buildkite Installation Guide Installation Guide

buildkite is a free and open-source CI agent. Buildkite provides on-premises agents for CI/CD pipelines

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 50GB for builds

Network: Agent protocol

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port N/A (default buildkite port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install buildkite
sudo dnf install -y buildkite

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now buildkite

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install buildkite
sudo apt install -y buildkite

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now buildkite

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow N/A

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Install buildkite
sudo pacman -S buildkite

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now buildkite

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Install buildkite
apk add --no-cache buildkite

# Enable and start service
rc-update add buildkite default
rc-service buildkite start

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Install buildkite
sudo zypper install -y buildkite

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now buildkite

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install buildkite

# Start service
brew services start buildkite

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install buildkite

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'buildkite_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service buildkite start

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install buildkite

# Or using Scoop
scoop install buildkite

# Verify installation
buildkite --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/buildkite

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
buildkite --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable buildkite

# Start service
sudo systemctl start buildkite

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop buildkite

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart buildkite

# Check status
sudo systemctl status buildkite

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u buildkite -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add buildkite default

# Start service
rc-service buildkite start

# Stop service
rc-service buildkite stop

# Restart service
rc-service buildkite restart

# Check status
rc-service buildkite status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'buildkite_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service buildkite start

# Stop service
service buildkite stop

# Restart service
service buildkite restart

# Check status
service buildkite status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start buildkite
brew services stop buildkite
brew services restart buildkite

# Check status
brew services list | grep buildkite

powershell

# Start service
net start buildkite

# Stop service
net stop buildkite

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service buildkite
Stop-Service buildkite
Restart-Service buildkite

# Check status
Get-Service buildkite

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream buildkite_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:N/A;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name buildkite.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name buildkite.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/buildkite.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/buildkite.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://buildkite_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName buildkite.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://buildkite.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName buildkite.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/buildkite.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/buildkite.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:N/A/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:N/A/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend buildkite_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/buildkite.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend buildkite_backend

backend buildkite_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server buildkite1 127.0.0.1:N/A check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R buildkite:buildkite /etc/buildkite
sudo chmod 750 /etc/buildkite

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status buildkite

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u buildkite -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep buildkite)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/buildkite"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/buildkite-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/buildkite /var/lib/buildkite

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/buildkite-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop buildkite

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/buildkite/buildkite-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start buildkite

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u buildkite -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/buildkite/buildkite.log

# Check configuration
buildkite --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/buildkite

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep N/A

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost N/A

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep buildkite)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep buildkite)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep N/A

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  buildkite:
    image: buildkite:latest
    ports:
      - "N/A:N/A"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/buildkite
      - ./data:/var/lib/buildkite
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update buildkite

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade buildkite

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu buildkite

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade buildkite

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update buildkite

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade buildkite

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/buildkite-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/buildkite

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart buildkite

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/buildkite

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/buildkite -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/buildkite

Official Documentation: https://docs.buildkite.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/buildkite/buildkite

Community Forum: https://forum.buildkite.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.buildkite.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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