From 9d7e60696dc5c1c151462fd624ffa5d5cb9ac8cc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John Simons <john.simons@particular.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2026 09:08:03 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Bound build and WSL setup with timeouts instead of
 serialising them behind the wait

Waiting for the build before starting the WSL VM and container setups (#5873) was
meant to stop runner hangs from memory contention, but it didn't help and cost the
critical path about two minutes. Let those steps overlap the build again and add
five-minute timeouts to the build and WSL setup, so a hang now fails fast instead
of running the full thirty-minute job timeout. The wait is kept, but moved so it
only gates the Azure steps that provision real cloud resources.
---
 .github/workflows/ci.yml | 18 +++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 3f9632f42a..fab82c7004 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build
         id: build
         background: true
+        timeout-minutes: 5
         run: dotnet build tests.proj --configuration Release -graph
       # there is an issue with az cli and python 3.14, so for now we need to pin it
       # once the issue is resolved it should be able to be re-floated
@@ -119,19 +120,19 @@ jobs:
           # Cleanup of queues starting with `GHA-` handled by https://github.com/Particular/NServiceBus.AmazonSQS/blob/master/.github/workflows/tests-cleanup.yml
           $connectString = "AccessKeyId=${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }};SecretAccessKey=${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }};Region=${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }};QueueNamePrefix=GHA-${{ github.run_id }}"
           echo "ServiceControl_TransportTests_SQS_ConnectionString=$connectString" | Out-File -FilePath $Env:GITHUB_ENV -Encoding utf-8 -Append
-      # The Azure steps below create real cloud resources, so they sit behind the wait as well.
-      - name: Wait for build
-        wait: build
       # Provisions the WSL2 Docker host that the SQL Server, PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ and IBM MQ containers
       # run in on Windows. A no-op on Linux, but still run there so those actions see the same
-      # environment variables on both runners. It and the container setups run after the build on
-      # purpose: with the VM and the build competing for the runner's memory, jobs have died with "The
-      # hosted runner lost communication with the server".
+      # environment variables on both runners. It and the container setups overlap the build on
+      # purpose. Serialising them behind the wait (#5873) did not stop the runner hangs it was meant to
+      # prevent and cost the critical path about two minutes; the step timeouts turn a hang into a
+      # five minute failure instead of a thirty minute one.
       - name: Setup WSL
         if: contains(fromJSON('["RabbitMQ", "SqlServer", "PostgreSql", "IBMMQ"]'), matrix.test-category)
         uses: Particular/setup-wsl-action@v1.2.0
+        timeout-minutes: 5
         with:
-          # The action defaults to 4GB. The runner has 16GB, so give the VM real headroom.
+          # The action defaults to 4GB. The runner has 16GB and the build runs concurrently with the
+          # container starting up, so give the VM real headroom.
           memory: 8GB
       - name: Setup SQL Server
         uses: Particular/install-sql-server-action@v3.0.0
@@ -165,6 +166,9 @@ jobs:
         if: matrix.test-category == 'IBMMQ'
         with:
           connection-string-name: ServiceControl_TransportTests_IBMMQ_ConnectionString
+      # The Azure steps below create real cloud resources, so they sit behind the wait.
+      - name: Wait for build
+        wait: build
       - name: Azure login
         uses: azure/login@v3.1.0
         if: matrix.test-category == 'AzureServiceBus' || matrix.test-category == 'AzureStorageQueues'