First off i'm a FinalBuilder newb... i apologize if any of this is dumb. VMWare Workstation and one copy of FinalBuilder on the server triggering the builds on a virtual machine for each project/platform. I'm wondering if this is the best way to use FinalBuilder and VMWare?
Would we be able to stop/start the build with continuous integration?
Would we be able to get build logs and such back from the virtual machines and linked to reports?
I don’t think that will work with VMWare Workstation as Workstation runs in a desktop session, which is not available from a service like FinalBuilder Server. My suggestion would be to use VMWare Server (which runs as a service).
So you would need a FinalBuilder Pro named user license for the build server, with FinalBuilder Server installed. FinalBuilder Server can then be setup to monitor source code repositories and trigger FinalBuilder builds on that same machine. Those build projects then start the vm (if it’s not already running) and then execute a guest command (your build process) on the vm. You FinalBuilder build poject on the server can pull logs etc off the various vm’s and record them as Artifacts in FinalBuilder server.
While i can "execute a guest command" on a VMWare server.... i cannot execute an Action List? This would mean that almost none of the "600+ Built-in Actions" are executable on the VMWare server and cannot be used to automate the work there.
I guess what i'm looking for is something like a remote agent that can execute FinalBuilder Action Lists on the VMWare machine.
What you would need to do is when the build is triggered, use the build script that executes on the server to execute FBCMD.exe on the VM passing the FinalBuilder project file it needs to execute. You may also want to push the most recent version of the build script to the VM before calling FBCMD.
You could use the build script that is executed on the VM to export the log to a network share (or somewhere that the server can access) and then set these files as build artifacts as Vincent mentioned above.
So does FBCMD.exe need to installed in a special way on the VM machine? Do you just need to copy the EXE over and its all self contained... or do you need extra DLLs for actions? Do you need a full blown FB install on the VM?
Is using FBCMD.exe on VMs within the single server license?
You would need a full install of FB on each of the VMs that you intend to run a build on, as FBCMD.exe cannot be deployed by itself.
The additional licences required to do this are not included in a single server license, you would need to purchase additional FinalBuilder licenses for each of these VMs.
Unfortunately the FB Online Store is as clear as mud.
So what exact licenses would i need?
Is purchasing the $1,439 "Professional Edition" "Foating For Small Teams" license which says "10 installations" cover one main build server + 9 installs on VMs?
Or are we talking about the "FinalBuilder Server Licenses" "User License" below that?
Your license requirements would depend on how you intend to run these builds on your VMs. You need to look at the FinalBuilder licenses not the server licenses in this case.
If you need more information about licensing or pricing please contact our sales team via salesinfo at vsoft-tech dot com dot au who will be able to point you in the right direction.