NPM install always fails to fetch NPM registry in Docker container at random times

Question

We has setted up continuous integration/deployment on a Node.js web application. The problem is, when the pipeline runs tests in a docker container on the CI server (GitLab CI), npm install fails at random times. The container uses node v5.0.0 and npm v3.3.6. The output of the NPM install is:

npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info attempt registry request try #3 at 4:39:19 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm info attempt registry request try #3 at 4:39:19 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm ERR! fetch failed https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm WARN retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm ERR! fetch failed https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm WARN retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info retry fetch attempt 3 at 4:40:27 PM
npm info attempt registry request try #1 at 4:40:27 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm info retry fetch attempt 3 at 4:40:27 PM
npm info attempt registry request try #1 at 4:40:27 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info attempt registry request try #2 at 4:40:45 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm info attempt registry request try #2 at 4:40:45 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm info attempt registry request try #3 at 4:41:53 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm info attempt registry request try #3 at 4:41:53 PM
npm http fetch GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm ERR! fetch failed https://registry.npmjs.org/source-map/-/source-map-0.4.4.tgz
npm ERR! fetch failed https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-2.8.1.tgz
npm ERR! Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v5.0.0
npm ERR! npm  v3.3.6
npm ERR! code ENOTFOUND
npm ERR! errno ENOTFOUND
npm ERR! syscall getaddrinfo

npm ERR! network getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
npm ERR! network This is most likely not a problem with npm itself
npm ERR! network and is related to network connectivity.
npm ERR! network In most cases you are behind a proxy or have bad network settings.
npm ERR! network 
npm ERR! network If you are behind a proxy, please make sure that the
npm ERR! network 'proxy' config is set properly.  See: 'npm help config'

I can see that npm cannot fetch 2 times out of 3, so it seems like a network issue, but the CI server is running on Compute Engine (I have faith in Google and NPM registry connection...). So I just tried to restart my Docker service, but it did not work either.

Any ideas about it ? Thanks in advance !

Edit: There was a wide-scale DNS outage this day (21/10/16), could it be the origin of the problem ? It would also explain why an other build of an other project has failed at the deployment step shortly after. See https://www.wired.com/2016/10/internet-outage-ddos-dns-dyn/

Answer 1

It turned out that there was a wide-scale DNS outage this day that caused my builds to fail. See https://www.wired.com/2016/10/internet-outage-ddos-dns-dyn/

Answer 2

Check whether VPN is on. In most of the cases VPN causes this issue. Disconnect from VPN and then try again it would work.