Making a private Github Runner

First see Adding Github Actions to a repo

You will need an on-prem machine and service account to run the runner. Either you or someone from ESCP will need root privilege to configure the service. Please contact escp-ticket@tufts.edu to create these.

Note that Github maintains a matrix of requirements for self-hosted runners. When your OS version goes EOL, your runner will soon follow and may encounter difficulties starting the runner service. You’ll want to ensure that you migrate/upgrade your runner OS ahead of the EOL schedule of your OS. See:https://docs.github.com/en/actions/hosting-your-own-runners/managing-self-hosted-runners/about-self-hosted-runners#linux

After the service account is created, someone with root privileges should do this:

If you are not a member of ESCP, document what you’re doing however you document things.

If you are a member of ESCP, document in the node.yaml file:

# See https://tuftswork.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESPTS/pages/499220519/Making+a+private+Github+Runner
# Git Runner installed as user 'foobaruser' connected to repo [URL of github repo]
#     Note: This runner will die after the OS is EOL. For RHEL 8 this is May 31, 2029
#     Note: This runner will die after the OS is EOL. For RHEL 9 this is May 31, 2032

In your web browser, browse to your repository.
Go to Settings > Actions > Runners > New Self-Hosted Runner.
It will give you a series of commands to paste into the terminal. Instead of pasting them into the terminal, do this:
- Find the line that says "./config.sh --url=..."
- Get the URL and the token.
- Read the URL to ensure it's a specific repository, not the organization or whatever.
- Run this script as root. The script installs the runner, creates the service, and launches the service as the service account. It records the URL of which repository it's working for, in the service account's home directory under "actions-runner-url.txt":
```
# Optionally, if you need your runner to have any custom label, you may specify --labels=
/root/bin/create-gitrunner.sh username GithubRepositoryURL token [--labels=foobarlabel]
```
Browse back to Actions > Runners, and confirm the new runner appears there, with a green Status, and Idle.

Removing a private runner

If you installed a runner as above and need to remove it:

Login as root

cd ${service_user}/actions-runner
./svc.sh uninstall

rm -rf ${service_user}/actions-runner

Look in ${service_user}/actions-runner-url.txt
- Browse to that repository > Settings > Actions > Runners, and force-remove the runner.
Finally rm ${service_user}/actions-runner-url.txt

If you need separate CI/CD runners on Dev & Prod

Install a runner on dev, and another on prod, using --labels=develop and --labels=main or whatever. It is customary to match your branch names.

Create two separate workflows in your repository, like this:

.github/workflows/autodeploy-develop.yml

name: autodeploy-develop
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - develop
jobs:
  autodeploy:
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, develop ]
    steps:
      - working-directory: /path/to/repository
        run: git pull

.github/workflows/autodeploy-main.yml

name: autodeploy-main
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  autodeploy:
    runs-on: [ self-hosted, main ]
    steps:
      - working-directory: /path/to/repository
        run: git pull