Slowest Build Agent gets priority

In a Windows Server environment with TC 2019.1.3 and mainly .NET solutions, a slow Build Agent gets priority above the twice as fast building Agent (located on the TeamCity Server itself).

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Hi Rick,

Thanks for your inquiry. It is not currently possible to alter or set the priority of the build agents from the TeamCity server menus. We do have this related request on our YouTrack here. Please vote for it and watch for it in a future release. Otherwise, please read below for a few pointers.

Without knowing much about your setup, it is hard for me to make any specific recommendations. I'll start with the more obvious thing that you've probably already checked. In order for the build agent to be assigned, it must be idle when the build starts. I don't know what your queue looks like based on the screenshot you've provided, but in some cases like this, we have found the expected agent was not idle and therefore not assigned the build in question.

You may also want to evaluate why the other two agents are so much slower. You could look at what resources are shared with other services and applications on the server or workstation on which the build agent is running. I know this isn't always possible, but a lot of our users are able to allocate more resources to the lower performing agents.

The use of agent pools can be utilized in some cases to ensure the availability of your target agent in time-critical instances (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/teamcity/agent-pools.html#AgentPools-Concept). Another possibility would be to assign a specific agent to a build configuration (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/teamcity/assigning-build-configurations-to-specific-build-agents.html#assigning-build-configurations-to-specific-build-agents.md).

It is also important to note that the fastest idle agent is determined by a benchmark score called CPU Rank that is generated during agent start-up. You can view this score on the Agent Summary page (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/teamcity/viewing-build-agent-details.html#ViewingBuildAgentDetails-AgentSummary).

Both the TeamCity server and build agents are quite intense and use a lot of resources. While this should be fine for evaluations or some lite use, it is not generally preferable to use this configuration in the long run (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/teamcity/build-agent.html#build-agent.md).

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