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Example deployments of Buildbarn

This repository contains a set of scripts and configuration files that can be used to deploy Buildbarn on various platforms. Buildbarn is pretty flexible, in that it can both be used for single-node remote caching setups and large-scale remote execution setups. Unless noted otherwise, the configurations in this repository all use assume the following setup:

Below is a diagram of what this setup Buildbarn looks like. In this diagram, the arrows represent the direction in which network connections are established.

Overview of the Buildbarn setup

Current versions

This repository currently demonstrates the following versions. Binaries can be found under the CI Build link, at the top right in the GitHub Actions page.

Repository Container images and binaries
bb-browser af89e4bc66
2023-09-17 04:20:39 UTC
ghcr.io/buildbarn/bb-browser:20240930T111151Z-af89e4b
CI artifacts
bb-remote-execution 8a43a77493
2023-10-04 10:23:25 UTC
ghcr.io/buildbarn/bb-runner-installer:20241030T155505Z-8a43a77
ghcr.io/buildbarn/bb-scheduler:20241030T155505Z-8a43a77
ghcr.io/buildbarn/bb-worker:20241030T155505Z-8a43a77
CI artifacts
bb-storage 9cc3bc2af0
2023-10-08 11:11:12 UTC
ghcr.io/buildbarn/bb-storage:20241117T113434Z-9cc3bc2
CI artifacts

Changelog

A changelog for each update to bb-deployments is maintained in changelog.md.

The Meroton blog describes some of the changes and features in more detail and includes Jsonnet configuration migration examples.

Getting started

This example aims to showcase a very simple build and test with remote execution using docker-compose as the deployment for Buildbarn. We will be compiling examples from the abseil-hello project using Bazel.

Recommended setup

First clone the repo and start up a docker-compose example:

git clone https://github.com/buildbarn/bb-deployments.git
cd bb-deployments/docker-compose
./run.sh

You may see initially see an error message along the lines of:

worker-ubuntu22-04_1  | xxxx/xx/xx xx:xx:xx rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = Failed to ...: connection error: desc = "transport: Error while dialing dial tcp xxx.xx.x.x:xxxx: connect: connection refused"

This is usually because container of the worker has started before the scheduler or runner and so it cannot connect to them. After a second or so, this error message should stop.

Remote execution

Bazel can perform remote builds against these deployments by using toolchains adapted to the remote environment. The script tools/remote-toolchains/extract-bazel-auto-toolchains.sh has been used to construct such a C++ toolchain which is activated using --config=remote-ubuntu-22-04, see .bazelrc and WORKSPACE for the exact setup.

Note that the name and SHA of the container image is configured in multiple places: BUILD.bazel, .jsonnet configuration for Buildbarn and for the actual runner container (docker compose, kubernetes yaml, etc...)

Now try a build (using bazel or bazelisk):

bazel build --config=remote-ubuntu-22-04 @abseil-hello//:hello_main

The output should look something like:

INFO: 33 processes: 4 internal, 29 remote.
INFO: Build completed successfully, 33 total actions

You can check to see if the binary has built successfully by trying:

bazel run --config=remote-ubuntu-22-04 @abseil-hello//:hello_main

You may experience problems with wrong version of glibc compared to what the remote is building for.

Equally, you can try to execute a test remotely:

bazel test --config=remote-ubuntu-22-04 @abseil-hello//:hello_test

Which will give you an output containing something like:

INFO: 49 processes: 4 internal, 45 remote.
INFO: Build completed successfully, 49 total actions
@abseil-hello//:hello_test                                     PASSED in 0.1s

Executed 1 out of 1 test: 1 test passes.

You might experience problems loading abseil-hellos/libhello.so, in which case you can link statically by using --dynamic_mode=off.

Next, we will try out the remote caching capability. If you clean your local build cache and then rerun a build:

bazel clean
bazel build --config=remote-ubuntu-22-04 @abseil-hello//:hello_main

You'll see an output containing information that we hit the remote cache instead of executing on a worker.

Other Build Clients

Buck2

There is a Buildbarn example in the Buck2 repository: here Platform properties are defined in platform/defs.bzl and the rpc endpoints are set in .buckconfig.

Pants

Pants defines the endpoint and the properties in the main configuration file pants.toml.

[GLOBAL]
remote_cache_read = true
remote_cache_write = true
remote_store_address = "grpc://localhost:8980"
remote_execution_address = "grpc://localhost:8980"
remote_execution = true
remote_instance_name = "fuse"
remote_execution_extra_platform_properties = [
  "OSFamily=linux",
  "container-image=docker://ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:act-22.04@sha256:5f9c35c25db1d51a8ddaae5c0ba8d3c163c5e9a4a6cc97acd409ac7eae239448",
]

Goma

It is possible to use goma, the buildsystem in the chromium project with Buildbarn. The instructions are available here: docs/goma.md.

Bazel without a remote toolchain

You do not need to define a toolchain for remote execution, like this repository does. For simple projects where all actions can build with the same executors you can use set the platform properties as command line arguments.

bazel build \
    --remote_executor=grpc://localhost:8980 \
    --remote_instance_name=fuse \
    --remote_default_exec_properties OSFamily=linux \
    --remote_default_exec_properties container-image="docker://ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:act-22.04@sha256:5f9c35c25db1d51a8ddaae5c0ba8d3c163c5e9a4a6cc97acd409ac7eae239448" \
    @abseil-hello//:hello_main

Join us on Slack!

There is a #buildbarn channel on buildteamworld.slack.com that you can join to get in touch with other people who use and hack on Buildbarn.

Commercial Support & Hosting

Via our partners commercial support & hosting can be procured.

Maintenance instructions

Updating Buildbarn version

First make sure the different Buildbarn components are in sync. Then perform:

# Update go.mod.
go mod tidy -e

# Regenerate go_dependencies.bzl.
bazel run //:gazelle -- update-repos -from_file=go.mod -to_macro go_dependencies.bzl%go_dependencies -prune
# Format go_dependencies.bzl according to GitHub Actions.
sed -i '/^$/d' go_dependencies.bzl
bazelisk run //:buildifier.check

# Update the Kubernetes and Docker compose deployments.
./tools/update-container-image-versions.sh

You might have to update the WORKSPACE file as well, until MODULE.bazel is in place.

Formatting

A number of linting and formatting steps are performed in the GitHub Actions flow. Some of the steps are:

# Gazelle
bazel run //:gazelle -- update-repos -from_file=go.mod -to_macro go_dependencies.bzl%go_dependencies -prune
bazel run //:gazelle
# Buildifier
sed '/^$/d' go_dependencies.bzl > go_dependencies.bzl.new
mv go_dependencies.bzl.new go_dependencies.bzl
bazel run //:buildifier.check
# Gofmt
bazel run @cc_mvdan_gofumpt//:gofumpt -- -w -extra $PWD
# Golint
bazel run @org_golang_x_lint//golint -- -set_exit_status $PWD/...

CI: Manual adjustments

The module lock file sometime changes

It is annoying to keep it up-to date. It seems to depend on the host system setup. The best way to solve CI errors is just to download the suggested patch from the action and apply it directly.

  • Open the failing Github action.
  • Click 'Download log archive' in the cog menu in the upper right.
  • Unpack the archive.
  • Format a useful patch from logs/build_and_test/13_Test style conformance.txt.

Rough inspiration:

cp ~/Downloads/logs_*.zip .
aunpack logs_*.zip
cp logs_*/build_and_test/'13_Test style conformance.txt' lockfile.patch
# Remove git action metadata
sed -i -e '1,4d' -e '$d' lockfile.patch
# Remove timestamps
sed -i -E 's/^.{29}//' lockfile.patch

git apply lockfile.patch
git add MODULE.bazel.lock