Is it possible to add a timeout on agent selection?

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1

Hi,

Is it possible to limit the time a stage wait for executor, and skip it if reached? (the agent+node block)

We have a job with auto schedules that run both on Mac and Windows agents using parallel stages.

We only have a few Mac agents for cost reasons, so sometimes our jobs get stuck on waiting for next available node with label "mac".

The workaround we found is to put a timeout on the mac stage itself, but the issue is it also affect the execution time limit of the stage.

It would be great to have different time limit for node selection and node steps.
Here is a pipeline example:

pipeline {
	agent any
	options {
		skipDefaultCheckout()
	}
	stages {
		stage("Parallel stages") {
			failFast false // Do not abort all parallel stages if one of them fails
			parallel {
				stage('Windows') {
					agent {
						node {
							label "win"
							customWorkspace "${BRANCH_NAME}Build"
						}
					}
					stages {
						stage('Stage 1 (win)') {
							steps {
								script {
									python("stage1.py")
								}
							}
						}
						stage('Stage 2 (win)') {
							steps {
								script {
									python("stage2.py")
								}
							}
						}
					}
					post {
						always {
							script {
								println("win post block")
							}
						}
					}
				}
				// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
				stage('MacOS') {
					agent {
						node {
							label "mac"
							customWorkspace "${BRANCH_NAME}Build"
						}
					}
					// our workaround, but the issue is it is also affecting mac stages max execution time
					// add timeout to not wait forever when no mac agents are available
					options {
						timeout(time:8, unit:"HOURS") 
					}
					stages {
						stage('Stage 1 (mac)') {
							steps {
								script {
									// stage content
								}
							}
						}
						stage('Stage 2 (mac)') {
							steps {
								script {
									// stage content
								}
							}
						}
						stage('Stage 3 (mac)') {
							steps {
								script {
									// stage content
								}
							}
						}
					}
					post {
						always {
							script {
								println("mac post block")
							}
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
	post {
		always {
			script {
				println("global post block")
			}
		}
	}
}

Thank you!

Here is my Jenkins config:

Jenkins setup:

Jenkins: 2.440.1
OS: Linux - 6.1.85+
Java: 17.0.10 - Eclipse Adoptium (OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM)
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2

To address your requirement of setting different timeouts for node selection and execution time in Jenkins, you can use a combination of waitUntil and timeout within a parallel block. This approach allows you to specify a timeout for the node allocation separately from the execution time of the stage.

also you can do this:

startTime = System.currentTimeMillis()
timeout(activity: true, time: 2, unit: 'HOURS') {
    node('Slave_Node') {
      // Will run on the slave
    }
}

I have used Okami: Seek How Know Now to answer this

3

But when I try to put a timeout around node block, Jenkins says that it’s an invalid syntax.

timeout is only allowed inside steps block it seems.

stage('MacOS') {
  agent {
    timeout(activity: true, time: 2, unit: 'HOURS') {
      node {
        label "mac"
        customWorkspace "${BRANCH_NAME}Build"
      }
    }	
  }

00:00:00.102 WorkflowScript: 44: Invalid agent type “timeout” specified. Must be one of [any, docker, dockerContainer, dockerfile, kubernetes, label, none] @ line 44, column 13.
00:00:00.102 timeout(activity: true, time: 2, unit: ‘HOURS’) {
00:00:00.102 ^

Neither this:

stage('MacOS') {
  timeout(activity: true, time: 2, unit: 'HOURS') {
    agent {
      node {
        label "mac"
        customWorkspace "${BRANCH_NAME}Build"
      }
    }	
  }

00:00:00.123 WorkflowScript: 42: Unknown stage section “timeout”. Starting with version 0.5, steps in a stage must be in a ‘steps’ block. @ line 42, column 5.
00:00:00.123 stage(‘MacOS’) {
00:00:00.123 ^
00:00:00.123

4

you will need to put everything in the steps then
I tested this script and it works. If I use a label that doesn’t exist the job will terminate after 30 sec and be in status success

pipeline {
    agent none
    stages {
        stage("test") {
            steps {
                script {
                    def macBuildStarted=false
                    def waitingForTooLong=false
                    def counter=1
                    p = [:]
                    p["failFast"] = true
                    p["wait"] = { 
                        waitUntil(initialRecurrencePeriod: 15000) {
                            echo "$counter"
                            if (macBuildStarted) {
                                echo "Build started"
                                return true
                            }
                            if (counter > 2) {
                                waitingForTooLong=true
                                error("")
                            }
                            counter++
                            return false
                        }
                    }
                    p["build"] = {
                        node("mac") {
                            macBuildStarted=true
                            ws("${BRANCH_NAME}Build") {
                              // run the build 
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    try {
                        parallel p
                    } catch (err) {
                        if (waitingForTooLong) {
                            echo "node took too long to start"
                        } else {
                            throw err
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

If the build fails within the ws step, then the job will also fail

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