Build Slaves in DevOps Overview of Build Agents (Workers) in CI/CD
What are Build Slaves? - Worker machines (agents) connected to a master/controller - Execute jobs assigned by master - Perform tasks like build, test, and deploy - Also known as build agents or workers
Why Use Build Slaves? 1. Scalability – run many builds simultaneously 2. Platform diversity – Linux, Windows, macOS, containers 3. Load distribution – reduce master load 4. Flexibility – specialized agents for specific tasks
How Build Slaves Work 1. Master receives job request 2. Assigns job to available slave node 3. Slave runs build steps (compile, test, package) 4. Results sent back to master
Types of Build Agents - Static Agents: Permanently configured machines - Dynamic Agents: Created on demand (Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes) - Ephemeral Agents: Temporary, destroyed after job completion