Configure ALI integrations

Configure ALI in Agile Manager in order to work with the build and SCM servers in your local environment.

ALI is configured within a workspace. To configure ALI build and SCM servers, click Configuration on the top right of the page, and select Workspace from the navigation menu on the left.

Tabs: Workspace > ALI Summary, Builds, Code

Use the wizard to take you through each step of configuring ALI, or configure ALI manually.

Tip:  

Configure one or more build jobs or source code branches, as needed.

You can configure multiple build jobs — all of the same type, or each of different types, such as some from Jenkins and some from TFS.

You can also configure multiple source code branches, either for multiple GIT branches, or for GIT, SVN, TFS, and so on.

For more details, see ALI supported environments and frameworks.

ALI configuration includes the following steps:

Integration Build Management Source Code Management

Install and deploy the ALI Dev Bridge. For details, see ALI Dev Bridge Deployment.

Install and configure agents that connect your build server and SCM repository with Agile Manager.

These agents are a set of applications that are required to push information from the servers to Agile Manager.

  1. Download and configure agents for your build server. For details, see Hudson Jenkins Installation or Set up TFS for ALI.

  2. Download and configure agents for your SCM server. For details, see SCM Agents.

Add build server details and build server configurations.

Use the wizard to add a new build server or configuration or update an one. Click Add Build Server to do so manually.

Configure additional settings on the Builds page. For details, see:

Add repository and branch details.

Use the wizard to add a new repository, or click Add SCM Repository to do so manually.

Configure additional settings on the Code page. For details, see:

Add and edit repositories

Add and edit branches

Set the commit pattern for each repository.

Commit patterns enable you to automatically connect code commits to the repository to work items.

For details, see Configure commit recognition patterns.

The ALI configuration is automatically validated on an hourly basis in the background, and users are notified about any errors found. This helps to discover any synchronization issues, such as expired passwords or connections that cannot be established.

The Dev Bridge connectivity and synchronization are validated regularly as users browse through ALI pages. This verifies that the bridge is connected to Agile Manager, and that the data most recently synchronized is up-to-date.

Site administrators can now enable ALI artifacts (build servers and SCM repositories) for use across multiple workspaces. This means that administrators from multiple workspaces can use the same build servers and SCM repositories when configuring ALI for the releases in their workspace(s).

Once an artifact is shared, most artifact configuration settings are read-only for workspace administrators. The exception is artifact credentials, which must be entered by the workspace administrator before the shared artifact can be used in the workspace.

For the build server, credentials are always the build server user name and password. For SCM repositories, credentials include user names, passwords, client certificates, and passphrases.

Share artifacts in the build server and SCM repository details pages. For details, see:

Note: To remove sharing from an artifact, or to delete it, you must first verify that the artifact is not used in an ALI configuration in any of the site's workspaces.

ALI troubleshooting

If your build or SCM server requires HTTPS protocol to be used to connect to it, the server’s certificate (SSL Server Certificate) must be trusted by clients, in this case, the ALI Dev Bridge. If your server uses a self-signed certificate or a certificate signed by your custom certification authority, you must add your root or self-signed certificate to the trust store used by ALI the ALI Dev Bridge.

You can use the Java keytool to add your certificate to the trust store:

keytool -importcert -alias my_custom_authority -trustcacerts –file cert_authority.crt

This command adds the cert_authority.cer certificate to the trust store of your JRE/JDK. If your web server uses a different trust store, you need to specify it on the command line (-file).

Do the following:

  1. In Agile Manager, click Validate Configuration in the build server, build configuration, SCM repository, or SCM branch details pages.
  2. Make sure that the build configurations and SCM branch configurations are linked to the correct releases. For SCM branches, verify also the date range that is specified for the release mapping. By default, the date range is defined by the release start and end dates, but the range can be customized. Note that only code changes that fall within the range are loaded.
  3. In Agile Manager, click the Source Code or Builds tab, and select the All Sprints time period.

Make sure that the ALI build agent has been installed on the build server, and that ALI is enabled for your build job (ALI post-build action). If ALI is not enabled for the build job, the build configuration (job) does not appear in the list of build jobs available for selection on the build server.

The initial load of source code changes may take several hours. It depends on the following:

  • The size of your code base and its history. If you want to quickly verify the correctness of your setup, you can choose just the portion of your real code base (a sub directory), or you can specify an initial revision to load. Older revisions will be ignored.
  • The responsiveness of your SCM server. If your server is busy, it will take longer to get information about changes.
  • The connectivity from the bridge to your SCM server and also from the bridge to Agile Manager. If you use an HTTP proxy, its throughput and responsiveness play an important role.

When a modified authentication mechanism is used by your Jenkins/Hudson server, you may need to turn on preemptive authentication. Do the following:

  1. On the Builds page, click your server to open its details page.
  2. Select the Preemptive authentication property, click Edit, and select the Value checkbox.

  3. Verify that the user is permitted to obtain ALI build information. You can do this by logging in to Jenkins and verifying ALI links:

    • Top level ALI Integration link

    • Job level ALI Integration link

    • Build level ALI Integration , Code Coverage, Test Results, and Code Changes links

Check the ALI Dev Bridge status, displayed on the ALI Summary page, under Integration.

Enable HTTPS for ALI Dev Bridge. If you use a self-signed certificate, ensure that the certificate is trusted on all client machines.

Note: All supported versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome versions 21 and higher, and Firefox versions 23 and higher, protect users from pages that mix secured and unsecured content (content that comes from both HTTP and HTTPS connections).

In effect, this:

  • Disables the ALI file diff and file view features
  • Prevents the ALI Dev Bridge status in the ALI Summary tab from loading properly, even when the ALI Dev Bridge is successfully connected to Agile Manager
  • Prevents ALI from configuring new Build Servers, Build Configurations, SCM Repositories, or SCM Branches.