GitLab Runner

GitLab Runner is an application that works with GitLab CI/CD to run jobs in a pipeline.

Runners can be used to

Automate running of linting and tests
Publish static HTML pages
Compile and tag code releases
Publish Helm repositories

ICE Connect GitLab provides a public runner for all projects. The official GitLab.com also provides public runners but with a limited number of minutes each month. You may want to install a private runner if

Using secret caches or passwords
Performing jobs requiring extra resources
Using official GitLab and you need more minutes than you get for free

Official Helm Chart

Installation

Install the app through Rancher.

Your namespace should have a Container Default Resource Limit set. CPU Reservation 100m and Memory Limit/Reservation 128Mi should suffice. Do not set a CPU Limit.

Configure

GitLab Server

Point this to a running GitLab deployment, e.g.

https://gitlab.ice.ri.se/
https://gitlab.com/

Registration Token

Used by GitLab server to identify new runners.

For project scoped runner: Project ➡ Settings ➡ CI/CD ➡ Runners ➡ Project runners

Screenshot of the GitLab project runner page.

For public runners: Admin Area ➡ CI/CD ➡ Runners ➡ New instance runner

Runner Configuration

This TOML file describes what resources each spawned runner will use.

[[runners]]
  [runners.kubernetes]
    namespace = "{{.Release.Namespace}}"
    image = "ubuntu:16.04"
    cpu_request = "500m"
    memory_limit = "8Gi"
    memory_request = "8Gi"
  [runners.cache]
    Type = "s3"
    Path = "runner"
    Shared = true
    [runners.cache.s3]
      ServerAddress = "s3.ice.ri.se"
      AccessKey = "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
      SecretKey = "YOUR_SECRET_KEY"
      BucketName = "YOUR_BUCKET_NAME"
      BucketLocation = "none"
      Insecure = false
      AuthenticationType = "access-key"

The [runners.cache] section can be deleted if no caching is needed.

Official documentation about Runner Configuration:

Read official documentation about Configuring GitLab Runner using the Helm Chart.

Then read about Using cache with configuration template to use S3 storage.

If you want to use tags for job control, read this.

The page Using the GitLab Runner chart lists the settings you can use in the values.yaml file in the Helm Chart:

Official repositories

GitLab Runner Helm Chart repository

GitLab Runner Service repository

Updating the chart

Find the latest official release tag.

Clone the Rancher catalog repo:

git clone git@gitlab.ice.ri.se:ice/helm/catalog.git
cd catalog/charts/gitlab-runner/latest

Edit the Chart.yaml file to use the latest tag.
Run helm dependency update to download the new charts/gitlab-runner-0.XX.0.tgz
Commit and push. Refresh the catalog in Rancher.

Before updating the app deployment, pause the runner in GitLab, to make sure no jobs are running.