Announce/Feedback: Removing Windows Server 2016 virtual environment

[kaylangan]

The Windows Server 2016 virtual environment will be removed in January 2020. You will need to update your workflow files to run on windows-latest which will run on the Windows Server 2019 environment instead.

Update 12/10: We have moved the deprecation date to January 2020.

[wipe2238]

Does that mean Visual Studio 2017 will be added to windows-latest?

[NickCraver]

The post and tweet mention Windows 2016 R2 (post link, tweet link).

Can we please remove the R2 there to fix the notes? Or I'm very confused...there wasn't a Windows 2016 R2 ever released to the public AFAIK.

[kaylangan]

Does that mean Visual Studio 2017 will be added to windows-latest?

That is the plan. We don't yet have a firm ETA, but ideally by end of the year.

The post and tweet mention Windows 2016 R2

This is how it's been referred to in our documentation: https://help.github.com/en/github/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/software-in-virtual-environments-for-github-actions

[NickCraver]

@kaylangan I'm not sure what the best way to say this is, but: that OS doesn't exist. It was a bug in the original documentation too then :)

[kaylangan]

@NickCraver Fixed now (in the changelog, docs may take a few mins to propagate through). Thanks! 🙂

[hugovk]

📍 Maybe pin this issue for extra visibility?

[tvatter]

... wouldn't it make more sense to wait until Visual Studio 2017 is added to windows-latest ? Without it (i.e., on the current windows-latest), although "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" my_platform executes without problem, I still get the dreaded error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required when trying to install a package.

[alepauly]

@tvatter @hugovk We're working on adding the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.140 component to the VS2019 install. It should show up in the environment in the next few weeks.

[Skycoder42]

@alepauly Is there an issue for VC.140 (msvc2015) and VC.141 (msvc2017) to track when they have been added?

[LorenzE]

Are there any news on adding msvc2017 support to windows-latest (windows server 2019)? I am asking because my builds on windows are dependent on pre-built Qt binaries, which ship for <= msvc2017 only. Thx :)

[alepauly]

@LorenzE @Skycoder42 - sorry for the silence here so far but we did make some changes to the windows 2019 runner to include msvc140 (vs2015) and a missing component for msvc141 (vs2017). The latest built rolling out right now has those changes but it won't reach your repos probably until Friday this week or Monday. I'll do my best to keep this issue up to date but please don't hesitate to ping me if you have any questions. Thanks!

[LorenzE]

@alepauly Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

[rvanmil]

We also need Visual Studio 2017 to keep our cordova-windows builds going. For a while it was possible to run vs2017 on the 2019 environment by installing it through the chocolatey visualstudio2017buildtools package, but this has stopped working somewhere around december 12th (the installer fails silently).

[kaylangan]

@rvanmil can you point me to a build?

[rvanmil]

@rvanmil can you point me to a build?

Over here, but this is a private repo: https://github.com/oliverit/infrax-cordova-app-wfm/commit/8057bd462c963b3e30b1a209327f1f811a9ac177/checks?check_suite_id=372173496

This is the workflow script I'm using:

name: Build for Windows

on:
  push:
    tags:
    - 'v*'

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: windows-2016

    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v1

    - name: Install Node.js 8
      uses: actions/setup-node@master
      with:
        node-version: '8.x'
        registry-url: 'https://npm.pkg.github.com'

    - name: Import code signing certificate
      shell: powershell
      run: ./build/certificate.ps1

    - name: Add Yarn global bin to path
      shell: bash
      run: echo "::add-path::$(yarn global bin)"

    - name: Install Cordova
      shell: bash
      run: yarn global add cordova@9

    - name: Install dependencies
      shell: bash
      env:
        NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.YARN_TOKEN }}
      run: yarn install

    - name: Build - TST - Webpack
      shell: bash
      run: yarn build-tst

    - name: Build - TST - Cordova
      shell: bash
      env:
        MSBUILDDIR: '/C/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Enterprise/MSBuild/15.0/Bin'
        NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.YARN_TOKEN }}
      run: >
        export FILENAME_X64=CordovaApp.Windows10_$(node -p "require('./package.json').version").0_x64 &&
        export FILENAME_X86=CordovaApp.Windows10_$(node -p "require('./package.json').version").0_x86 &&
        cordova prepare windows &&
        cordova build windows --release --archs="x86 x64" --bundle --win --buildConfig=build/build-tst.json &&
        mv ./platforms/windows/build/windows/release/x64/win10/Upload/$FILENAME_X64/$FILENAME_X64.appx ./App-x64-TST.appx &&
        mv ./platforms/windows/build/windows/release/x86/win10/Upload/$FILENAME_X86/$FILENAME_X86.appx ./App-x86-TST.appx

    - name: Build - PRD - Webpack
      shell: bash
      run: yarn build-prd

    - name: Build - PRD - Cordova
      shell: bash
      env:
        MSBUILDDIR: '/C/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Enterprise/MSBuild/15.0/Bin'
        NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.YARN_TOKEN }}
      run: >
        export FILENAME_X64=CordovaApp.Windows10_$(node -p "require('./package.json').version").0_x64 &&
        export FILENAME_X86=CordovaApp.Windows10_$(node -p "require('./package.json').version").0_x86 &&
        cordova prepare windows &&
        cordova build windows --release --archs="x86 x64" --bundle --win --buildConfig=build/build-prd.json &&
        mv ./platforms/windows/build/windows/release/x64/win10/Upload/$FILENAME_X64/$FILENAME_X64.appx ./App-x64-PRD.appx &&
        mv ./platforms/windows/build/windows/release/x86/win10/Upload/$FILENAME_X86/$FILENAME_X86.appx ./App-x86-PRD.appx

    - name: Create Release
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      with:
        files: |
          App-x64-TST.appx
          App-x86-TST.appx
          App-x64-PRD.appx
          App-x86-PRD.appx

[rvanmil]

Let met know if you need an actual build, I'd be happy to setup a public one.

[kaylangan]

Unpinning this issue since we've put this on hold. We want to do a few more investigations before removing the Windows Server 2016 environment.

The exit criteria for this are:

• Visual Studio 2017 can be used on the Windows Server 2019 environment (may require an install via chocolatey, may be pre-installed, etc.)

If you are able to, please use the Windows Server 2019 environment. And if you're not able to, please let us know why!

[github-actions]

This issue has not had any activity for 45 days and will be closed in 45 days if there continues to be no activity.

[ruudboon]

@kaylangan any updates?

[miketimofeev]

@alepauly @thejoebourneidentity could you update that announcement, please?

[mloskot]

I'm currently evaluating GitHub Actions for several Boost libraries and trying our [b2] build driver with [msvc-14.0], [msvc-14.1], [msvc-14.2] of which only the latests succeeds, all on [windows-latest].

However, https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/master/images/win/Windows2019-Readme.md lists both:

• Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.140
• Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.v141

Is this documentation out of sync with the actual environment on [windows-latest]?
Are all the vc140, vc141 toolsets available on [windows-latest]?

[al-cheb]

Hello, @mloskot
Thank you. I will update documentation for [windows-latest] to support only [msvc-14.2].

[thejoebourneidentity]

Hello everyone. We've decided that we're going to hang onto the Windows-2016 environment a bit longer. I'm going to close this issue and will revisit in the future if we feel like the need for this returns. Thank you all for the your feedback.

[VerdonTrigance]

Hello everyone. We've decided that we're going to hang onto the Windows-2016 environment a bit longer. I'm going to close this issue and will revisit in the future if we feel like the need for this returns. Thank you all for the your feedback.

Hey, what is going on?

##[error]This job was blocked because it uses the hosted agent vs2015-win2012r2 which was permanently removed on April 2nd, 2020.  See https://aka.ms/blocked-hosted-agent for more information.
,##[error]The remote provider was unable to process the request.

Why it has been deleted without providing Sharepoint SDK on a new images?

##[error]SpListItemClaim.cs(1,17): Error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'SharePoint' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

[brandonros]

if this is removed, https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blame/master/README.md#L14 shouldn't it be cleaned up from the README?

[maxim-lobanov]

@brandonros , No, WinServer 2016 is still available: #68 (comment)