So, over the last day or two, I’ve been building up replacements. Our build box is actually a PowerEdge 1950, split into two machines with the aid of VMWare ESXi. So I hacked together a build agent on VMWare Fusion to use as a template, copied it onto ESX, and set it spinning.

This was the point I got a kick in the arse. We were using Ubuntu 8.10 64bit – and ESX didn’t like it one bit. So I dragged a LCD and keyboard up to the server room and had a nose in the BIOS – sure enough, Dell had left VT off. Bloody Dell. I took advantage of the visit to hack SSH on in ESXi and headed downstairs.

No luck. Same error.

An hour later I stumbled on the solution. The VM had paravirtualisation turned on. Paravirtualisation, apparently, only supports 32bit hosts. Off went paravirtualisation and on went the build server. Win!

So, victory, one less Windows server, and once more a severe wish that VMWare would produce Infratructure Client for either Linux or Mac OS X.

That wasn’t all I learnt of value, however. JetBrains are good enough to tell you how to start TeamCity automatically on Windows (via a server) and the Mac (via launchd) and complete omit Linux. So I went and found out about Upstart.

End solution: create the scripts below in /etc/event.d. They’ll run on startup/shutdown, and can also be started manually using:

sudo start [start|stop]-teamcity-buildagent

/etc/event.d/start-teamcity-buildagent

start on runlevel 2
start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5

console output

script
	exec su -l buildagent -c '/opt/build-agent/bin/agent.sh start'
end script

/etc/event.d/stop-teamcity-buildagent

start on shutdown

console output
script
	exec su -l buildagent -c '/opt/build-agent/bin/agent.sh stop'
end script

As always, a browse of the comments leads you to the conclusion that arrogance and defensiveness are common traits shared across the Atlantic. However, I think Michael has missed a rather important point – while correctly attacking the climate (in particular bureaucracy) arrayed against start-ups he misses that his definition of success is an American one.

Maybe working 70 hours a week for years turns him on. Good for him. He can profit from our varying attitude and hopefully we’ll profit from what he’s producing. In the meantime, we’ll have a fair work-life balance and work hard without forgetting the other things in life. Chances are we won’t be outlandishly rich, chances are he’ll spend less time with friends and family. Neither approach is wrong, merely different.

He also appears to believe that being bought out by an American company is failure. Given the amount of money changing hands it’s an interesting definition. Even in America, independence is not always a company goal.

I fear I won’t be moving to America any time soon to join in the Silicon Valley 24-hour workday. In any case, even if I wanted that lifestyle the pound won’t buy very much elsewhere ;-)