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Performance of GitHub-hosted macOS runner #1336
Description
Associated community ticket: https://github.community/t/macos-performance/125281
The customer setup a matrix in his workflow to run the same job on different OSs (ubuntu-latest and macos-latest).
See the workflow here: https://github.com/gitoleg/bap/actions/runs/187608792/workflow
On some steps in the job, the macOS runner takes far more longer time than the Linux runner (even more than 2 times) to run the steps.
Earlier, I also noticed that some users have reported similar problems. Especially some users who need to pay for runners, they complained that the performance of GitHub-hosted macOS runner is slower and they have to pay more.
As we have known, the billing per-minute for macOS runner is 10 times that for Linux runner.
Activity
maxim-lobanov commentedon Jul 31, 2020
Hello @gitoleg,
Could you please clarify: did you notice any macOS performance issues recently or they always existed?
We are working on some infrastructure changes related to macOS so we need to understand if it could be related
gitoleg commentedon Jul 31, 2020
Hello @maxim-lobanov,
We use Github Actions only for 2 months, maybe even less. And I observe the issue in question during all this time.
gitoleg commentedon Jul 31, 2020
@maxim-lobanov,
Maybe it will help somehow. This run was even worse. The whole workflow takes 1 hour on Ubuntu and more than 5 on macOS!
https://github.com/gitoleg/bap/actions/runs/188588845
MaksimZhukov commentedon Aug 25, 2020
Hello @gitoleg ! Sorry for the late reply!
It is expected that MacOS performance is lower than Ubuntu (approximately 20 - 30%), but your build time is really longer than expected. Most likely, it is related to known issue with infrastructure but we can't provide ETA right now.
We will keep this issue open until it is resolved. Thank you for your patience! We will keep you informed!
gitoleg commentedon Aug 25, 2020
@MaksimZhukov Thanks!
72 remaining items
mekwall commentedon Oct 17, 2022
Why is this closed when it is still an issue? We are forced to use Bitrise for building our iOS app because it takes more than 3 times longer on GitHub-hosted macOS runners. A build that takes 20 minutes on Bitrise takes over an hour on a GitHub-hosted macOS runner. It just isn't feasible or cost-effective. Please reopen and investigate.
kopax-polyconseil commentedon Nov 8, 2022
Hello, we are stuck trying to run iOS-Simulateur with appium end 2 end test using this runner. Did anyone succeed ?
I am able only using a self hosted runner, any hint can be appreciated!
VOvchinnikov commentedon Nov 9, 2022
Our pure python build takes ~13...15 minutes to run on
ubuntu-latestrunner, but 40+ minutes onmacos-latestrunner - it would be nice if the issue was actually re-opened as not solved.The run does not use network, it is purely local test run without any network access necessary (addressing the hypothesis, that it's related to downloads). So this impact comes from the really poor performance of the runner itself.
sidekick-eimantas commentedon Nov 10, 2022
Control (ubuntu-22.04):
Macos 12:
Macos 11:
Why is this closed if this is still not solved?
mfkrause commentedon Feb 16, 2023
+1. Larger (and probably more expensive) macOS runners won't resolve the underlying problem. There is absolutely no reason for these VMs being up 500% to 1000% slower when they have double the RAM and a full virtual core more than their Linux counterparts.
Adding together the pricing and the performance, macOS runners currently run at about 50-100x the pricing of a Linux runner. Definitely not paying this longterm and if you think we're going to pay even more for a larger macOS runner just so we can maybe get to the performance level of a base Ubuntu runner, you must be out of your mind. We'll buy three M2 Pro Minis at that rate, host the runner ourselves and will save money in the process.
jozefizso commentedon Jun 20, 2023
We also have performance issues with macOS runners.
MacBook Pro Quad-Core: 60 seconds to build our project
MacBook Pro M2 Pro: 14 seconds
GitHub macOS 12 runner: 9 minutes
With the current pricing model for macOS runners this makes our builds super overpriced.
ilia-shipitsin commentedon Jun 20, 2023
@jozefizso , can I ask to open an issue on https://support.github.com ?
this particular issue tracker is related to image generation (i.e. software included and so on), we cannot help much with operations
sidekick-eimantas commentedon Jun 20, 2023
I've had an open issue since November of last year regarding this problem
It is clear GitHub are unable to fix this problem and are trying to sweep it under a rug, lest MacOS runners be labeled by the community as unusable
For those with access, and who can afford them - large macos runners do not seem to have this problem
jozefizso commentedon Jun 20, 2023
Great, we are waiting a year for macOS 13 build machine.
synth commentedon Aug 9, 2023
This should not be closed. We are also experiencing insanely slow performance of macOS runners. This is one issue among many that result in extremely degraded trust in Github, sadly.
Ziao commentedon Aug 9, 2023
No official answer or any form of resolution, and the issue is closed? This is really uncool, Github..
aviramha commentedon Aug 24, 2023
This affects us as well.
Lessica commentedon Sep 1, 2023
Debugging my first iOS app CI script and fail, over 40 times. 3x slower than my M1 Pro MacBook Pro but $100 gone. Not affordable, at all.
Attempt to fix performance issue on CI runners
Attempt to fix performance issue on CI runners