AnthillPro 3.6 Release Highlights: Distributed CI, Preflight Builds, and Integration Updates

Originally published on 2009-01-27; fully revised and updated.

AnthillPro 3.6 introduced a set of CI-focused improvements for teams managing remote agents, shared build environments, and growing test suites. This rewrite breaks down what was announced, who benefits, and how these features map to practical delivery workflows.

Source post: AnthillPro 3.6 Released.

AnthillPro 3.6 at a glance

The original announcement highlights three major areas: distributed build infrastructure, preflight validation, and quality visibility through test and coverage trending. It also lists multiple integration updates and admin usability improvements.

• Improved geographic distribution support, including a relay server model and distributed web front ends.
• Preflight builds that run in the build environment and notify developers immediately on failure.
• Test and coverage trend analysis, including build-to-build comparison of failures and long-running tests.

Distributed build architecture improvements

AnthillPro 3.6 reworked server-agent communication for better performance and added a relay server option for agents behind firewalls or in remote locations. It also introduced distributed web front ends to improve responsiveness for WAN-connected users.

Execution flow for distributed builds

flowchart LR
    D[Developer change] --> S[AnthillPro server]
    S --> R[Relay server]
    R --> A[Remote agent]
    S --> L[Local agent]
    A --> B[Build and test run]
    L --> B
    B --> M[Test and coverage metrics]
    M --> W[Distributed web front end]
    W --> D

Preflight builds before mainline integration

Preflight builds in 3.6 let a developer validate pending changes against a fresh source snapshot in the shared build environment, rather than relying only on a local machine. If the preflight run fails, the developer is notified immediately.

Illustrative agent-side build steps (exact job configuration and target names vary by project):

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

hg clone "$REPO_URL" repo
cd repo
hg update "$CANDIDATE_CHANGESET"

# Run build and validation in CI environment
ant clean test emmaCode language: PHP (php)

Test and coverage trending capabilities

The release also emphasized trend and comparison reporting: teams could compare two builds, identify tests or suites that fail most often or run longest, and track whether coverage was improving or declining.

Integration updates announced in 3.6

Other improvements called out in the release

• Remote agent management from the main UI, including agent restart operations.
• Easier source-change comparison across any two builds, including dependency changes.
• Simpler and more flexible copying of projects, workflows, and jobs.
• More flexible user-defined workflow properties, including type changes and password field support.

Best practices when using these capabilities

• Use preflight validation for high-risk changes so failures are caught before broader integration.
• Track both failure frequency and test duration trends, not just pass or fail status.
• Document network paths for relay-based agents to reduce firewall-related troubleshooting time.
• Keep integration behavior explicit in job templates so SCM, coverage, and issue updates are reproducible.
• Regularly review build-to-build diffs to separate code regressions from dependency changes.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.