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Use Harness Cloud build infrastructure

With Harness Cloud, you can run builds in isolation on Harness-managed VMs that are preconfigured with tools, packages, and settings commonly used in CI pipelines. Harness hosts, maintains, and upgrades these machines so that you can focus on building software instead of maintaining build infrastructure.

Harness Cloud provides the following advantages:

  • Use build credits to run builds on Harness-managed machines. No need to set up you own machines.
  • Starter pipelines for different programming languages.
  • Blazing fast builds on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
  • Get the latest features first. Harness may enable features for Harness Cloud before rolling them out to other build infrastructure options.

For a comparison of build infrastructure options, go to Which build infrastructure is right for me.

What happens when pipelines run on Harness Cloud?

When a build runs on Harness Cloud, Harness runs each CI stage in a new, ephemeral VM.

Example pipeline on Harness Cloud

The steps in each stage execute on the stage's dedicated VM. This allows the stage's steps to share information through the underlying filesystem. You can run CI steps directly on the VM or in a Docker container. When the stage is complete, the VM automatically shuts down.

Billing and build credits​

Free plans get 2000 free build credits each month. If you're on a Team or Enterprise plan, build credit allowances are factored into your plan, and you can purchase additional build credit packages.

Harness can invoice in arrears for overages. For more information about Harness Cloud billing and build credit consumption, go to Subscriptions and licenses.

Free plans require credit card validation to use Harness Cloud. If you don't want to provide a credit card, consider using local runner build infrastructure.

Platforms and image specifications​

Harness Cloud offers Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms. To enable Windows and macOS for Harness Cloud, contact Harness Support.

Review the following image specifications for information about image components and preinstalled software.

You can customize the Harness Cloud build environment. In your pipelines, you can select specific versions of pre-installed tools, ensure that a step uses a specific version every time, or install additional tools and versions that aren't preinstalled on the Harness Cloud images. You can run these steps on the host machine or as separate Docker images.

info

Currently, macOS platforms for Harness Cloud are behind a feature flag with limited availability. You can submit a request to enable the feature.

Requirements for connectors and secrets​

  • You must use the built-in Harness Secret Manager to store connector credentials and other secrets.
  • All connectors must connect through the Harness Platform, not a delegate.
  • AWS connectors can't use IRSA or AssumeRole.
  • GCP and Azure connectors can't use authentication that inherits credentials from the delegate.

Use Harness Cloud​

You can configure your pipelines to use Harness Cloud in minutes.

  1. Go to the pipeline where you want to use Harness Cloud build infrastructure.
  2. Select the Build stage, and then select the Infrastructure tab.
  3. Select Harness Cloud and the desired Platform.
  4. Save and run your pipeline.
info

Currently, macOS platforms for Harness Cloud are behind a feature flag with limited availability. You can submit a request to enable the feature.

Harness Cloud best practices​

  • Don't hardcode system environment variables. Instead, use references like $HOME or $USER.
  • Don't hardcode the number of processors/threads. Instead, use commands like nproc to specify threads/jobs in your build and test commands.
  • Don't use tools that only run on a specific cloud environment, such as gcloud. Harness Cloud sources its build VMs from a variety of cloud providers. It is impossible to predict which specific cloud provider hosts the Harness Cloud VM that your build uses during any single execution. Therefore, avoid using tools (such as gsutil or gcloud) that require a specific cloud provider's environment.
  • Know the requirements for connectors and secrets.
  • Know that Harness Cloud machine images can change. If your pipeline relies on a specific version of a software, tool, or environment, make sure you lock versions to prevent your pipeline from failing when the image changes.
  • Know that you can add steps to your pipeline to specify versions of tools and lock versions, set up environments, or install additional tools.
  • Run apt-get update before installing additional software that might not be in the image's packages list.

Specify versions​

If a Harness Cloud image has multiple versions of a tool pre-installed, you can specify the version that you want to use in a step's Command. For example, with the Harness Cloud macOS build infrastructure, you could use the following command in a Run step to select an Xcode version:

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode_15.1.0.app
warning

Harness Cloud machine images can change. If your pipeline relies on a specific version of a software, tool, or environment, make sure you lock versions to prevent your pipeline from failing when the image changes.

Lock versions or install additional tools​

If your build requires a specific version of a tool or you need to use a version/tool that isn't pre-installed on the Harness Cloud image, you must add a step (such as a Run step or Plugin step) to install the version/tool directly on the build machine or run a Docker image that has the required version/tool.

When installing additional tools, run apt-get update before installing new software that might not be in the packages list.

Example: Use an Action step to setup Java

In the following YAML example, an Action step runs the actions/setup-java GitHub Action to install a Java version, and then the Run step confirms the Java version.

            steps:
              - step:
                  identifier: install_java
                  name: intall java version 17
                  type: Action
                  spec:
                    uses: actions/setup-java@v3
                    with:
                      distribution: 'temurin'
                      java-version: '16'
              - step:
                  identifier: java_ver_check
                  name: java version check
                  type: Run
                  spec:
                    shell: Bash
                    command: |
                      JAVA_VER=$(java -version 2>&1 | head -1 | cut -d'"' -f2 | sed '/^1\./s///' | cut -d'.' -f1)
                      if [[ $JAVA_VER == 16 ]]; then
                        echo successfully installed $JAVA_VER
                      else
                        exit 1
                      fi
tip

You can also use the Bitrise step to run Bitrise Workflow Steps in your CI pipelines.

Example: Use a Docker image

The following YAML example demonstrates how a Run step can use a Docker image to leverage tools that are available on the image without having to install them on the build machine.

    - stage:
        name: Print welcome message
        identifier: welcome_message
        type: CI
        spec:
          cloneCodebase: true
          platform: ## Platform properties describe the target machine required by this stage.
            os: Linux
            arch: Amd64
          runtime:
            type: Cloud ## This build runs on Harness-provided infrastructure.
            spec: {}
          execution:
            steps:
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Welcome
                  identifier: Welcome
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: my_docker_hub  ## Specify a Docker connector to pull an image from Docker.
                    image: alpine ## If no image is specified, the step runs on the host machine.
                    shell: Sh
                    command: Echo "Welcome to Harness CI"
info

Steps running in containers can't communicate with Background steps running on Harness Cloud build infrastructure because they don't have a common host.

Secure connect (private networking)​

You can use Harness Cloud build infrastructure in firewalled environments. For more information, go to Secure connector for Harness Cloud.

Queue Intelligence​

With Queue Intelligence, Harness CI can queue and run build jobs in sequence when the build infrastructure receives more jobs than it can run concurrently.

The Queue Intelligence feature introduces a queued state for individual builds. Builds progress through the following states:

  • pending: Build request created and waiting for a delegate. The maximum timeout for this state is 12 hours.
  • queued: Build request queued by a delegate. The maximum timeout for this state is 12 hours. When viewing the build in the UI, this state is indicated by a Queued license limit reached message.
  • running: The delegate runs a build for each build stage in the pipeline. The maximum timeout for this state is one hour.

Troubleshoot Harness Cloud build infrastructure​

Go to the CI Knowledge Base for questions and issues related to Harness Cloud build infrastructure, including:

Known issues​

Harness Cloud macOS platform .netrc file can have incorrect permissions​

There is a known issue impacting macOS machines on Harness Cloud build infrastructure due to incorrect permissions for the .netrc file at /Users/anka/.netrc. The permissions are set to 644 when they should be 600.

This can cause errors when installing Cocoapods. If your build installs Cocoapods, uses a macOS platform on Harness Cloud build infrastructure, and fails due to an error like Couldn't determine repo type for URL when installing Cocoapods, then, until this issue is fixed, make sure the pipeline edits the permissions on the .netrc file before attempting to install Cocoapods.

Harness Cloud Windows platforms can fail to clone BitBucket Cloud repos​

Due to a BitBucket Cloud issue, specific versions of BitBucket Cloud could fail to clone repos on Windows platforms running Git version 2.44.

Atlassian released a fix for this issue; however, if you use a Harness Cloud Windows platform and your build is unable to clone your BitBucket Cloud repo, do the folloiwng:

  1. Disable Clone Codebase.
  2. At the beginning of your build stage, add a a Run step that uses the harness/drone-git image and Git commands to clone your BitBucket cloud repo.

Harness Cloud VMs don't support hardware acceleration​

Currently, Harness Cloud build machines don't support hardware acceleration. This applies to all platforms and architectures.