Force Agent Update Missing From Agent Details

[Shane]

In older versions of BM, there was a method allowing a forced update to a specific build agent, but it appears to no longer exist in the current version (not sure when it was removed). I have about 15 different build servers running build agents, none of which are on the same network. If an agent fails to update, I no longer have a way to update the specific agent. My only option is to update all agents at once. Is there another way to initiate a specific build agent update?

Product: BuildMaster
Version: 4.3.8

[Tod]

That option was removed when the server update mechanism was reworked in 4.2. The feature became somewhat redundant since only out-of-date agents get updated anyway, and now visiting the servers overview page will automatically trigger an update check as if you had clicked the "Force Update" button previously. We may consider adding it back though.

[Shane]

Navigating to the servers overview page does not appear to trigger the update (I can kick off builds, and everything else runs fine), yet the overview page continues to display the agent as out of date. This probably works just fine on a local network, but our servers are separated geographically. Do I need a special port open? The only open port to each server is the build agent port.

[Tod]

Only the single agent port is required to be open.

As a workaround, if you have BuildMaster database access, you can just set the status of the particular server to FORCE.

If you have a custom extension, you could write a quick custom recipe that can do it as well - just implement the IServerRecipe interface for a RecipeBase object. You can find out how this works in the Creating an Auto-Deploying Custom Extension Application tutorial which contains a downloadable example project containing example recipe code.