Azure DevOps Agent in Docker Container

Before you proceed, I recommend reading Azure's Documentation on running a self-hosted agent in Docker.

This repo is similar to Azure's Documentation with the exception that Python 3.7.9 & 3.8.5 binaries are installed on the agent so that the following task can be used within your pipeline:

- task: UsePythonVersion@0
  inputs:
    #versionSpec: '3.x' 
    #addToPath: true 
    #architecture: 'x64' # Options: x86, x64 (this argument applies only on Windows agents)

The use of a self-hosted agent is especially useful when your resources sit behing a private Virtual Netwrok.

More on this task here.

Many thanks to @rohancragg's blog post on how to install Python's capabilities on the agent. The original post can be found here.

Build image and tag it

docker build . -t devops-agent:v1

Create another tag for the Azure CR (Container Registry) if needed

docker tag devops-agent:v1 yourregistry.azurecr.io/devops-agents/devops-agent:v1

Optionally push to Container Registry

Log in to the registry via the Azure CLI or using Docker directly

az acr login --name yourregistry

Or using Docker. You'll need the username and password which can be found in Keys sections of the CR Service in the Azure Portal

docker login yourregistry.azurecr.io

docker push yourregistry.azurecr.io/agents/devops-agent:v1

PAT Token

Before you can proceed with the registation of your agent, you'll need a one time Personal Access Token - PAT Token that will be used by the agent upon first setup. More info here and here. Head over to DevOps and create one as you'll need it for the next step.

Run Container

docker run -d --name devops-agent-01 --restart unless-stopped -e AZP_TOKEN={PAT_TOKEN} -e AZP_URL=https://dev.azure.com/{YourOrganisation} -e AZP_AGENT_NAME=agent-01 -e POOL={SelfHostedPool} devops-agent:v1 # Running in detached mode