Infrastructure for MacOS 13.x

[UlisesGascon]

It would be beneficial to begin brainstorming ideas on how we can incorporate MacOS 12.x and 13.x into our current infrastructure. I anticipate that we will need to make the machines accessible for both Intel and ARM devices.

To my recollection, we can utilize some of the existing resources in Orka for the Intel machines with our current configuration. However, to accommodate ARM machines, we may require additional infrastructure resources.

What is your opinion, @nodejs/build? Should we discuss this matter in our next meeting?

Issues related:

• MacOS 10.14 deprecation plan #3087
• Build and platform requirements for Node.js 20 node#47067 (comment)

[UlisesGascon]

I was checking the availability for Orka resources, and we have some empty spots in the Node macpro-4, as well we can potentially use port 8825 in all the nodes. In average each VM is configured to use 4 vCPU/CPU and 9.40G RAM.

Current Status in Orka

VMs distribution

You can check this in Orka by running orka vm list

SSH port	Node: macpro-4	Node: macpro-5	Node: macpro-6
8822	release-macos11-x64-1	test-macos1014-x64-1	test-macos11-x64-1
8823	not used	test-macos1014-x64-2	test-macos11-x64-2
8824	not used	test-macos1015-x64-2	test-macos1015-x64-1
8825	not used	release-macos1015-x64-1	macos1014-x64-3

Note that release-macos11-x64-1 is not in the inventory as the PR still open #3185

The NAT

The NAT is quite tricky to process, but let me summarize it from #3112 (comment)

Node	Internal Ip	External Ip
macpro-4	10.221.188.14	199.7.167.100
macpro-5	10.221.188.15	199.7.167.101
macpro-6	10.221.188.16	199.7.167.102

Nodes Physical resources distribution

You can check this in Orka by running orka node list

Node	CPU	Memory
macpro-4	20 / 24	52.59G / 62.78G
macpro-5	8 / 24	24.10G / 62.78G
macpro-6	8 / 24	24.10G / 62.78G

Future distribution (proposal)

We might want to add at least 2 vms per MacOS test version, and 1 for release:

• test-macos12-x64-1, test-macos12-x64-2 and release-macos12-x64-1
• test-macos13-x64-1, test-macos13-x64-2 and release-macos13-x64-1

Resources Distribution

SSH port	Node: macpro-4	Node: macpro-5	Node: macpro-6
8822	release-macos11-x64-1	test-macos1014-x64-1	test-macos11-x64-1
8823	test-macos12-x64-1	test-macos1014-x64-2	test-macos11-x64-2
8824	test-macos13-x64-1	test-macos1015-x64-2	test-macos1015-x64-1
8825	test-macos13-x64-2	release-macos1015-x64-1	macos1014-x64-3
8826	release-macos13-x64-1	test-macos12-x64-2	release-macos12-x64-1

Nodes Physical resources availability

Node	CPU	Memory
macpro-4	4 / 24	15.78G / 62.78G
macpro-5	4 / 24	15.78G / 62.78G
macpro-6	4 / 24	15.78G / 62.78G

We will still have room for another 3 vms if we want to squeeze the nodes.

[mhdawson]

Getting some new machines into the mix for 20.x makes a lot of sense to me. I think we usualy only release using one version so in terms of release I think should likely assess if we can move up to 12 or 13 for doing releases, but I don't think we'll have resources for both (particularly on the arm side)

[UlisesGascon]

Possible Solution for ARM machines in Macstadium

Seems like since Orka 2.0 we can add ARM based nodes to the existing intel Orka Cluster.

Starting with Orka 2.0, it is now possible to deploy an Orka cluster of Apple silicon-based nodes (also: Apple ARM-based nodes) and run your CI/CD workflows there. The Apple silicon-based nodes can also be added to an existing cluster with Intel-based nodes. Then, it will have both Intel- and Apple silicon-based nodes. A prerequisite for that is to upgrade to Orka 2.0 before adding the new Apple silicon-based nodes. See

Currently, we use Bare Metal solution in Macstadium for ARM:

• test-macos11.0-arm64-4: Mac mini G5A (AS/M1/8C/8G/256G/SSD/1G)
• test-macos11.0-arm64-3: Mac mini G5A (AS/M1/8C/8G/256G/SSD/1G)
• release-macos11.0-arm64-1: Mac mini G5A (AS/M1/8C/8G/256G/SSD/1G)

And I believe that the machines are bigger than our needs, but if we convert this resources into Orka Nodes. For Intel we use Orka C1 Build (24 vCPU + 60 GB) Node, so I assume that for ARM Nodes the resources are similar. Then we can extend the current Orka by converting the existing Bare Metal Resources and add 12.x and 13.x for ARM specific:

Resources Distribution

SSH port	Node: macpro-4	Node: macpro-5	Node: macpro-6	Node: ARM-1	Node: ARM-2
8822	release-macos11-x64-1	test-macos1014-x64-1	test-macos11-x64-1	test-macos11.0-arm64-3	test-macos11.0-arm64-4
8823	test-macos12-x64-1	test-macos1014-x64-2	test-macos11-x64-2	release-macos11.0-arm64-1	release-macos12.0-arm64-1
8824	test-macos13-x64-1	test-macos1015-x64-2	test-macos1015-x64-1	release-macos13.0-arm64-1	test-macos12.0-arm64-1
8825	test-macos13-x64-2	release-macos1015-x64-1	macos1014-x64-3	test-macos12.0-arm64-2	test-macos13.0-arm64-1
8826	release-macos13-x64-1	test-macos12-x64-2	release-macos12-x64-1	test-macos13.0-arm64-2	empty

Obviously we need to check with Macstadium if this is possible. I think that we are in Orka v2.0 or higher based on #3112 (comment)

We can check also with Nearform if we can extend the current nodes in their infra to support 12.x and 13.x

[AshCripps]

Our Orka cluster is 2.3.1 according to the support ticket when they upgraded.

[mhdawson]

Using orka makes sense to me. Maybe the next stop is to open a ticket with Mac Stadium asking if we can get an ARM based machine added to our free account?

[UlisesGascon]

I will start working in test-macos12-x64-1 and test-macos13-x64-1 (REF: #3240 (comment)) so I can update the Ansible scripts and create the base VMs in Orka. I will need some support to add the new machines to Jekins as I am not an admin

Our Orka cluster is 2.3.1 according to the support ticket when they upgraded.

Thanks @AshCripps!

Using orka makes sense to me. Maybe the next stop is to open a ticket with Mac Stadium asking if we can get an ARM based machine added to our free account?

@mhdawson do you want me to contact support?

[UlisesGascon]

I will start working in test-macos12-x64-1 and test-macos13-x64-1 (REF: #3240 (comment)) so I can update the Ansible scripts and create the base VMs in Orka. I will need some support to add the new machines to Jekins as I am not an admin

Current progress

I created the VM test-macos12-x64-1 from scratch using the official images provided by Orka. This VM is using image macos12-x64 that was a clean installation with a password change only to match the setup instruction in the private repo. The base image macos12-x64 can be used to create release or test VMs as there are no ssh key associated. This #3258 will include the test-macos12-x64-1 to the inventory. Next step will the to Ansible the machine and create the tags and setting in Jenkins.

Regarding test-macos13-x64-1 I had some issues with the startup of the Operative system using the Orka Ventura official image and also by creating a new VM based on macos12-x64 with manual upgrade to Ventura. I created this ticket asking for support in MacStadium.