NG Build fails in Azure Pipelines with NPM error 134 - node.js

Question

Approx 50% of my hosted builds are failing with npm error 134. I am building the same commit with the same build definition using hosted vs2017. I am building an Angular Application using the Angular CLI. The npm task calls 'run build' which is defined as "ng build --prod" in my package.json. Both a successful build and failed build are using npm task version 1.1.49 and npm verion 6.8. This leads me to believe it is something related to the hosted environment. The hosted vs2017 and vs2019 agents fail almost all of the time. While the windows container agent fails about 50% of the time.
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 134
npm ERR! my-app#1.0.0 build: `ng build --prod`
npm ERR! Exit status 134
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the my-app#1.0.0 build script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! C:\npm\cache\_logs\TimeStampHere-debug.log
Found npm debug log, make sure the path matches with the one in npm's output: C:\npm\cache\_logs\TimeStampHere-debug.log
0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
1 verbose cli 'C:\\npm\\prefix\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js',
1 verbose cli 'run',
1 verbose cli 'build' ]
2 info using npm#6.8.0
3 info using node#v10.15.2
4 verbose run-script [ 'prebuild', 'build', 'postbuild' ]
5 info lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~prebuild: my-app#1.0.0
6 info lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: my-app#1.0.0
7 verbose lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
8 verbose lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: PATH: C:\npm\prefix\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\node-gyp-bin;d:\a\1\s\ngmyapp\node_modules\.bin;C:\agents\2.149.2\externals\git\cmd;C:/hostedtoolcache/windows/Python/3.6.8/x64;C:/hostedtoolcache/windows/Python/3.6.8/x64/Scripts;C:\vcpkg;C:\cf-cli;C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\;C:\Program Files\Boost\1.69.0;C:\Users\VssAdministrator\.dotnet\tools;C:\Program Files\dotnet;C:\mysql-5.7.21-winx64\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\zulu-8-azure-jdk_8.36.0.1-8.0.202-win_x64\bin;C:\npm\prefix;C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Ruby\2.5.0\x64\bin;C:\Go1.11.5\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\wbin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\Scripts;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64;C:\Program Files\Microsoft MPI\Bin\;C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\ProgramData\Chocolatey\bin;C:\Program Files\Docker;C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6\;C:\Program Files\dotnet\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\150\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Windows Performance Toolkit\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Service Fabric\bin\Fabric\Fabric.Code;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Service Fabric\Tools\ServiceFabricLocalClusterManager;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;c:\tools\php;C:\Program Files (x86)\Subversion\bin;C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\Program Files\CMake\bin;C:\Program Files\Mercurial;C:\Strawberry\c\bin;C:\Strawberry\perl\site\bin;C:\Strawberry\perl\bin;C:\Program Files\OpenSSL\bin;C:\Users\VssAdministrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;
9 verbose lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: CWD: d:\a\1\s\ngmyapp
10 silly lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: Args: [ '/d /s /c', 'ng build --prod' ]
11 silly lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: Returned: code: 134 signal: null
12 info lifecycle my-app#1.0.0~build: Failed to exec build script
13 verbose stack Error: my-app#1.0.0 build: `ng build --prod`
13 verbose stack Exit status 134
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (C:\npm\prefix\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\index.js:301:16)
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:189:13)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (C:\npm\prefix\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\lib\spawn.js:55:14)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:189:13)
13 verbose stack at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:970:16)
13 verbose stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:259:5)
14 verbose pkgid my-app#1.0.0
15 verbose cwd d:\a\1\s\myapp
16 verbose Windows_NT 10.0.14393
17 verbose argv "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\npm\\prefix\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "run" "build"
18 verbose node v10.15.2
19 verbose npm v6.8.0
20 error code ELIFECYCLE
21 error errno 134
22 error my-app#1.0.0 build: `ng build --prod`
22 error Exit status 134
23 error Failed at the my-app#1.0.0 build script.
23 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
24 verbose exit [ 134, true ]
##[error]Error: Npm failed with return code: 134
##[section]Finishing: npm build
EDIT: I have configured a build agent on premise and I am not running into the issue.

Answer 1

It seems the root of issue is with node.js running out of memory.
https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/issues/13734
The suggested work around is to change a environment variable:
node --max_old_space_size=8192 node_modules/#angular/cli/bin/ng build --prod

Answer 2

In our case we use Jenkins build server but get the same error. I solved it by swithing the logging of the build progress off with the progress=false option.
Our SPA is hosted in a Visual Studio project so the option is added to the build command in the *.csproj file
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build -- --prod --progress=false" />
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build:ssr -- --prod --progress=false" Condition=" '$(BuildServerSideRenderer)' == 'true' " />