Incredibuild consists of two types of machines: Agents and Coordinators.
Agents
Agents are machines that run your workloads. Agents that are requesting a workload are called initiators. Agents that are assisting the initiator with some of their idle CPU resources are called helpers.
Initiator Agents
Once assigned with a proper solution an Agent can initiate executions with IncrediBuild. Tasks spawned as part of these execution may be distributed by IncrediBuild across the various idle CPU's on Agents available as part of the IncrediBuild pool, resulting in much faster execution. Every Initiator Agent can also function as a Helper Agent.Helper Agents
These machines are used to execute distributed tasks. Helper Agents don't need to have anything besides an IncrediBuild Agent.
For example, if you are distributing Visual Studio compilations using IncrediBuild to Helper A, this Helper doesn't need to have Visual Studio installed on it, neither the compiler or other build tools nor the source code you are compiling, only an IncrediBuild Agent should be installed on this host machine.
Once a job that was assigned to a Helper Agent is completed, the output is synced back to the Initiator machine (such as object files, pdb files, etc).
Coordinator
The Coordinator is responsible for listing and managing all the machines that are part of IncrediBuild Environment. Every IncrediBuild Environment should include only one Coordinator, and the Coordinator can be installed on any participating machine.
The Coordinator communicates with the Helper Agents to identify the availability of their CPU resources. When a request for resources arrives from an Initiator Agent, the Coordinator provides to the Initiator the available resources of the Helper Agents in the Environment. The Coordinator is also responsible for allocating IncrediBuild licenses to the Agents.
In addition to the primary Coordinator, it is also possible to install and use a Backup Coordinator. This Backup Coordinator serves as a backup to the primary Coordinator, and it is activated automatically when the primary Coordinator is unavailable.