Resetting Nearform Windows ARM64 machines.

[StefanStojanovic]

Currently, 2 Nearform Windows ARM64 machines in CI are not used: test-nearform_arm-win10_vs2019-arm64-1 and test-nearform_arm-win10_vs2019-arm64-2. They were configured manually, so they are not in line with the other machines setup via Ansible scripts. Can we reset them to a clean state, so I can configure them through Ansible and include them in test jobs for Windows on ARM?

cc @jasnell @nodejs/platform-windows-arm

Refs: #2540

[jasnell]

I've no access to these machines any longer. @RafaelGSS maybe?

[sxa]

Just to be clear, is the configuration causing any problems (I know we've been running tests on those from before we had the Azure ones) or is this purely a desire to have them set up "properly" (To be clear, I don't object to this either way - just interested to see if anything is actively broken on them)

Pretty sure I've still got login access but for a reinstall you'd definitely want someone on-site ;-)

[StefanStojanovic]

Hi @sxa. Since those machines were set up manually I think their reliability is questionable. As I recall, they were used to test things out in the beginning and a few different approaches were used. I do not remember everything now, but when I started working on them I remember having some issues e.g. VS 2019 and 2022 were both installed, Python was not on the correct version, Jenkins was started via NSSM, etc. While working on those issues, we got Azure VMs so I shifted my focus to them.

My concern is that all those manual changes could have left some leftovers which may affect their behavior. Honestly, I do not know what's the state of those machines now and since the Azure machines we have cover our needs for now, I'm hesitant to try adding Nearform machines for testing. If they were reset and set up cleanly adding them would not be a problem in my opinion.

Btw, I have access to those machines too, but as you said, for reinstalling them I need someone on-site.

[sxa]

@StefanStojanovic Yep totally agree with all of that :-) And yes when the Linaro team started actively working on this we were using those machines to see what could make things work via standalone Win/Arm64 jobs before integrating into the main pipelines so they're no longer as clean from the perspective of the playbooks as they would otherwise be.

I'm hesitant to try adding Nearform machines for testing.

Have they been actively excluded? I assumed they were still being used in the jobs even though this cleanup hasn't been done.

[StefanStojanovic]

Have they been actively excluded? I assumed they were still being used in the jobs even though this cleanup hasn't been done.

Since Azure ARM64 machines are Windows 11, their labels start with win11-.... On the other hand, Nearform machines were created as Windows 10 (although they were upgraded to Windows 11 at some point), so their labels start with win10-.... We've configured test jobs to use only Azure machines.

[sxa]

Gotcha - we had it running on the node-test-commit-... jobs on the NearForm machines with the win10 labels but I see that's been changed now.

[RafaelGSS]

cc @efrisby

[StefanStojanovic]

@efrisby, do you have access to those machines? If you're able to reset them, reboot them if/when required, and configure RDP, I could do the rest to get them ready for the CI. It would be good for the RDP and machines to be set up the same as they are now (username, password, ports, etc.), but that's not mandatory.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open many days with no activity. It will be closed soon unless the stale label is removed or a comment is made.

[sxa]

I'm going to ping this issue to keep it alive pending the nearform machine migration, however it seems likely that they will be deommissioned as per #3615 (comment)

[StefanStojanovic]

Closing this, since the Nearform machines are removed from the CI and the build repo.