Pipeline builds and High Availability (active/active)

2 minute read

Using High Availability (active/active) in your controllers has several implications about how your builds behave, how they are scheduled across your controller replicas and some build-related plugins work.

This page contains a collection of important considerations about this topic.

Running builds

CloudBees has tested a range of builds and triggers in High Availability (active/active) mode to clarify use cases for CloudBees CI High Availability. Pipeline projects are the focus of using HA (High Availability) mode, and are thus expected to work without limitations. Some exceptions are documented below.

Build Scheduling and explicit load balancing

Starting with version 2.426.1.2 CloudBees CI provides explicit load balancing for controllers running in HA (High Availability) mode.

Explicit load balancing redirects new builds to the the controller replica with the least load.

CloudBees CI calculates the load using a simple metric that considers the following factors:

  • Running builds.

  • Already scheduled queue items.

  • Online agents.

CloudBees CI provides explicit load balancing in most cases. The table below summarizes supported and unsupported cases:

Table 1. Build Scheduling and explicit load balancing
Job type Scheduling strategy

Interactive trigger (Build Now)

Replica with the least work load

Scheduled build (Cron job)

Replica with the least work load

Branch Indexing (Multibranch and Organization folder jobs)

Replica with the least work load

Webhooks (including multibranch events)

Replica with the least work load

REST API Triggers

Replica with the least work load

Replica with the least work load

Always the same replica as the upstream build

Replica with the least work load

Any other trigger type

Same replica that processed the trigger

Plugin incompatibility

Not all plugins are compatible in High Availability (HA) mode. Some of them may present inaccurate data when the controllers run in HA mode.

For instance, plugins such as Stage View and Blue Ocean may not display accurately running builds that are owned by other replicas.

If the Dashboard View plugin is installed, data about build and jobs is not accurate when the controller runs in HA mode. Builds and jobs completed in other replicas are not displayed.

CloudBees recommends the CloudBees Pipeline Explorer Plugin.