Managed Buildbarn
Aspect leverages Buildbarn’s proven remote cache and execution—trusted by Apple developers—to boost Bazel performance.
Remote Cache
Every Workflows deployment includes a remote cache compliant with the Bazel Remote Execution Protocol v2. This means that the CI runners instantiated by Workflows are able to take advantage of previous work done, leading to significantly faster warm builds.
How Remote Caching Works
When Bazel cannot find build artifacts locally, it checks a configured remote cache before triggering a potentially expensive rebuild. If the artifact is available, it's downloaded and used directly. If not, Bazel proceeds with the local build as usual—and then uploads the resulting artifact to the remote cache. This way, future builds can avoid redundant work by retrieving the artifact instead of rebuilding it.
Faster CI/CD Builds
Remote caching shines in environments with repeated actions across builds, where fetching artifacts is faster and more efficient than rebuilding them. Most build graph artifacts benefit from this, especially when network latency is low. In nearly all CI/CD setups, enabling remote caching significantly reduces build times.
Build Without the Bytes
Aspect’s Managed Buildbarn supports Bazel’s Build without the Bytes (BwoB) feature. Instead of downloading all artifacts in the build graph, Bazel fetches only those strictly required to complete the build—typically just the leaf nodes. This dramatically improves both cache performance and overall build efficiency.
Developer-Facing Cache
For teams looking to accelerate local development, Aspect can configure an externally accessible remote cache. This centralized cache speeds up developer builds while respecting access controls. Authentication is handled via your SSO provider using OIDC/OAuth, with fine-grained authorization options—like read-only access for end-users—to maintain security and control.
Remote Build Execution
Remote build execution (RBE) is available with minimal additional configuration needed. This allows for the creation of specially tailored runners for individual jobs, configured throughout the build tree. This also means that jobs can be parallelized effectively, where pending actions can unblock many parallel runners at once without repeated work.
How RBE Works
Bazel comes with a sophisticated scheduler that maximizes parallel execution based on available resources. RBE extends this capability by enabling remote execution on additional machines.
Key Benefits of RBE
Increased Parallelism: Offload tasks to multiple remote machines, accelerating build times.
Scalability: Scale your build processes by adding more remote workers as needed.
Optimized Resources: Choose instance types to match your Bazel actions, ensuring efficient and cost-effective builds.
Is RBE Right for Your Team?
While RBE offers powerful benefits, it's not always the first solution for speeding up builds. Aspect focuses on minimizing execution through highly incremental builds, ensuring that only necessary actions are executed, whether locally or remotely. However, for large codebases with complex build graphs, RBE can be a game-changer.
As a result, cost can be effectively managed by only provisioning large workers for large actions, which can then be spun down more readily while the smaller actions continue on smaller, less powerful workers.
Supercharge Your Bazel Migration with Expert Help
Get more out of Bazel—faster. Aspect’s Professional Services are designed to unblock migrations, boost build performance, and support your team with expert guidance every step of the way. Whether you're just getting started or scaling Bazel across a large org, we’ve got a solution that fits.
