2. Right click on the build you want to edit and choose Edit Build Definition...
3. Select the Process tab on the left and expand the Advanced properties on the right
4. In the MSBuild Arguments property add /maxcpucount or /m
5. Save and close

Here's a screenshot:

See also

• Building Multiple Projects in Parallel

Answer 2

If parallel compilation is not enabled by default, go to Additional MSBuild parameters property on build definition's "Process-Advanced" tab and add "/m" command line switch