TFS 2010 Build agent not starting

Question

My build agents are not starting after I change the properties credentials to the domain account from the network service. I done this because the network service account cannot write to my drop folder.

Each time I add the network service to the drop folder share, it appears then disappears. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb778394.aspx I followed this but some steps are different, i have xp and it doesn't show the share tab so i go through security tab

So I guess I'm asking two questions here;

1. Agents are not starting after changing credentials.
2. Network service not able to write to the drop folder.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Yes, Network Service won't have permissions to write to a drop location. That's pretty standard. You need to be using a domain account.

The TFS Build Service will need to run as a domain user so it can write to the drop location.

The domain account for the build agent will need to be in the TFS Project Collection group for build service accounts (internal to TFS). I can't remember what it's actually called but you need to be a collection administrator to update it.

The domain account will also need some login as batch/service permissions but that should be done automatically when you reconfigure the service. Do you use the TFS Admin console to reconfigure the agent or did you just set the credentials on the service? (You should use the TFS Admin console).