WarpSnapshot GitHub Action

WarpSnapshot enables you to capture snapshots of your runner VMs at any point in your workflow, allowing you to reuse them for faster consecutive runs.

Prerequisites

• Supported Platforms: WarpBuild Linux x64 and arm runners.
• Unsupported Platforms: BYOC based runners, container image based runners and Mac runners are not supported.

Usage

To incorporate WarpSnapshot into your workflow, add the following step to your .github/workflows/{workflow_name}.yml file, ideally at the end of the job:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x;snapshot.key=unique-snapshot-alias
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
      # Rest of your build steps
      - name: Create snapshot
        uses: WarpBuilds/snapshot-save@v1
        with:
          alias: 'unique-snapshot-alias'
          fail-on-error: true
          wait-timeout-minutes: 60

Invoking the action creates the snapshot of the runner. To use the snapshot in subsequent runs, specify the snapshot alias in the runs-on field of the job as shown above.

If the runner machine is made from a snapshot, it will have an environment variable WARPBUILD_SNAPSHOT_KEY set to the alias of the snapshot.

Inputs

• alias (Required): A unique alias for the snapshot. This helps identify and manage your snapshots effectively.

• fail-on-error (Optional): If set to true, the action will fail if any error occurs during the snapshot process. Default is true.

• wait-timeout-minutes (Optional): The maximum time (in minutes) to wait for the snapshot to be created. Default is 30 minutes.

Conditional snapshot usage

You can conditionally utilize snapshot runners by configuring the runs-on field in your workflow:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on:
      ${{ contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[warp-no-snapshot]') &&
      'warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x' ||
      'warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x;snapshot.key=unique-snapshot-alias' }}
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
        # Add your build and test steps here
      - name: Create snapshot
        uses: WarpBuilds/snapshot-save@v1
        with:
          alias: 'unique-snapshot-alias'

The example above checks if the commit message contains [warp-no-snapshot]. If it does, the job runs on a standard runner. Otherwise, it runs on a snapshot runner with the specified alias.

Complex conditionals

For more advanced scenarios, you can determine whether to use a standard or snapshot runner based on branch protection or other conditions:

jobs:
  determine-runner:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      runner: ${{ steps.set-runner.outputs.runner }}
    steps:
      - name: Determine Branch Protection
        id: branch-protection
        run: |
          branch=$(echo "${{ github.ref }}" | sed 's|refs/heads/||')
          echo "Branch: $branch"
          response=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
            -H "Authorization: token ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" \
            -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
            "https://api.github.com/repos/${{ github.repository }}/branches/$branch/protection")
          if [ $response -eq 200 ]; then
            echo "Branch is protected"
            echo "runner=warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          else
            echo "Branch is not protected"
            echo "runner=warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-8x" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          fi
  build:
    needs: determine-runner
    runs-on: ${{ needs.determine-runner.outputs.runner }}
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
        # Add your build and test steps here
      - name: Create snapshot
        uses: WarpBuilds/snapshot-save@v1
        with:
          alias: 'unique-snapshot-alias'

Cleanup script

It’s strongly recommended to add a cleanup step to remove credentials and sensitive information before creating a snapshot. This can be achieved by adding a cleanup script before the snapshot step:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x;snapshot.key=unique-snapshot-alias
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v5
        # Add your build and test steps here
      - name: Cleanup VM
        run: |
          rm -rf $HOME/.ssh
          rm -rf $HOME/.aws
      - name: Create snapshot
        uses: WarpBuilds/snapshot-save@v1
        with:
          alias: 'unique-snapshot-alias'
          fail-on-error: true
          wait-timeout-minutes: 60

Security

Public Repositories

When using public repositories, ensure that no sensitive information (such as cloud credentials) is stored in the snapshot. This is crucial as others may access the snapshot using the alias in a PR workflow run.

Private Repositories

WarpBuild currently provisions runners at the organization level, and GitHub may allocate a runner intended for snapshot jobs to different jobs within the organization. This could lead to exposure of sensitive information to other users in the organization. It is recommended to use the cleanup script to remove sensitive data before creating a snapshot.

Benchmarks

Additional Resources

BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)

Visit WarpBuild Docs to learn more about how you can use your BYOC runners with WarpSnapshot.

Author

This action was created by WarpBuild.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Addtional Notes

BYOC based snapshot runners will be launched soon.