azure devops - is there a way to prevent a scheduled pipeline to execute again when a first execution hasnt ended?

Question

I have a pipeline that executes every hour and sometimes the execution takes more than an hour and the other execution starts, is there a way to prevent this? and for example the new execution to get queued?

thank you for all the help

Answer 1

It seems you have multiple build agents. Assuming you are using self-hosted build agents, you could specify certain demands of the agent to use only one agent. In this way, if the agent is not free, the build will keep waiting. To use a particular agent, add a demand of Agent.Name equals agentname, check the screenshot below. Agent name can be found in capabilities of the agent.

pool:
  name: MyPool
  demands:
  - myCustomCapability   # check for existence of capability
  - agent.name -equals agentname  # check for specific string in capability

Another way is triggering the pipeline via REST api and through the PowerShell task. You could use the REST API Builds - List to get the detailed build info and check the latest build status:

https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/build/builds?definitions={definitions}&api-version=6.0

In the YAML, we could add a powershell task to get the build status, like:

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
   targetType : inline
   script: |
     $url = "https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/build/builds?definitions={definitionID}&api-version=6.0"
     $connectionToken="Your PAT Here"
     $base64AuthInfo= [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$($connectionToken)"))

       $buildPipeline= Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers @{authorization = "Basic $base64AuthInfo"} -Method Get


       $BuildStatus= $buildPipeline.value.status | Select-Object -first 1


       Write-Host This is Build Status: $BuildStatus

This list all the build status for the specify definitions, then use Select-Object -first 1 to get the latest build status. If the status is completed, then queue the build. If the status is not completed, do not queue the build.