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\WinBuild\CI-WinBuild.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\WinBuild\CI-WinBuild.vmx' hard
# Delete lock files
Remove-Item 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild\*.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\WinBuild\CI-WinBuild.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\WinBuild\' -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\WinBuild\*.lck' -Recurse -Force
# Test clone
& vmrun.exe -T ws listSnapshots 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild\CI-WinBuild.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\WinBuild\' -Recurse -Force
Copy-Item $latest.FullName 'F:\CI\Templates\WinBuild\' -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\WinBuild\CI-WinBuild.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