1. Administering Visual Builder Studio
  2. Set Up VB Studio for CI/CD
  3. Step 3: Set up VB Studio to run VM build executors
  4. Add and Manage VM Build Executors

Add and Manage VM Build Executors

A VM executor can run one build at a time. When you add a VM build executor, you allocate an OCI VM Compute instance to run VB Studio builds. If you expect your organization's members to run builds in parallel jobs that refer to a common executor template, you should add multiple VM executors for that executor template. Note that the more VM executors you have running at a specific time, the higher the cost. To minimize the higher cost, use the Sleep Timeout setting to automatically shut down inactive VM executors.

Note:

You can't add or manage VM executors if VB Studio is connected to the built-in free account. If you want to add more than one VM executor, configure VB Studio to connect to your OCI account.

Here's an example of multiple VM executors that use a common executor template.


Description of vbstudio_vms_no_ol6.bmp follows
Description of the illustration vbstudio_vms_no_ol6.bmp

You add and manage VM executors from the Build Executors tab on the Organization page:

  1. In the left navigator, click Organization Organization
  2. Click the Build Executors tab.

This table describes the actions you can perform to manage VM executors.

Action How To
Add the free VM build executor in the built-in free account

You can add and use the free VM build executor only if your VB Studio instance is connected to the built-in free account.

The free VM build executor will be automatically created upon creation of the first project in the org. You can also add it by clicking Create Free VM Build Executor on the Build Executors tab.

VB Studio creates the free VM build executor that uses the System Default OL7 for Visual Builder template. You can't change the VM executor's template.

The new VM executor is in the Pending state until you manually start it or trigger a job's build that references the associated executor template.

Find VM executors of an executor template In the search box, enter the executor template's name.
Sort VM executors Click the arrow icon in the column's header to sort VM executors. For example, to sort VM executors by their state, click the arrow icon in the Status column's header.

Add a VM executor in the VB Studio's default VCN

  1. Find VM executors of the executor template you want to use.

    If there are no VM executors of the executor template, jump to the next step.

    If you find one or more VM executors that use the executor template, get each VM executor's VCN name. If the VCN's name isn't vbs-executor-vcn, click Actions and select Delete to delete the VM executor. You should not add VM executors to different VCNs that use the same executor template.

  2. Click + Create VM.
  3. In the Add VM Build Executor dialog box, in Quantity, specify the number of VM executors you want to create.

    To minimize build execution delays, set the number to the number of jobs that you expect to run in parallel using the template you'll specify in Build Executor Template. If you're not sure, start with one VM executor. You can add more VM executors later, based on your actual usage.

  4. In Build Executor Template, select the executor template.
  5. In Region, select the region that's closer to you geographically.

    The drop-down list displays regions your OCI account is subscribed to.

  6. In Shape, select the VM executor's shape.

    For example:
    Description of vbstudio_vmsetup.bmp follows
    Description of the illustration vbstudio_vmsetup.bmp

    Notice the message below the Reserved Public IP (Optional) field. Click the question mark icon Help icon[image] to see how the number of available VMs was calculated for the current settings. Here's an example of what you might see.


    Description of add-vm-executor-stats-2.png follows
    Description of the illustration add-vm-executor-stats-2.png

    The display shows the realtime statistics that were used to make this calculation, using your settings. As you change your settings, new statistics are computed and displayed. See What Determines How Many VMs I Can Create? for more information about how the calculations are made.

    If the required number of Compute VM instances aren't available, choose another shape.

  7. Select the Reserved Public IP that you want to add to the VM executor. You can add one Reserved Public IP to each VM executor.

    An allow listing for your VM executor is possible only if you specify an OCI account by assigning a Reserved Public IP to a build executor. The Reserved Public IP must be defined in the compartment of the specified OCI account.

  8. In VCN Selection, select Default.
  9. Click Add.

The new VM executor is in the Pending state until you manually start it or trigger a job's build that references the associated executor template.

Add a VM executor in another compartment's VCN Before you add a VM executor, make sure you've added a public subnet in the VCN. See Create and Configure a Public Subnet in a VCN.
  1. Find VM executors of the executor template you want to use.

    If there are no VM executors of the executor template, jump to the next step.

    If you find one or more VM executors that use the executor template, get each VM executor's VCN name. If the VCN's name is different from your VCN, click Actions and select Delete to delete the VM executor. You should not add VM executors to different VCNs that use the same executor template.

  2. Click + Create VM.
  3. In the Add VM Build Executor dialog box, in Quantity, specify the number of VM executors you want to allocate.
  4. In Build Executor Template, select the executor template.
  5. In Region, specify the VM executor's region.
  6. In Shape, select the VM executor's shape.

    For example:
    Description of vbstudio_vmsetup.bmp follows
    Description of the illustration vbstudio_vmsetup.bmp

    Notice the message below the Reserved Public IP (Optional) field. Click the question mark icon Help icon[image] to see how the number of available VMs was calculated for the current settings. Here's an example of what you might see.

    Description of add-vm-executor-stats-2.png follows
    Description of the illustration add-vm-executor-stats-2.png

    The display shows the realtime statistics that were used to make this calculation, using your settings. As you change your settings, new statistics are computed and displayed. See What Determines How Many VMs I Can Create? for more information about how the calculations are made.

    If the required number of Compute VM instances aren't available, choose another shape.

  7. Select the Reserved Public IP that you want to add to the VM executor. You can add one Reserved Public IP to each VM executor.

    An allow listing for your VM executor is possible only if you specify an OCI account by assigning a Reserved Public IP to a build executor. The Reserved Public IP must be defined in the compartment of the specified OCI account.

  8. In VCN Selection, select Custom.
  9. In VCN Compartment, select the compartment.

    If you're an Oracle Cloud OS Management Service (OSMS) user, don't select the OSMS compartment or a compartment with an OSMS policy.

  10. In VCN, select the VCN.
  11. In Subnets Compartments, select the compartments where your public subnets are. By default, it adds your VCN's compartment. If required, you can add more compartments.
  12. In Subnets, select a subnet. The list shows public subnets only.

    You can add multiple public subnets. If VB Studio can't create a VM executor on the first subnet you've added, it tries to create it on the second subnet, and so on.

  13. Click Validate Network Setup.
  14. After successful validation, click Add.

The new VM executor is in the Pending state until you manually start it or trigger a job's build that references the associated executor template.

Get the name and IP addresses of a VM executor's VCN subnet.
  1. In the VM executor's Details column, click Show machine detailsDetails.
  2. Note the VCN subnet's name.
    Description of buildvm_new_details.png follows
    Description of the illustration buildvm_new_details.png

    The VM executor's subnet name is displayed only if it's in the Available state. If the VM executor is in the Stopped or the Pending state, click Actions and select Start to start the VM executor.

View a VM executor’s log

The VM executor’s log has entries for all events along with information about when the events occurred, the type of event, and event details.

  1. Select the VM executor, click Actions Actions and select Display Log.
  2. In the Provisioning Log window, review the log.

    To download the log file to your computer, click Download Log.

Start or stop a VM executor manually When a build of a job triggers, its VM executor starts automatically if it was in the stopped state. It takes some time to start a VM executor, and the user must wait for a VM executor to start before the job's build runs on it. Similarly, a VM executor stops automatically if no builds run on it during the sleep timeout period.

At times, you may want to manually start a VM executor before triggering a job's build or stop it to free resources immediately. To start or stop a VM executor, click Actions Actions and select Start or Stop.

To start or stop multiple VM executors, select their check boxes, click Update Selected and select Start selected VMs or Stop selected VMs.

Delete a VM executor

To delete a VM executor, click ActionsActions and select Delete.

If the Delete action doesn't delete the VM executor, you can force a delete using the Force Delete action.

To delete multiple VM executors, select their check boxes, click Update Selected and select Delete selected VMs.

Change the sleep timeout of all VM executors

Set the sleepout time to stop inactive VM executors automatically. By default, it is 30 minutes.

The higher the sleep timeout value, higher will be your cost as inactive VM executors continue to be in the Available state for a longer time. If you don't expect your organization's users to run builds frequently, specify a lower sleep timeout.

When a VM executor starts from the Stopped state, it installs the operating system and all software packages of the executor template. This takes time and your organization's users must wait for the build to start until the VM executor is in the Available state. If you expect your organization's users to run builds frequently, specify a higher sleep timeout value.

  1. Click Sleep Timeout.
  2. In the Sleep Timeout dialog box, change the timeout duration to define how long should a VM executor be in the Available state if no builds run on it.
  3. Click Save.
Reset the VM executor

Use the Try to Reset action if the build executor is stuck in the Error Recoverable status. The Try to Reset action will try to remove all used OCI resources of the VM executor.

To reset a VM executor, click Actions Actions and select Try to reset.

After adding VM executors, you and your organization's members can configure jobs to use executor templates.