When configuring a new GitLab account on GitLab.com you would get access to a 30-day GitLab Ultimate trial and would be required to validate your account with a credit card for using free minutes of GitLab Runner.
For those who are privacy concerned, you can install GitLab Runner on a infrastructure you own or manage. It can be installed:
- In a container, using Docker, Kubernetes or OpenShift.
- By downloading a binary manually and installing it on GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows or FreeBSD.
- By using a repository for rmp/deb packages.
Run GitLab Runner in a container
Before installing GitLab Runner, make sure Docker is up and running on your system. On GNU/Linux follow the instructions in the documentation or go directly to the section that covers the instructions for your distro:
Don't forget to follow post-installation steps.
Install the Docker image and start the container
For installing the Docker image, create a Docker volume:
docker volume create gitlab-runner-config
Start the GitLab Runner container:
docker run -d --name gitlab-runner --restart always \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v gitlab-runner-config:/etc/gitlab-runner \
gitlab/gitlab-runner:latest
Register your runner
Before using your recently installed GitLab Runner, you have to register it.
Go to the settings of a GitLab project that you want to use GitLab Runner for and obtain the registration token. In your GitLab repository, go to Settings --> CI/CD and expand the Runners section. From the Specific runners section, copy the registration token. Don't forget to disable Shared runners.
Now from the terminal, run the following command:
docker run --rm -it -v gitlab-runner-config:/etc/gitlab-runner gitlab/gitlab-runner:latest register
It will ask you for the following information:
- Enter the GitLab instance URL: https://gitlab.com/
- Enter the registration token: The one you copied before
- Enter a description for the runner: What you're planning to use it for
- Enter tags for the runner: Tags are comma separated and assign manually to jobs in your CI/CD pipelines. You can edit them later
- Enter optional maintenance note for the runner.
- Enter an executor: docker
- Enter the default Docker image: ruby:2.7. Default image to use when not defined in your .gitlab-ci.yml file.
If you don't assign tags to the jobs in your CI/CD pipeline, the GitLab Runner won't start as it is configured by default to pick jobs that have any of the tags specified in the configuration.
For changing this behavior and let the GitLab Runner pick jobs without tags, expand the Runners section from Settings --> CI/CD and click the edit button in the runner you want to modify from the Available specific runners section. Then check the following option: Indicates whether this runner can pick jobs without tags.
By default runners are configured to use them only with a specific project, If you want other projects in your account to use this runner, uncheck the option: When a runner is locked, it cannot be assigned to other projects. In other projects, expand the Runners section from Settings --> CI/CD, go to the Available specific runners and click on Enable for this project to choose the runner you want use from the available ones.
Now you're ready to use GitLab CI and configure your CI/CD pipelines using your own GitLab Runner.
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