Azure DevOps Agent Pools

Agent pools in Azure DevOps organize and manage build agents for pipeline execution. This post covers configuring Microsoft-hosted and self-hosted agent pools.

Pool Types

# Microsoft-hosted agents
jobs:
  - job: WindowsBuild
    pool:
      vmImage: 'windows-latest'

  - job: LinuxBuild
    pool:
      vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  - job: MacBuild
    pool:
      vmImage: 'macos-latest'

# Self-hosted agent pool
jobs:
  - job: OnPremBuild
    pool:
      name: 'MyAgentPool'
      demands:
        - docker
        - Agent.OS -equals Linux

Agent Configuration

# Download and configure agent
./config.sh --unattended \
  --url https://dev.azure.com/myorg \
  --auth pat \
  --token $PAT \
  --pool MyAgentPool \
  --agent my-agent-01 \
  --acceptTeeEula \
  --replace

# Run as service
sudo ./svc.sh install
sudo ./svc.sh start

Pool Management

# Capabilities and demands
agent_capabilities:
  system:
    - Agent.OS: Linux
    - Agent.Version: 2.x
  user_defined:
    - docker
    - node18
    - dotnet7

pipeline_demands:
  - docker
  - dotnet7

Agent pools provide flexible compute resources for diverse build requirements.