If you are reading this post, I hope you have already faced the error: "Create
Artifact Container failed: Artifact storage quota has been hit. Unable to
upload any new artifacts". If not and if you are about to set up GitHub actions for your
repository, read this article before you start to avoid facing the above error
down the line.
Image Credits: Pixabay@Pexels
GitHub: the famous code hosting platform stretches beyond being just a hosting
platform. GitHub Actions is one such addition that automates workflows in a
repository. Though GitHub is generous enough to provide free storage and
computing power, there is a limit on your free meal. For more details about
the quota, refer to the
official document.
| Product | Storage | Minutes (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Free | 500 MB | 2,000 |
| GitHub Pro | 1 GB | 3,000 |
| GitHub Free for organizations | 500 MB | 2,000 |
| GitHub Team | 2 GB | 3,000 |
| GitHub Enterprise Cloud | 50 GB | 50,000 |
GitHub Quota
This article focuses on the storage limitation though similar precaution has
to be taken on computation too. Let's say you have a pretty active development
team or a community that keeps pushing changes every hour. Suppose your
workflow builds an uber jar and packs them into docker containers using two
workflow operations; you may choose to upload the uber jar to the artifact
storage at the end of the build operation and download it in the deploy
operation. However, if your account is a GitHub Free account (with a 500 MB
storage limitation) and your uber jar size is around 100 MB, you can only have
five artifacts in the artifact storage. If you didn't clear the previous
builds, your sixth build will fail to upload the artifact with the following
error: Create Artifact Container failed: Artifact storage quota has been hit.
Unable to upload any new artifacts.
There are two different options to fix this problem automatically.
- Setting up the maximum retention period for artifacts and logs
- Delete old artifacts in your workflow before publishing new artifacts
Artifact and Log Retention
GitHub provides an option to set the retention period for artifacts and logs
for each project. By default, GitHub keeps the artifacts and build logs for
90 days, but you can adjust this value based on your GitHub subscription.
Based on the frequency of workflow execution, you may find it useful or not.
For example, if your artifacts are small enough and your workflows are
executed only once a day, deleting them after some days may be a good
option. On the other hand, if your artifacts are too big and built on an
hourly basis (or frequent enough to eat all your storage within a day), even
one day retention period wouldn't work.
Step 1:
Step 1:
To adjust the retention period, go to the Settings of your repository.
Step 2:
Expand the Actions section, and navigate to the sub-section: General.
There you can change the retention period. If your repository is under an
organization, you can set the retention period for the whole organization. In
that case, the maximum retention period of any repository in that organization
cannot exceed the retention period of the organization.
Delete Old Artifacts
Suppose this is your workflow definition. Note that the artifact is named
"package" and uploaded to the artifact storage in the last step.
name: CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
branches: [master]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Set up JDK 8
uses: actions/setup-java@v3
with:
java-version: "8"
distribution: "adopt"
cache: maven
- name: Build with Maven
run: mvn clean package
- name: Copy Artifact
run: mkdir staging && cp target/*.jar staging
- name: Upload Artifact
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
with:
name: package
path: staging
Step 1:
To delete the old artifacts, add the following step just above the "Upload Artifact" step. This step lists all the artifacts from previous builds and deletes only the artifacts named "package". Feel free to remove the filtering logic if you want to delete all the artifacts. Refer to the GitHub Actions API to learn more about the properties.
To delete the old artifacts, add the following step just above the "Upload Artifact" step. This step lists all the artifacts from previous builds and deletes only the artifacts named "package". Feel free to remove the filtering logic if you want to delete all the artifacts. Refer to the GitHub Actions API to learn more about the properties.
- name: Delete Old Artifacts
uses: actions/github-script@v6
id: artifact
with:
script: |
const res = await github.rest.actions.listArtifactsForRepo({
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
})
res.data.artifacts
.filter(({ name }) => name === 'package')
.forEach(({ id }) => {
github.rest.actions.deleteArtifact({
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
artifact_id: id,
})
})
After the changes, your workflow must look like this:
name: CI
on:
push:
branches: [master]
pull_request:
branches: [master]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Set up JDK 8
uses: actions/setup-java@v3
with:
java-version: "8"
distribution: "adopt"
cache: maven
- name: Build with Maven
run: mvn clean package
- name: Delete Old Artifacts
uses: actions/github-script@v6
id: artifact
with:
script: |
const res = await github.rest.actions.listArtifactsForRepo({
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
})
res.data.artifacts
.filter(({ name }) => name === 'package')
.forEach(({ id }) => {
github.rest.actions.deleteArtifact({
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
artifact_id: id,
})
})
- name: Copy Artifact
run: mkdir staging && cp target/*.jar staging
- name: Upload Artifact
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
with:
name: package
path: staging
Step 2:
Save the changes and push the changes to the repository.
Save the changes and push the changes to the repository.
Any workflow triggered after these changes will delete the previous artifacts
but leave the build logs. Combining this with the retention period for build
logs will keep your repository stays within the storage limit.
EmoticonEmoticon