Archive Build Runs on Test Observability

Learn how to archive build runs to declutter your test run data.

Over time, the build and test run data in your Test Observability account could become cluttered and noisy due to several reasons. This can result in the rich insights and testing metrics provided by Test Observability becoming unreliable or skewed, providing an inaccurate state of testing in your organization.

Archiving build runs is a feature that allows you to clean up your testing activity so it doesn’t pollute your testing metrics.

Some examples of when you might want to archive build runs from your Test Observability project are:

• Issues with network, environment, or setup, causing entire builds to fail.
• Builds triggered by accident.
• Builds triggered as pipeline test jobs.

If you archive a build run, it becomes read-only. You can’t trigger any action on that build run anymore. Also, Test Observability recalculates Smart Tags and other test metrics, excluding the tests in archived build runs.

How to archive build runs?

Follow these steps to archive build runs:

1. You can trigger archiving a build run in two ways:
   • From Build Runs, navigate to the builds you want to archive, select the checkboxes next to it, and click Archive.
   • From Build Insights, click the kebab menu and click the Archive button.
2. Read through the instructions in the pop-up and type Archive in the textbox.
3. Click Archive build run
   A message ‘Build archive successful’ is displayed after archiving the build run.
   

What happens when you archive a build run?

Test Observability removes archived build runs from the default view inside Build Runs. Archived build runs become non-editable. Test Observability also recalculates all the Smart Tags, metrics, and charts after you archive a build run.

The following table summarizes how the features and metrics in Test Observability handle archived build runs.

How to view an archived build run?

To view an archived build run:

1. From Build Runs, click the Filters button on the top-right corner.
   
2. Switch on the Select archived builds only toggle button.
   
3. Click Apply.
   
   Build Runs displays all the archived builds. Archived builds are prepended with the text [Archived] before the build name.