How do I reduce the time for npm install across multiple TeamCity builds?

Question

Problem

• We have a large number of build configurations in TeamCity that deal with npm installs of many of the same packages
• Because we need to enforce clean checkouts for a lot of our builds (e.g. all PRs), the node_modules folder within a given build will never be re-used
• The npm install portion of our build takes 4 minutes, which is around 40% of the time for a given build.
• Across hundreds of builds a day on 10 agents, this is a number worth reducing.

Question

What is the recommended way to centralize / re-use the node_modules folder between builds given our stack?

Technology Stack

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Node LTS 4.x
• TeamCity 9.x

What We've Tried

• Use npm cache -- This happens by default, so at least it's not like we're downloading packages from the internet every time.
• Symlinking node_modules to a common directory -- This approach worked (went from minutes to seconds) but unfortunately some gulp/grunt tasks fail when dealing with symlinks on Windows. Womp womp.

Other Approaches We're Trying

• Create a node_modules folder further up the hierarchy: Not sure, but it seems like node may hierarchically search for the node_modules folder. In that case, creating a node_modules folder in a parent directory may solve the issue.
• Use the NODE_PATH environment variable -- Not sure if setting this will do something different similar to the point above and provide a common node_modules folder when one is not found in one of our builds.
• Use Powershell to Move-Item back & forth between a backup directory: If we have to hack it, it might be worth it to use a backup directory per project ID and use Move-Item, which should update partition links rather than copying files, at least. That approach is outlined on this blog post.

Answer 1

What you have been doing is the best practice in the industry. I dont know if u can make it any better with npm.

have u tried yarn instead https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn there is a way to use along with docker too https://hackernoon.com/using-yarn-with-docker-c116ad289d56#.8bhk0tkz4