How the New Relic Infrastructure Team Automated Its Windows Build-and-Deploy Pipeline

New Relic's team, primarily operating in Linux, faced challenges in automating the build-and-deploy process for their Windows Infrastructure agent, which was originally manual and labor-intensive. By leveraging tools like Ansible, PowerShell, and Windows Remote Management (WinRM), they successfully automated the pipeline, significantly reducing the release time from a half-day manual process to a five-minute Jenkins operation. This new process involved building an agent installer, deploying it to canary machines, running tests, and releasing it, with Ansible playing a key role due to its existing use in provisioning and compatibility with Windows. Despite initial challenges with PowerShell and WinRM, these tools proved to be user-friendly, and their implementation led to a streamlined and efficient deployment process. The author, Ruben Hervas, emphasizes that while these solutions were effective for their specific environment, they may not reflect the official solutions offered by New Relic, and discussions for further support are encouraged on the Explorers Hub.