Keep artifacts currently deployed on an environment

Problem to solve

Missing artifacts, who got already deleted/expired if they are currently deployed on an environment.

Intended users

Software Developer, Systems Administrator , Product Manager

Further details

The Problem is that artifacts are erased by the lifecycle ("Expiring artifacts") after the configured limit in gitlab ci. If you have to do a redeploy after some days / weeks or do a deployment on a higher stage (e.g. after some testing go to production), there is a huge possibility that the artifact is already deleted.

Proposal

Adding an exclude option for the artifacts expiring (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/README.html#artifactsexpire_in) to keep artifacts, which are currently deployed on an living environment (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/README.html#environment).

For example by a new key in gitlab-ci keepIfDeployed: true in the artifacts section.

Permissions and Security

This task would run by gitlab itself. (Cleanup Task/scheduler)

Documentation

Documentation should include how the key is working and what it mens if it is set to keep the currently deployed artifacts

Testing

There should be a test, that gitlab would not delete a artifact, which is expired by the gitlab definition but currently is deployed

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Links / references