Is it possible to have a TFS build activity run on a specific agent?

Question

We are using TFS 2010 and we've got a requirement to run a separate EXE to execute our old VB6 build script. We've got 3 build agents spread across 2 machines but only one machine has the VB6 development environment on it (as well as the old build script) so only one agent can do this work. I know how to do this with a build activity in our build template file but because we've got 3 build agents on 2 different machines, my question is how can I make sure this activity only runs on the one build agent which contains the VB6 development environment?

I realize this creates a bottleneck but it's only temporary for now. It would be ideal if I could do this without creating a custom DLL for a custom activity. Also, I understand with tagging I could create a different build definition for this work but again, this is not ideal... I want one build workflow that runs this on the one agent but the rest of the activities afterward continue on their respective build agent(s).

EDIT: All that said above, if it is possible to chain 2 build definitions together (the VB6 build definition runs and then the "regular" build definition), that would be an acceptable solution if possible.

Answer 1

You could certainly chain together 2 build definitions using the RunWorkflow and WaitForWorkflow Activities that are included out of the box (if you look at the LabDefaultTemplate it does this).

A more elegant solution would be to do it in one workflow using the AgentScope activity to separate out the sections of the workflow that need to run on different specific agents. If you look at the DefaultTemplate most of it is wrapped in a single AgentScope activity (labeled Run On Agent), but you could split it out into a couple AgentScope activities that are called in sequence (or in parallel if possible).