Resolve errors for job size exceeded

  • Article

This article describes how to resolve the JobSizeExceededException and DeploymentJobSizeExceededException errors.

Symptom

When deploying a template, you receive an error stating the deployment has exceeded limits.

Cause

You get this error when the deployment exceeds one of the allowed limits. Typically, you see this error when either your template or the job that runs the deployment is too large.

The deployment job can't exceed 1 MB. The job includes metadata about the request. For large templates, the metadata combined with the template can exceed the allowed size for a job.

The template can't exceed 4 MB. The 4-MB limit applies to the final state of the template after it has been expanded for resource definitions that use copy to create many instances. The final state also includes the resolved values for variables and parameters.

Other limits for the template are:

  • 256 parameters
  • 256 variables
  • 800 resources (including copy count)
  • 64 output values
  • 24,576 characters in a template expression

When using copy loops to deploy resource, do not use the loop name as a dependency:

dependsOn: [ "nicLoop" ]

Instead, use the instance of the resource from the loop that you need to depend on. For example:

dependsOn: [
    "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', concat('nic-', copyIndex()))]"
]

Solution 1 - Simplify template

Your first option is to simplify the template. This option works when your template deploys lots of different resource types. Consider dividing the template into linked templates. Divide your resource types into logical groups and add a linked template for each group. For example, if you need to deploy lots of networking resources, you can move those resources to a linked template.

You can set other resources as dependent on the linked template, and get values from the output of the linked template.

Solution 2 - Reduce name size

Try to shorten the length of the names you use for parameters, variables, and outputs. When these values are repeated through copy loops, a large name gets multiplied many times.