Adjust for ikiwiki → GitLab wiki authored by intrigeri's avatar intrigeri
[[!meta title="CI usability issues"]]
---
title: CI usability issues
---
Here, we collect CI usability issues.
This effort started with [[!tails_ticket 16959]], in order to have a better
This effort started with tails/tails#16959, in order to have a better
understanding of how our current setup feels to its users.
This data will help us define our strategy for the future of our CI (e.g.
switching to GitLab CI, switching to Jenkins pipelines, or merely removing some
UX stumbling blocks without changing the big picture of our setup).
[[!toc levels=2]]
[[_TOC_]]
# Cumbersome navigation
......@@ -17,10 +22,10 @@ UX stumbling blocks without changing the big picture of our setup).
- Jenkins does not readily expose the full CI pipeline progress & outcome
⇒ developers and reviewers need to track/check the result of 3 different jobs.
([[!tails_gitlab tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17071]])
([tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17071](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17071))
- CI results are not visible on GitLab MRs
([[!tails_gitlab tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17070]])
([tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17070](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17070))
# Misleading output
......@@ -35,22 +40,21 @@ UX stumbling blocks without changing the big picture of our setup).
# Missing information
* When a Jenkins build aborts due to a timeout, no summary of the scenarios
that did run is generated. ([[!tails_ticket 17678]])
that did run is generated. (tails/tails#17678)
# Suboptimal jobs prioritizing
* The fact all jobs are treated equally causes trouble during our release
process: the RM sometimes has to wait a long time for the builds they care
about to run, while our CI resources are kept busy by other builds that
arguably could wait a bit longer. ([[!tails_gitlab
tails/sysadmin/-/issues/9760]])
arguably could wait a bit longer. ([tails/sysadmin/-/issues/9760](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/9760))
# Very long feedback loop
As of August 2020, a full CI pipeline takes almost 7 hours to run.
This problem is tracked on [[!tails_gitlab tails/sysadmin/-/issues/16960]] and
[[a dedicated blueprint|blueprint/hardware_for_automated_tests_take3]], which
This problem is tracked on [tails/sysadmin/-/issues/16960](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/16960) and
[a dedicated blueprint](hardware_for_automated_tests_take3), which
focuses on the hard facts.
Here we focus on feelings and human perception.
......@@ -84,6 +88,6 @@ Note: this is not about robustness problems inherent to our test suite,
that don't depend much on _how_ we run the test suite.
* When GitLab is down or connectivity between lizard and GitLab is poor, many
Jenkins jobs — if not all — fail. ([[!tails_gitlab
tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17715]])
Jenkins jobs — if not all — fail. ([tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17715](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17715))