[macOS] Add MacOS Monterey for Azure Pipelines & GitHub Actions Hosted agents

[nekrich]

Hi!

Just asking if there any ETA or even plans for macOS 12.0 Monterey beta support for MS-hosted agents?

I'm asking early, cause it's been more than a year since the first Big Sur beta release and more than half of the year since the first production release, and MS-hosted agents with Big Sur are delivered to the public yet (#2072). And we are afraid to have with the same outdated env one year later.

Thank you.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @nekrich, yes, we definitely have these plans, and start prepping and planning it now to be in a better shape by the time of release.

[kneekey23]

is there a timeline as to when MacOS Monterey will be available on Github Actions?

[PSchmiedmayer]

Hi @AlenaSviridenko , first of all thanks for all the work to get macOS 11 running and providing us access to the macOS 11 preview. Great to hear that you already have plans to support macOS 12 by the time of release!

Is there any possibility that we can have every early access to the macOS 12 beta while you test using macOS 12 in combination with GitHub Actions? We are currently working on a server-side Swift project over at the Apodini organization as part of a research project and we want to use the new async/await Swift features in our project and run the tests on macOS machines using GitHub Actions. As documented in the Swift forums and the Apple developer documentation and WWDC videos async/await won't be available for older OS version such as macOS 11 which blocks us from testing and therefore merging the branches using async/await as they need to be tested on macOS 12 machines.

We would be grateful if you could consider providing a very early access to macOS 12 runners and we would be happy to also help in reporting bugs or problems around the macOS 12 setup if we encounter any.

[AlenaSviridenko]

I'll keep this issue for tracking and escalate your request. Thank you.

[PSchmiedmayer]

Thanks a lot @AlenaSviridenko 🚀

[simonbuerger]

Just a reminder that this will be generally available within as little as 2 months from now. The fact we still don't have Big Sur agents is not filling me with confidence

[jahmai-ca]

Kindly asking for an update thank you!

[Steve-Glass]

Kindly asking for an update thank you!

👋 @jahmai-ca - We plan to open a public beta in late 2021. The resource pool will be limited and the docs will indicate the OS is not ready for production loads.

[jahmai-ca]

@Steve-Glass Thanks for the update. So it sounds like this VM won't be available as a production workload until sometime in 2022? This is a little disheartening. There are some requirements coming up from Apple around supporting targetting iOS 15 in the apps to address new iPad visual metrics, which means a new XCode upgrade, which means a new OS Upgrade. Can we rely on Azure DevOps to keep up with this kinds of requirements?

[Brett-Best]

For macOS 11 we had separate issues for Github Actions and Azure Pipelines, as the timelines were different. Perhaps the title of this issue could be updated to reflect it will track both Github Actions and Azure Pipelines @al-cheb?

Can we also have an update on the expected timeframe for macOS 12 GitHub action runners? In the macOS 11 issue it was mentioned it was on schedule which would be no later than next week.

[miketimofeev]

@nekrich I have updated the title if you don't mind as we wouldn't like to separate timelines for AzDO & GH Actions this time. @Brett-Best as @Steve-Glass mentioned in this comment — the expected timeframe is late 2021

[hakonk]

@Steve-Glass Hi! Any news on the timeline for supporting Mac OS 12? Should we fill out a form in order to request access as we did with Mac OS 11? Thanks 🙂

[diogot]

Hi, about a third of December is behind us and we have Hollidays in two weeks, should we still expect to have macOS 12 agents available this year?

[Steve-Glass]

@Steve-Glass Hi! Any news on the timeline for supporting Mac OS 12? Should we fill out a form in order to request access as we did with Mac OS 11? Thanks 🙂

👋 My apologies for the delayed response! We originally had this planned for the end of 2021, but the new target timeframe is early 2022. It will be a closed beta and a process will be established to request access (similar to the macOS 11). I'll be posting updates in the new year as I have more information. Thank you, all for your patience!

cc: @diogot

[MP91]

@Steve-Glass any updates on this one? Over a month passed away again...

[backslash-f]

It will be a closed beta and a process will be established to request access (similar to the macOS 11).

@Steve-Glass Could you please add me to the "access request list"?

My company started using the new async/await APIs, and the absence of macOS 12 breaks our current GitHub CI setup. These delays make some of the team members to want to get back to CircleCI, which would suck. Please hurry. PLEASE 🙏🏻

[DamianMehers]

Exactly my situation - a macOS app using async/await - I can build, but I can't run my unit tests.

[4brunu]

Xcode 13.3 Beta 1 was release on Thursday and it also requires macOS 12.

[Brett-Best]

A similar situation occurred last year with Xcode 12.5. The macOS 11 runners were not available for an extended period of time even after Xcode 12.5 was released publicly.

Despite assurances that the situation would be better for macOS 12 on multiple occasions - it does appear so far that this is not the case.

It would be nice if someone from GitHub could chime in with a realistic expectancy for macOS 12 general public availability. Why is it taking so long?

[zigaspica]

Any updates on this one? Thanks! @AlenaSviridenko @Steve-Glass

[bielikb]

Xcode 13.3 beta 2 is already out, the Xcode 13.3 GM release is behind the doors.

[neetugupta8]

Any update on this

[Brett-Best]

With Apple announcing the March 8 'Peek Performance' Event, it’s likely we will see the launch of Xcode 13.3 within the next 1-2 weeks which requires macOS 12 as previously warned.

The last update from someone within GitHub was here https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/issues/3649#issuecomment-995862148 on the 17th Dec 2021, the lack of updates from GitHub is extremely disappointing.

I can see a commit referencing Xcode 13.3b1 https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/commit/e5d8f5af5c5dfef051432b3cd33d5078331cc1b5 by @mikhailkoliada.

If an update isn’t provided by GitHub by the time the final version of Xcode 13.3 is released I’ll make a new issue with a tool request.

[jahmai-ca]

Well it's hard to not to feel ignored here. The lack of action from the Github/Devops pipelines team now presents a risk to our development. Could we please get a definitive update on progress and plans? The only control I have for this risk is to move our Xamarin development off hosted agents.

[Brett-Best]

Although not updated for awhile Actions: macOS 12 (Monterey) on GitHub-hosted runners (Private Beta) has a status of Q1 2022 – Jan-Mar

[Steve-Glass]

👋 Hi everyone!

We are preparing to open up the macOS 12 private beta within the next two weeks! I will update this issue with instructions for sign-up once they are available.

[calebcartwright]

We are preparing to open up the macOS 12 private beta within the next two weeks

Is this going to be for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or both?

[neoswallow]

If it's same as macOS-11 situation, this is only for GitHub Actions. Although both services uses same image, rollout seems to be independent and Azure Pipelines is usually behind GitHub Actions in terms of the rollout schedule. I had to signup for both services separately to use the VM on both services. If I remember correctly, private beta schedule was similar but public rollout differed with Azure rolled out much later than GitHub.

[calebcartwright]

Yes @neoswallow, my recollection of the last go round with this is similar to yours, and this is why I asked the clarifying question of @Steve-Glass.

Would be great to get specific, authoritative information from GitHub and/or Microsoft for both platforms for any and all private/public betas so that teams can plan accordingly

[Steve-Glass]

Is this going to be for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or both?

For GitHub Actions.

Would be great to get specific, authoritative information from GitHub and/or Microsoft for both platforms for any and all private/public betas so that teams can plan accordingly

This is great feedback. I'll take this back to the team and see what we can do about publicizing some of the image lifecycle documentation for expectation setting on both sides.

[rhummelmose]

X-Code 13.3 RC is out today. With the new swift concurrency features apps have to be built with this new version to work properly on iOS 15.4+. Can I be admitted into this beta please?

[Brett-Best]

@rhummelmose have you got any link(s) to the issues on iOS 15.4 with Xcode 13.2.1 compiled apps with swift concurrency?

[rhummelmose]

I don't have an official issue to point to but I know it to be a fact for one of my own apps. It works if built with 13.3 beta but not with 13.2. The application crashes at startup.

[svenmuennich]

@rhummelmose does your app use back-deployed Swift-Concurrency for iOS 13 and iOS 14 while having a deployment target that is even lower (e.g. iOS 12). Xcode 13.2 has a bug that leads to crashes in this scenario. From the Xcode 13.3 release notes:

Resolved Issues

• Apps that use back-deployed Swift Concurrency on operating systems prior to macOS 10.15, iOS 13, tvOS 13, or watchOS 6 no longer crash on launch. (87789769)

This issue has come up in quite a few popular libraries that added support for async/await while keeping their deployment targets < iOS 13, like RxSwift (see https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxSwift/issues/2393).

[rhummelmose]

Deployment target here is set to iOS 15. Not sure if it could be cause by a package I'm using?

[jarrodrobins]

With the release of Xcode 13.3 requiring Monterey, we've now got the second year running of Github not reading the very predictable and obvious tea leaves (ie, March every year), perhaps GitHub could consider a) unblocking the entire iOS and macOS development community in a timely fashion this year and b) reducing the cost of macOS runners while we're stuck on outdated development tools? It costs 10x the Linux runners.

I kid, I kid. But it's a nice idea, right?

I know none of this is the individual fault of any GitHub developer and I hesitate to be that guy but come on. GitHub charges through the nose and we're back in this situation AGAIN? Hurry up! Betas should have happened months ago. We can't use the latest development tools and yet again there's no upfront information on timelines. Good thing Apple just released the Mac Studios, I think it's time to drop you guys and set up a build box in the office again.

[Steve-Glass]

👋 Hi everyone!

We are preparing to open up the macOS 12 private beta within the next two weeks! I will update this issue with instructions for sign-up once they are available.

Hi all!

Please complete this form In order to request access to the macOS 12 private beta. Once your request has been reviewed, we'll send an email confirming access has been provided with instructions for how to utilize the image in your workflows.

[4brunu]

You need permission
This form can only be viewed by users in the owner's organization.
Try contacting the owner of the form if you think this is a mistake. [Learn More.](https://support.google.com/docs/?p=forms_settings)

This is what the form shows

[Steve-Glass]

You need permission
This form can only be viewed by users in the owner's organization.
Try contacting the owner of the form if you think this is a mistake. [Learn More.](https://support.google.com/docs/?p=forms_settings)

This is what the form shows

@4brunu Thanks for the heads up! Permissions have been updated.

[andreineculau]

Works now. For me at least

[diogot]

Do this form also applies for Azure?

[Steve-Glass]

Do this form also applies for Azure?

This only applies to GitHub Actions.

https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/issues/3649#issuecomment-1061812520

[4brunu]

Can we expect another form for Azure?

[diogot]

Thanks @Steve-Glass, and were should we ask/follow the same for Azure?

[richieshilton]

Hi all!

Please complete this form In order to request access to the macOS 12 private beta. Once your request has been reviewed, we'll send an email confirming access has been provided with instructions for how to utilize the image in your workflows.

Thanks for this.

Can you please also respond to Jarrod's concern about why this beta is so delayed with respect to Apple's release cycle, and if this will be beta tested earlier in future years? After last years delays supporting Big Sur, I would have expected GitHub to be ahead of it this year.

[abasore]

@Steve-Glass can we get an estimate on when the macOS 12 private beta will be available for Azure?

[aaroncrespo]

@Steve-Glass is there a similar form/program for accessing a macOS 12 beta on Azure?

[Steve-Glass]

Can we expect another form for Azure? @aaroncrespo @abasore @4brunu @diogot

I don't have a date at this point in time but understand the urgency of making this OS version available for Azure as well. I will work with my parters to get an update on when Azure macOS runners will be available.

[Steve-Glass]

Can you please also respond to Jarrod's concern about why this beta is so delayed with respect to Apple's release cycle, and if this will be beta tested earlier in future years? @richieshilton

A big initiative for our mac group is greatly decreasing our time to market for these new images. We understand that when new images come out, we need to provide them quickly. It is our goal to get them out earlier in future OS versions. Stay tuned in over the next few months and you'll see us get better here.

[tcldr]

@Steve-Glass I'm still yet to receive instructions. Is there a backlog on the form requests being reviewed?