Why use a dedicated computer to make builds using TFS?

Question

At the MSDN site, it states:

"... install Team Foundation Build on a computer that is dedicated to running builds."

OK, I got that. But my manager didn't, and I wasn't able to convince him.

This way, I aske the SO community to help me convince him of the need to use a dedicated computer to run builds.

Answer 1

Building is a CPU intensive process. The idea of a build server is that it sits there and builds after every checkin, to make sure nothing broke. If you put that on a computer with other resources, it's going to slow down everything else. Even if you virtualized it, it's probably going to be a problem.

The other thing is that you want a "clean" OS install so that other programs don't contaminate the computer by adding dependencies that client computers might not have.

If you only used it for nightly builds, I would think you'd be OK running a virtual machine to do it.

Answer 2

Set your build server up on his PC and then use it for continuous integration builds until he understands why it needs its own server ;)

I give it an hour before he's on the phone to your hardware supplier to get you a new server.