Moneypenny Speaks! Getting the Most From (Bamboo) Agents - Atlassian Summit 2012
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This document provides tips for getting the most out of Bamboo agents, including utilizing artifact sharing to avoid re-compiles, terminating hung jobs, keeping tabs on agent activity, building report reconnaissance, and installing the HungBuildKiller plugin to eliminate hung builds. The document is authored by Sarah Goff-Dupont, Product Marketing Manager at Bamboo, and provides a three-step mission to optimize the use of Bamboo agents.
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Moneypenny Speaks! Getting the Most From (Bamboo) Agents - Atlassian Summit 2012
- 2. Moneypenny Speaks! Getting the most from your (Bamboo) agents Sarah Goff-Dupont Product Marketing Manager, Bamboo
- 3. Perl B. Hackin, developer
- 4. Paige N. Spector, QA engineer
- 14. Bran D. Fender, release engineer
- 15. Help!
- 26. You?
- 42. Keep Tabs on Agent Activity
- 44. Your Mission:
- 45. Your Mission: 1. Build report reconnoissance
- 46. Your Mission: 1. Build report reconnoissance 2. Eradicate re-compiles
- 47. Your Mission: 1. Build report reconnoissance 2. Eradicate re-compiles 3. Install the HungBuildKiller plugin
- 48. Thank you!
Editor's Notes
- \n
- Welcome!\n\nIf you’ve come to learn how to rev up your build process, then you’re in the right place. My name is Sarah Goff-Dupont, and I’m the product marketing manager for Bamboo. \n\nI’m gonna start off today by telling a little story. \n
- Meet Pearl.  Pearl is a developer.  She and her team have been working on their product for quite some time, and use Bamboo to build it and run their suite of automated tests.  \n\n\n
- This is Paige.  Paige is a QA engineer.  \n\nHer team has built up a very respectable suite of functional tests --over 10,000 of them.  \n\nAdding all those tests cut down their defect rate dramatically, but it’s come at a price: building the application when they only had unit tests took about 8 minutes.  But now with all these functional tests, builds are taking 3, or even 4 hours.  \n\n\n
- At first, Pearl and her fellow developers just put up with it.  (CLICK)\n\nThey’d use the time to update documentation, spec out the technical design for stories coming up on their backlog, update documentation, and maybe run out for a cup of coffee.  \n\n\n
- At first, Pearl and her fellow developers just put up with it.  (CLICK)\n\nThey’d use the time to update documentation, spec out the technical design for stories coming up on their backlog, update documentation, and maybe run out for a cup of coffee.  \n\n\n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- But as build times got longer and longer, (CLICK)\n\nthe developers got crabbier (CLICK)\n\nand crabbier --not to mention less productive.  \n
- Eventually, the simply stopped waiting for builds to complete and would move directly on to the next coding task.  \n
- At first they felt more productive\n
- But they noticed that tests were failing at an increasing rate.  And by the time these failures surfaced, more code had already been piled on top of the broken code, and bugs became harder to untangle. \n
- Meanwhile, Paige and her team are struggling to keep their customers from finding platform-specific bugs before they do --and it’s starting to get embarrassing. \n
- So Pearl and Paige went to their release manager, Bran.  \n
- “There’s got to be better way!”, they said.\n
- That’s when Bran decided it was time to get an agent. (CLICK) \n\nNo, not that kind of agent.\n
- Not that kind, either. (CLICK)\n
- No... (CLICK)\n
- No... (CLICK)\n
- Good God, NO! (CLICK)\n
- There we go! Bran decided to get a Bamboo build agent. (CLICK)\n\nActually, he got several of them. \n\nBy breaking up the tests into several groups, and running them simultaneously with an agent executing each group, Bran was able to cut the build time down to a much more reasonable time.  \n\nAnd since those agents were now sitting idle at night, he put different operating systems, databases and browsers on them and set up nightly builds that ran the entire suite of functional tests against the different platform configurations their users used.\n
- There we go! Bran decided to get a Bamboo build agent. (CLICK)\n\nActually, he got several of them. \n\nBy breaking up the tests into several groups, and running them simultaneously with an agent executing each group, Bran was able to cut the build time down to a much more reasonable time.  \n\nAnd since those agents were now sitting idle at night, he put different operating systems, databases and browsers on them and set up nightly builds that ran the entire suite of functional tests against the different platform configurations their users used.\n
- There we go! Bran decided to get a Bamboo build agent. (CLICK)\n\nActually, he got several of them. \n\nBy breaking up the tests into several groups, and running them simultaneously with an agent executing each group, Bran was able to cut the build time down to a much more reasonable time.  \n\nAnd since those agents were now sitting idle at night, he put different operating systems, databases and browsers on them and set up nightly builds that ran the entire suite of functional tests against the different platform configurations their users used.\n
- There we go! Bran decided to get a Bamboo build agent. (CLICK)\n\nActually, he got several of them. \n\nBy breaking up the tests into several groups, and running them simultaneously with an agent executing each group, Bran was able to cut the build time down to a much more reasonable time.  \n\nAnd since those agents were now sitting idle at night, he put different operating systems, databases and browsers on them and set up nightly builds that ran the entire suite of functional tests against the different platform configurations their users used.\n
- Then everyone was happy, the end. \n
- Sound familiar?  (CLICK)\n\nWell, I bet the part about disgruntled developers, and customers finding your bugs sounds familiar. \n
- Sound familiar?  (CLICK)\n\nWell, I bet the part about disgruntled developers, and customers finding your bugs sounds familiar. \n
- Sound familiar?  (CLICK)\n\nWell, I bet the part about disgruntled developers, and customers finding your bugs sounds familiar. \n
- You probably already know that adding build agents will let you build and test faster, as well as allow you to test deeper.  \n\nBut how do you identify whether you have the optimal number for your project?  \n\nAnd once you've got that figured out, what can you do to get the most out of them?\n\nIn the next 7 minutes, I'm going to show you some tips that address both of those questions. \n\n
- First, let's talk quantity.  (CLICK)\n\nYou and your team might have this nagging sense that builds are taking too long. How do you quantify that? Fortunately, there are a few reports available in Bamboo that will illustrate that in concrete terms and help . \n\n
- First, let's talk quantity.  (CLICK)\n\nYou and your team might have this nagging sense that builds are taking too long. How do you quantify that? Fortunately, there are a few reports available in Bamboo that will illustrate that in concrete terms and help . \n\n
- First, let's talk quantity.  (CLICK)\n\nYou and your team might have this nagging sense that builds are taking too long. How do you quantify that? Fortunately, there are a few reports available in Bamboo that will illustrate that in concrete terms and help . \n\n
- First, let's talk quantity.  (CLICK)\n\nYou and your team might have this nagging sense that builds are taking too long. How do you quantify that? Fortunately, there are a few reports available in Bamboo that will illustrate that in concrete terms and help . \n\n
- First, let's talk quantity.  (CLICK)\n\nYou and your team might have this nagging sense that builds are taking too long. How do you quantify that? Fortunately, there are a few reports available in Bamboo that will illustrate that in concrete terms and help . \n\n
- Take a look at this chart --it shows the average length of time that builds for one of Bamboo's testing plans spent waiting in the build queue.   For much of 2011, you see those wait times increasing (CLICK), until it peaked in October with builds waiting an average of 33 minutes before an agent became available!\n\nAt about that time, the team bumped up the number of elastic agents for this Bamboo server --and look at the dramatic effect the additional agents have had.  (CLICK)\n\nEC2 agents are easy to set up, and you can configure Bamboo to start these agents only when they're needed, and shut them down when you're done. For medium-sized agents, the bill from Amazon is only $0.16/hour.  \n\n\nCheck this report on your Bamboo server, and if you’re not happy with the wait times you see, a few additional agents will almost certainly help.\n\n  This can show you longer term trends, which can be really helpful for planning and budgeting.  Your trend might indicate that you’ll out-grow your current Bamboo license tier in the next couple months, and being able to forecast that now makes all the approvals and paper-pushing easier when it comes time to pull the trigger on that upgrade.  \n\n
- Take a look at this chart --it shows the average length of time that builds for one of Bamboo's testing plans spent waiting in the build queue.   For much of 2011, you see those wait times increasing (CLICK), until it peaked in October with builds waiting an average of 33 minutes before an agent became available!\n\nAt about that time, the team bumped up the number of elastic agents for this Bamboo server --and look at the dramatic effect the additional agents have had.  (CLICK)\n\nEC2 agents are easy to set up, and you can configure Bamboo to start these agents only when they're needed, and shut them down when you're done. For medium-sized agents, the bill from Amazon is only $0.16/hour.  \n\n\nCheck this report on your Bamboo server, and if you’re not happy with the wait times you see, a few additional agents will almost certainly help.\n\n  This can show you longer term trends, which can be really helpful for planning and budgeting.  Your trend might indicate that you’ll out-grow your current Bamboo license tier in the next couple months, and being able to forecast that now makes all the approvals and paper-pushing easier when it comes time to pull the trigger on that upgrade.  \n\n
- Take a look at this chart --it shows the average length of time that builds for one of Bamboo's testing plans spent waiting in the build queue.   For much of 2011, you see those wait times increasing (CLICK), until it peaked in October with builds waiting an average of 33 minutes before an agent became available!\n\nAt about that time, the team bumped up the number of elastic agents for this Bamboo server --and look at the dramatic effect the additional agents have had.  (CLICK)\n\nEC2 agents are easy to set up, and you can configure Bamboo to start these agents only when they're needed, and shut them down when you're done. For medium-sized agents, the bill from Amazon is only $0.16/hour.  \n\n\nCheck this report on your Bamboo server, and if you’re not happy with the wait times you see, a few additional agents will almost certainly help.\n\n  This can show you longer term trends, which can be really helpful for planning and budgeting.  Your trend might indicate that you’ll out-grow your current Bamboo license tier in the next couple months, and being able to forecast that now makes all the approvals and paper-pushing easier when it comes time to pull the trigger on that upgrade.  \n\n
- Let's look at another report for the same Plan in Bamboo --this one shows build duration. \n\nBuild times shot way up around August of 2011 when the Bamboo dev team beefed up their testing suite. (CLICK)  \n\nAnd it stayed high until December/January.  (CLICK) That was when we took the thousands of tests in this Plan and split them up into lots of small batches, and put those EC2 agents to work running the tests in parallel.\n\nYou can take this strategy of parallel testing jobs as far as you like.  (CLICK)\n
- Let's look at another report for the same Plan in Bamboo --this one shows build duration. \n\nBuild times shot way up around August of 2011 when the Bamboo dev team beefed up their testing suite. (CLICK)  \n\nAnd it stayed high until December/January.  (CLICK) That was when we took the thousands of tests in this Plan and split them up into lots of small batches, and put those EC2 agents to work running the tests in parallel.\n\nYou can take this strategy of parallel testing jobs as far as you like.  (CLICK)\n
- Let's look at another report for the same Plan in Bamboo --this one shows build duration. \n\nBuild times shot way up around August of 2011 when the Bamboo dev team beefed up their testing suite. (CLICK)  \n\nAnd it stayed high until December/January.  (CLICK) That was when we took the thousands of tests in this Plan and split them up into lots of small batches, and put those EC2 agents to work running the tests in parallel.\n\nYou can take this strategy of parallel testing jobs as far as you like.  (CLICK)\n
- If you look at one of the CI Plans for JIRA, you can see that we've got about 20 Jobs running in parallel. \n\n
- So take a look at this report too.  You can put additional agents to work running multiple Plans in parallel, or multiple Jobs in parallel within each Plan.   Either way, you're churning through your builds faster, catching bugs sooner, and ultimately increasing productivity.\n\nAnd speaking of productivity, let's look at some ways to maximize agent productivity, no matter how many of them you have.\n
- My first tip is to avoid re-compiling during your builds, and use artifact sharing instead.  (CLICK)\n\nWhen the JIRA team stopped recompiling during the testing stage of their plan and started passing the built artifacts, they cut almost 45 minutes off their build duration (CLICK)  \n\nIf you haven't played around with artifact sharing yet, the help docs will step you through the mechanics of it, and if you search the Dev Tools blog, you'll find a post I wrote in February that has some additional tips.  \n\n
- My first tip is to avoid re-compiling during your builds, and use artifact sharing instead.  (CLICK)\n\nWhen the JIRA team stopped recompiling during the testing stage of their plan and started passing the built artifacts, they cut almost 45 minutes off their build duration (CLICK)  \n\nIf you haven't played around with artifact sharing yet, the help docs will step you through the mechanics of it, and if you search the Dev Tools blog, you'll find a post I wrote in February that has some additional tips.  \n\n
- Next, install the HungBuildKiller plugin.  You probably already know that Bamboo will detect hung builds based on the criteria you give it.  But the native functionality only fires off a notification when a build hangs.  With the HungBuildKiller, though, you can actually kill the job and free up that build agent --rather than letting it be locked up for hours unnecessarily.  \n\nNote though that the HungBuildKiller will only kill builds on remote agents --it won’t terminate processes on local agents. \n\nThe plugin is free, and available on the Plugin Exchange.  For more info on the HungBuildKiller, see my Dev Tools blog post from March of this year.  \n\n
- Third, try the Agent Smith wallboard plugin.  \n\nIt's a great visualization of what's in your build queue, how long it's been there, how many agents are active, and for EC2 remote agents, how much the current build activity is costing you.  \n\nAgain, this is free on the Plugin Exchange.  There are other agent-related plugins available as well.  (But we’re running short on time, so...)\n\n
- Now, on your chairs you all found a pair of sunglasses.  Put those on.  (go on…)  \n\nThey look like ordinary sunglasses, but they were specially built by Atlassian engineers in a secret underground lair. By donning these glasses, you have transformed yourselves into Agents of Automation Awesomeness. (CLICK)\n\nYour mission, should you choose to accept it, has 3 parts:  (CLICK)\n\n1)  Initiate surveillance on the build queue and build duration reports.  They're straightforward, but very revealing.  And you might be surprised by the intel you collect there.  (CLICK)\n\n2) Inspect your Plan configs for any places that you are re-compiling or checking out the same code twice in one Plan.  When you find them, eliminate them. If you are unable to, that might indicate some deeper and, uh, more interesting problem with your builds.  If you caught Chief Operative George Barnett's talk yesterday, you will remember his directive: don't layer complexity and solutions onto problems.  It's better in the long run to remove the problem.   (CLICK)\n\n3) Locate the HungBuildKiller.  If you only add one plugin to your Bamboo instance, make it this one.  It saves you time, it saves you money, and if you need more reasons than that, then automation just might not be your thing. \n\nYou have 12 months to complete your mission.  You will report back at next year's Summit.  Do not fail me. \n\n\n\n
- Now, on your chairs you all found a pair of sunglasses.  Put those on.  (go on…)  \n\nThey look like ordinary sunglasses, but they were specially built by Atlassian engineers in a secret underground lair. By donning these glasses, you have transformed yourselves into Agents of Automation Awesomeness. (CLICK)\n\nYour mission, should you choose to accept it, has 3 parts:  (CLICK)\n\n1)  Initiate surveillance on the build queue and build duration reports.  They're straightforward, but very revealing.  And you might be surprised by the intel you collect there.  (CLICK)\n\n2) Inspect your Plan configs for any places that you are re-compiling or checking out the same code twice in one Plan.  When you find them, eliminate them. If you are unable to, that might indicate some deeper and, uh, more interesting problem with your builds.  If you caught Chief Operative George Barnett's talk yesterday, you will remember his directive: don't layer complexity and solutions onto problems.  It's better in the long run to remove the problem.   (CLICK)\n\n3) Locate the HungBuildKiller.  If you only add one plugin to your Bamboo instance, make it this one.  It saves you time, it saves you money, and if you need more reasons than that, then automation just might not be your thing. \n\nYou have 12 months to complete your mission.  You will report back at next year's Summit.  Do not fail me. \n\n\n\n
- Now, on your chairs you all found a pair of sunglasses.  Put those on.  (go on…)  \n\nThey look like ordinary sunglasses, but they were specially built by Atlassian engineers in a secret underground lair. By donning these glasses, you have transformed yourselves into Agents of Automation Awesomeness. (CLICK)\n\nYour mission, should you choose to accept it, has 3 parts:  (CLICK)\n\n1)  Initiate surveillance on the build queue and build duration reports.  They're straightforward, but very revealing.  And you might be surprised by the intel you collect there.  (CLICK)\n\n2) Inspect your Plan configs for any places that you are re-compiling or checking out the same code twice in one Plan.  When you find them, eliminate them. If you are unable to, that might indicate some deeper and, uh, more interesting problem with your builds.  If you caught Chief Operative George Barnett's talk yesterday, you will remember his directive: don't layer complexity and solutions onto problems.  It's better in the long run to remove the problem.   (CLICK)\n\n3) Locate the HungBuildKiller.  If you only add one plugin to your Bamboo instance, make it this one.  It saves you time, it saves you money, and if you need more reasons than that, then automation just might not be your thing. \n\nYou have 12 months to complete your mission.  You will report back at next year's Summit.  Do not fail me. \n\n\n\n
- Now, on your chairs you all found a pair of sunglasses.  Put those on.  (go on…)  \n\nThey look like ordinary sunglasses, but they were specially built by Atlassian engineers in a secret underground lair. By donning these glasses, you have transformed yourselves into Agents of Automation Awesomeness. (CLICK)\n\nYour mission, should you choose to accept it, has 3 parts:  (CLICK)\n\n1)  Initiate surveillance on the build queue and build duration reports.  They're straightforward, but very revealing.  And you might be surprised by the intel you collect there.  (CLICK)\n\n2) Inspect your Plan configs for any places that you are re-compiling or checking out the same code twice in one Plan.  When you find them, eliminate them. If you are unable to, that might indicate some deeper and, uh, more interesting problem with your builds.  If you caught Chief Operative George Barnett's talk yesterday, you will remember his directive: don't layer complexity and solutions onto problems.  It's better in the long run to remove the problem.   (CLICK)\n\n3) Locate the HungBuildKiller.  If you only add one plugin to your Bamboo instance, make it this one.  It saves you time, it saves you money, and if you need more reasons than that, then automation just might not be your thing. \n\nYou have 12 months to complete your mission.  You will report back at next year's Summit.  Do not fail me. \n\n\n\n
- You have 12 months to complete your mission.  You will report back at next year's Summit.  Without fail. \n\nThis is Moneypenny, signing off!\n