Failed to download action while trying to run checkout step

[ohsayan]

There's this weird error that I'm getting while running builds on my repo:

2020-10-28T04:49:17.2307460Z ##[section]Starting: Request a runner to run this job
2020-10-28T04:49:17.4748667Z Can't find any online and idle self-hosted runner in current repository that matches the required labels: 'windows-latest'
2020-10-28T04:49:17.4748782Z Can't find any online and idle self-hosted runner in current repository's account/organization that matches the required labels: 'windows-latest'
2020-10-28T04:49:17.4748955Z Found online and idle hosted runner in current repository's account/organization that matches the required labels: 'windows-latest'
2020-10-28T04:49:17.6211970Z ##[section]Finishing: Request a runner to run this job
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5206012Z Current runner version: '2.273.5'
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5339700Z ##[group]Operating System
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5340612Z Microsoft Windows Server 2019
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5340992Z 10.0.17763
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5341365Z Datacenter
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5341721Z ##[endgroup]
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5342160Z ##[group]Virtual Environment
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5342792Z Environment: windows-2019
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5343182Z Version: 20201021.0
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5343954Z Included Software: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/win19/20201021.0/images/win/Windows2019-Readme.md
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5344722Z ##[endgroup]
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5346015Z Prepare workflow directory
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5722514Z Prepare all required actions
2020-10-28T04:50:58.5730877Z Getting action download info
2020-10-28T04:50:58.8130781Z Download action repository 'actions/checkout@v2'
2020-10-28T04:51:19.8653010Z ##[warning]Failed to download action 'https://api.github.com/repos/actions/checkout/zipball/a81bbbf8298c0fa03ea29cdc473d45769f953675'. Error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
2020-10-28T04:51:19.8661076Z ##[warning]Back off 22.323 seconds before retry.
2020-10-28T04:52:03.2091841Z ##[warning]Failed to download action 'https://api.github.com/repos/actions/checkout/zipball/a81bbbf8298c0fa03ea29cdc473d45769f953675'. Error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
2020-10-28T04:52:03.2097763Z ##[warning]Back off 20.865 seconds before retry.
2020-10-28T04:52:45.1558895Z ##[error]A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

[ohsayan]

Here's a link to the build: Run 1318819557

[pietroalbini]

Earlier today we started seeing this too in the CI of the Rust compiler:

• https://github.com/rust-lang-ci/rust/runs/1354000264
• https://github.com/rust-lang-ci/rust/runs/1352438239
• https://github.com/rust-lang-ci/rust/runs/1353148003
• https://github.com/rust-lang-ci/rust/runs/1354742853
• https://github.com/rust-lang-ci/rust/runs/1354742853 (2020-11-04 10:23 UTC)

A thing I noted is all the failures happened on Windows builders, similar to ohsayan's report.

[ohsayan]

Apparently there isn't any way to reproduce this (I mean an MVCE). I'm planning to run a build on a self-hosted runner to see if I can repro it somehow.

This is completely spurious and the build passes when you re-run it. Since I'm assuming GH actions utilizes Azure for cloud builds, reading this document might throw some light on this otherwise arcane issue.

---

The trend that I can however observe is that this has been occurring on Windows runners specifically.

[ChillarAnand]

I have noticed similar issues on a private repo. However, on re-running these jobs are succeeding.