GitLab Runner

GitLab Runner is the open source project that is used to run your jobs and send the results back to GitLab. It is used in conjunction with GitLab CI, the open-source continuous integration service included with GitLab that coordinates the jobs.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

supervisord

Prerequisites

GitLab project

You need to have a project in GitLab that you want to deploy using GitLab Runner.

For further information please refer to the official GitLab Runner docs

Obtain registration token

To create a specific Runner without having admin rights to the GitLab instance, visit the project or group you want to make the Runner work for in GitLab:

Go to Settings > CI/CD to obtain the token

Installation

Download latest version

Use wget to download the latest version of GitLab Runner:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget -O /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64

Make it executable:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ chmod +x /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner

Optional check runner version:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner -v

Create working directory

Create a working directory for the runner:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir /home/$USER/gitlab-runner

Register the runner

Note

You need your registration token you copied above.

This basic setup uses the shell executor. See: GitLab Runner Executors

[isabell@stardust ~]$ /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner register

Configure the supervisord service

Create a shell script (e.g. /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner.sh) that keeps the call for the runner:

#!/bin/bash
/home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner run --working-directory=/home/$USER/gitlab-runner/

Make it executable:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ chmod +x /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner.sh

Create supervisord ini (e.g. /home/$USER/etc/services.d/gitlab-runner.ini:

[program:gitlab-runner]
command=%(ENV_HOME)s/bin/gitlab-runner.sh

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration.

Updates

To update the GitLab Runner the service needs to be stopped. Then you should backup your old executable. Afterwards its common to the installation: You download the current release and make it executable. Afterwards see if it prints the current version and then (re)start your service.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl stop gitlab-runner
gitlab-runner: stopped
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mv /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner-old
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget -O /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-linux-amd64
[isabell@stardust ~]$ chmod +x /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner
[isabell@stardust ~]$ /home/$USER/bin/gitlab-runner -v
Version:      13.6.0
Git revision: ...
(...)
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl start gitlab-runner
gitlab-runner: started

Now check in your GitLab instance if the runner runs normally by triggering a job or pipeline. If you encounter problems, you can return to your old runner by stopping the service, renaming the old executable back to gitlab-runner and (re)start the service.

Tested with GitLab Runner 13.6.0, Uberspace 7.8.0.0

Written by: Michael Stötzer <hallo@bytekeks.de>