local-ci-cd-system/docs/RUNBOOK.md

CI System Runbook

Triage guide for the local CI/CD system. Each entry: symptom → triage commands → fix → escalation.

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1. Runner offline in Gitea UI

Symptom: http://10.10.20.11:3100/admin/runners shows local-windows-runner as offline. Queued jobs stay pending indefinitely.

Triage:

# Check service state
Get-Service act_runner

# Last 50 lines of runner log
Get-Content 'F:\CI\act_runner\logs\act_runner.log' -Tail 50

# Check registration file is intact
Test-Path 'F:\CI\act_runner\.runner'

Fix:

# Restart the service
Restart-Service act_runner

# Verify it came back online (wait ~10s then check Gitea UI)
Get-Service act_runner | Select-Object Status, StartType

# If service won't start, check NSSM log
& 'C:\nssm\nssm.exe' status act_runner

If the .runner registration file is missing or corrupt, re-register:

cd F:\CI\act_runner
.\act_runner.exe register --no-interactive `
    --instance http://10.10.20.11:3100 `
    --token <token-from-gitea-admin> `
    --name local-windows-runner `
    --labels "windows-build:host,dotnet:host,msbuild:host"

Escalation: If the runner restarts but goes offline again within minutes, check Event Viewer → Application for act_runner errors and inspect F:\CI\act_runner\logs\.

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2. All builds fail in Phase 2 (VM clone / start)

Symptom: Invoke-CIJob.ps1 fails at Phase 2 with errors like:

• vmrun clone failed
• vmrun start failed
• Template VMX not found
• Could not detect VM IP address

Triage:

# List all running VMs
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' -T ws list

# Check template VMX exists and is accessible
Test-Path 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'

# Check for orphaned clones that may be consuming disk
Get-ChildItem 'F:\CI\BuildVMs\' -Directory | Select-Object Name, LastWriteTime

# Check disk free space
Get-PSDrive F | Select-Object Name, Free, Used

# Check for a stuck vm-start lock from a crashed job
Test-Path 'F:\CI\State\vm-start.lock'

Fix — by root cause:

Template VMX missing/moved: check GITEA_CI_TEMPLATE_PATH in F:\CI\act_runner\config.yaml.

Parent VMDK locked (VMware left a lock file after host crash):

# Stop all VMs
& vmrun.exe -T ws stop 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx' hard
# Delete lock files
Remove-Item 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\*.lck' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Snapshot missing (BaseClean was deleted or renamed):

# List snapshots on template VM
& vmrun.exe -T ws listSnapshots 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'
# Update GITEA_CI_SNAPSHOT_NAME in config.yaml to match the available snapshot name

Disk full (clone delta files need space):

# Emergency cleanup — remove all orphaned clones
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\scripts\Cleanup-OrphanedBuildVMs.ps1' -MaxAgeHours 0
# Then run retention
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\scripts\Invoke-RetentionPolicy.ps1' -AggressiveRetentionDays 3

Stale vm-start lock (from a job that crashed without cleanup):

Remove-Item 'F:\CI\State\vm-start.lock' -Force
Remove-Item 'F:\CI\State\ip-leases\*.lease' -Force

Escalation: If vmrun clone fails with exit code -1 even after clearing locks and confirming disk space, re-open VMware Workstation UI and check the template VM is intact and the snapshot is listed.

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3. Builds are slow

Symptom: jobs that previously completed in ~3 min now take 8+ min. Phase durations visible in F:\CI\Logs\<jobId>\invoke-ci.jsonl.

Triage:

# Check disk free space (below 50 GB = fragmented writes)
Get-PSDrive F | Select-Object @{n='FreeGB';e={[math]::Round($_.Free/1GB,1)}}

# Check active VM CPU usage (Task Manager or:)
Get-Process vmware-vmx | Select-Object CPU, WorkingSet | Sort-Object CPU -Descending

# Check VMnet8 NAT adapter status
Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object { $_.Name -like 'VMware*' }

# Parse JSONL for per-phase durations (requires jq or manual inspection)
# Each phase has a 'start' and 'success' event — diff the 'ts' fields.
Get-Content 'F:\CI\Logs\<jobId>\invoke-ci.jsonl' | ConvertFrom-Json | Format-Table ts,phase,status

Fix — by root cause:

Low disk space → fragmented VMDKs: run retention policy, then consider vmware-vdiskmanager -d to defragment the template VMDK.

High vmware-vmx CPU with many VMs: reduce capacity in config.yaml from 4 to 2.

VMnet8 NAT bottleneck (slow pip/nuget downloads inside VM): check Services.msc → VMware NAT Service is running.

NVMe saturation: if the host NVMe is at 100% I/O (Task Manager → Performance → Disk), all four concurrent VMs are competing. Reduce capacity: 2.

Escalation: Use invoke-ci.jsonl to identify which phase is slow across multiple jobs. Phase 1 slow = host git or network. Phase 2-3b slow = disk I/O. Phase 5 slow = build itself (not a CI infra problem).

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4. Template VMX corrupt after host crash

Symptom: After an unclean host shutdown, vmrun clone or vmrun start on the template fails. VMware Workstation shows the template in an error state.

Triage:

# Try starting the template directly in VMware Workstation UI
# If it reports "configuration file error" or "disk lock", proceed below.

# Check for lock files
Get-ChildItem 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\' -Recurse -Filter '*.lck'

# Check if backup exists
Get-ChildItem 'F:\CI\Backups\' -Directory | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 5

Fix:

Lock files only (common after hard shutdown):

# Ensure no VMware processes are running
Get-Process vmware*, vmrun -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
# Remove locks
Remove-Item 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\*.lck' -Recurse -Force
# Test clone
& vmrun.exe -T ws listSnapshots 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'

VMX or VMDK truly corrupt — restore from backup:

# Stop all CI activity first
Stop-Service act_runner

# Identify latest backup
$latest = Get-ChildItem 'F:\CI\Backups\' -Directory | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1
Write-Host "Restoring from: $($latest.FullName)"

# Replace template directory
Remove-Item 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\' -Recurse -Force
Copy-Item $latest.FullName 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\' -Recurse

# Restart runner
Start-Service act_runner

No backup exists: must re-provision the template from scratch. Follow docs/WINDOWS-TEMPLATE-SETUP.md → Fase A (Deploy) → Fase B (Prepare). Estimated time: 2-4 hours including Windows Update.

Escalation: If VMware Workstation itself is damaged (rare), reinstall VMware and re-import the template VMX. The VMDK files survive a VMware reinstall as long as the disk is intact.

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Quick Reference

Symptom	First command
Runner offline	Get-Service act_runner, then Restart-Service act_runner
Phase 2 clone fails	Test-Path F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx
Disk full	Get-PSDrive F | Select Free; run Invoke-RetentionPolicy.ps1
Stale lock	Remove-Item F:\CI\State\vm-start.lock
Slow builds	Check invoke-ci.jsonl phase timestamps; check disk I/O
Template corrupt	Remove *.lck files; if persistent, restore from F:\CI\Backups\
Snapshot missing	vmrun listSnapshots <vmx>; update GITEA_CI_SNAPSHOT_NAME
IP collision	Remove-Item F:\CI\State\ip-leases\*.lease; lower capacity

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5. Template Refresh Procedure

Use this procedure when the template OS needs updated packages, toolchain upgrades, or a new snapshot. Run on the host with an elevated PowerShell 5.1 session.

5.1 Pre-flight

# Stop the runner so no CI jobs start during the refresh
Stop-Service act_runner

# Verify no clone VMs are running
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' list
# Expected: "Total running VMs: 0"

# Backup the existing template (keeps last 3 by default)
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\scripts\Backup-CITemplate.ps1' -AllTemplates

5.2 Boot the template

Windows (WinBuild2025):

$vmx = 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' start $vmx gui

Linux (LinuxBuild2404):

$vmx = 'F:\CI\Templates\LinuxBuild2404\LinuxBuild2404.vmx'
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' start $vmx gui

5.3 Apply updates inside the template

Windows — connect via WinRM or open the VMware console, then run the Prepare script from the host:

$vmxWin   = 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'
$credTgt  = 'BuildVMGuest'    # Windows Credential Manager target
$cred     = Get-StoredCredential -Target $credTgt   # requires CredentialManager module
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\template\Prepare-WinBuild2025.ps1' `
    -VMXPath    $vmxWin `
    -Credential $cred

Linux — SSH into the template and run the toolchain script:

$vmxLin = 'F:\CI\Templates\LinuxBuild2404\LinuxBuild2404.vmx'
# Get IP (wait for VMware Tools if needed)
$ip = & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' getGuestIPAddress $vmxLin -wait
# Apply updates
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\template\Prepare-LinuxBuild2404.ps1' `
    -VMXPath  $vmxLin `
    -SshKeyPath 'F:\CI\keys\ci_linux'

Alternatively, run Install-CIToolchain-WinBuild2025.ps1 / Install-CIToolchain-Linux2404.sh manually inside the guest to apply only toolchain changes without the full Prepare script.

5.4 Shut down and snapshot

# Shut down gracefully (wait up to 120 s)
$vmx = 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild2025\WinBuild2025.vmx'   # or Linux vmx
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' stop $vmx soft

# Name: BaseClean_yyyyMMdd  (keeps old name for rollback reference)
$snapshotName = "BaseClean_$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd')"
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' snapshot $vmx $snapshotName
Write-Host "Snapshot created: $snapshotName"

Confirm no .vmem / .vmsn files exist before snapshotting (see AGENTS.md item 9):

Get-ChildItem (Split-Path $vmx) -Filter '*.vmem'  # must be empty

5.5 Validate

# Run the validation script
& 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\template\Validate-DeployState.ps1' `
    -VMXPath $vmx -SnapshotName $snapshotName

For Linux, also run a quick SSH smoke-test from the host:

Import-Module 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\scripts\_Transport.psm1' -Force
$result = Invoke-SshCommand -IP $ip -KeyPath 'F:\CI\keys\ci_linux' `
    -Command 'gcc --version && cmake --version' -PassThru
$result.Output

5.6 Run a smoke workflow

Push a trivial commit to a test repo or trigger a manual workflow run via Gitea UI. Confirm the job uses the new snapshot and completes successfully.

5.7 Promote the new snapshot

Update GITEA_CI_SNAPSHOT_NAME in runner/config.yaml and redeploy:

# Edit runner/config.yaml: set GITEA_CI_SNAPSHOT_NAME to $snapshotName
notepad 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\runner\config.yaml'

# Deploy config and restart runner
Copy-Item 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\runner\config.yaml' `
          'F:\CI\act_runner\config.yaml' -Force
Restart-Service act_runner

5.8 Retain old snapshot 7 days, then delete

Keep the previous BaseClean_* snapshot for 7 days as a rollback point:

# List existing snapshots
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' listSnapshots $vmx

# After 7 days, delete the old snapshot (replace OLDNAME with actual name)
# & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe' deleteSnapshot $vmx OLDNAME

5.9 Rollback procedure

If a smoke-test failure is discovered after promotion:

# Revert runner/config.yaml to prior GITEA_CI_SNAPSHOT_NAME
# (or set it back to 'BaseClean' for the permanent base)
Copy-Item 'N:\Code\Workspace\Local-CI-CD-System\runner\config.yaml' `
          'F:\CI\act_runner\config.yaml' -Force
Restart-Service act_runner
# The prior snapshot is still in the template — jobs will use it immediately.