Retry and Timeout in Pipelines

Introduction

Jenkins Pipelines are a powerful feature that enables Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). Managing retries and timeouts efficiently ensures that pipelines are resilient and robust, reducing failures due to transient issues.

Key Concepts

**Retry**: An action that allows a failed step to be executed again a specified number of times.
**Timeout**: A configuration that limits how long a step is allowed to run before it is terminated.

Retry Mechanism

The retry mechanism can be implemented in Jenkins Pipelines using the `retry` block, which allows you to specify how many times a particular stage or step should be retried in case of failure.

Example

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                retry(3) {
                    sh 'make build' // This command will be retried up to 3 times if it fails
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Note: The `retry` block only retries the steps within it and does not retry the entire stage if it fails after the specified attempts.

Timeout Configuration

Timeout can be configured at both the stage and pipeline level. It ensures that any long-running process can be automatically terminated after a specified duration.

Example

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Test') {
            options {
                timeout(time: 10, unit: 'MINUTES') // The stage will timeout after 10 minutes
            }
            steps {
                sh 'make test'
            }
        }
    }
}

Best Practices

Always set a reasonable timeout to prevent infinite waits.
Use retry only for transient errors; avoid retrying for known permanent failures.
Log detailed error messages for each retry attempt.
Consider implementing exponential backoff for retry intervals.

FAQ

How many times can I use retry?

You can use retry as many times as needed, but it is recommended to limit retries to a reasonable number (e.g., 3 to 5) to avoid excessive waiting times.

Can I set timeouts at the pipeline level?

Yes, you can set a global timeout for the entire pipeline using the `timeout` directive within the `pipeline` block.

What happens if all retry attempts fail?

If all retry attempts fail, the pipeline will fail at that stage, and subsequent stages will not execute unless specified otherwise.

Flowchart for Retry and Timeout Handling

graph TD;
                A[Start Pipeline] --> B{Step Execution}
                B -->|Success| C[Proceed to Next Step]
                B -->|Failure| D[Retry Step?]
                D -->|Yes| B
                D -->|No| E[Fail Pipeline]
                C --> F{Timeout?}
                F -->|Yes| G[Terminate Step]
                F -->|No| H[Complete Pipeline]