diff --git a/contrib/teamcity/build-configurations.py b/contrib/teamcity/build-configurations.py
--- a/contrib/teamcity/build-configurations.py
+++ b/contrib/teamcity/build-configurations.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import signal
 import subprocess
 import sys
+from teamcity.messages import TeamcityServiceMessages
 
 # Default timeout value in seconds. Should be overridden by the
 # configuration file.
@@ -106,6 +107,14 @@
         "TOPLEVEL": str(git_root),
     }
 
+    # Let the user know what build is being run.
+    # This makes it easier to retrieve the info from the logs.
+    teamcity_messages = TeamcityServiceMessages()
+    teamcity_messages.customMessage(
+        "Starting build {}".format(args.build),
+        status="NORMAL"
+    )
+
     try:
         subprocess.run(
             [str(script_path)] + unknown_args,
diff --git a/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh b/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
--- a/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
+++ b/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
   protobuf-compiler
   python3
   python3-autopep8
+  python3-pip
   python3-setuptools
   python3-zmq
   qemu-user-static
@@ -114,3 +115,6 @@
 # Use the mingw posix variant
 update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ $(command -v x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix)
 update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc $(command -v x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix)
+
+# Python library for interacting with teamcity
+pip3 install teamcity-messages