425 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
425 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: reference
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---
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# Configuring GitLab Runners
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In GitLab CI, Runners run the code defined in [`.gitlab-ci.yml`](../yaml/README.md).
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They are isolated (virtual) machines that pick up jobs through the coordinator
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API of GitLab CI.
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A Runner can be specific to a certain project or serve any project
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in GitLab CI. A Runner that serves all projects is called a shared Runner.
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Ideally, the GitLab Runner should not be installed on the same machine as GitLab.
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Read the [requirements documentation](../../install/requirements.md#gitlab-runner)
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for more information.
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## Shared, specific and group Runners
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After [installing the Runner][install], you can either register it as shared or
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specific. You can only register a shared Runner if you have admin access to
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the GitLab instance. The main differences between a shared and a specific Runner
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are:
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- **Shared Runners** are useful for jobs that have similar requirements,
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between multiple projects. Rather than having multiple Runners idling for
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many projects, you can have a single or a small number of Runners that handle
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multiple projects. This makes it easier to maintain and update them.
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Shared Runners process jobs using a [fair usage queue](#how-shared-runners-pick-jobs).
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In contrast to specific Runners that use a FIFO queue, this prevents
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cases where projects create hundreds of jobs which can lead to eating all
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available shared Runners resources.
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- **Specific Runners** are useful for jobs that have special requirements or for
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projects with a specific demand. If a job has certain requirements, you can set
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up the specific Runner with this in mind, while not having to do this for all
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Runners. For example, if you want to deploy a certain project, you can set up
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a specific Runner to have the right credentials for this. The [usage of tags](#using-tags)
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may be useful in this case. Specific Runners process jobs using a [FIFO] queue.
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- **Group Runners** are useful when you have multiple projects under one group
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and would like all projects to have access to a set of Runners. Group Runners
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process jobs using a [FIFO] queue.
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A Runner that is specific only runs for the specified project(s). A shared Runner
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can run jobs for every project that has enabled the option **Allow shared Runners**
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under **Settings > CI/CD**.
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Projects with high demand of CI activity can also benefit from using specific
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Runners. By having dedicated Runners you are guaranteed that the Runner is not
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being held up by another project's jobs.
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You can set up a specific Runner to be used by multiple projects. The difference
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with a shared Runner is that you have to enable each project explicitly for
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the Runner to be able to run its jobs.
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Specific Runners do not get shared with forked projects automatically.
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A fork does copy the CI settings (jobs, allow shared, etc) of the cloned
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repository.
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## Registering a shared Runner
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You can only register a shared Runner if you are an admin of the GitLab instance.
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1. Grab the shared-Runner token on the `admin/runners` page
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1. [Register the Runner][register]
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Shared Runners are enabled by default as of GitLab 8.2, but can be disabled
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with the **Disable shared Runners** button which is present under each project's
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**Settings > CI/CD** page. Previous versions of GitLab defaulted shared
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Runners to disabled.
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## Registering a specific Runner
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Registering a specific Runner can be done in two ways:
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1. Creating a Runner with the project registration token
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1. Converting a shared Runner into a specific Runner (one-way, admin only)
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### Registering a specific Runner with a project registration token
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To create a specific Runner without having admin rights to the GitLab instance,
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visit the project you want to make the Runner work for in GitLab:
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1. Go to **Settings > CI/CD** to obtain the token
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1. [Register the Runner][register]
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## Registering a group Runner
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Creating a group Runner requires Owner permissions for the group. To create a
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group Runner visit the group you want to make the Runner work for in GitLab:
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1. Go to **Settings > CI/CD** to obtain the token
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1. [Register the Runner][register]
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### Making an existing shared Runner specific
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If you are an admin on your GitLab instance, you can turn any shared Runner into
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a specific one, but not the other way around. Keep in mind that this is a one
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way transition.
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1. Go to the Runners in the **Admin Area > Overview > Runners** (`/admin/runners`)
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and find your Runner
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1. Enable any projects under **Restrict projects for this Runner** to be used
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with the Runner
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From now on, the shared Runner will be specific to those projects.
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## Locking a specific Runner from being enabled for other projects
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You can configure a Runner to assign it exclusively to a project. When a
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Runner is locked this way, it can no longer be enabled for other projects.
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This setting can be enabled the first time you [register a Runner][register] and
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can be changed afterwards under each Runner's settings.
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To lock/unlock a Runner:
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1. Visit your project's **Settings > CI/CD**
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1. Find the Runner you wish to lock/unlock and make sure it's enabled
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1. Click the pencil button
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1. Check the **Lock to current projects** option
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1. Click **Save changes** for the changes to take effect
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## Assigning a Runner to another project
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If you are an Owner on a project where a specific Runner is assigned to, and the
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Runner is not [locked only to that project](#locking-a-specific-runner-from-being-enabled-for-other-projects),
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you can enable the Runner also on any other project where you have Owner permissions.
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To enable/disable a Runner in your project:
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1. Visit your project's **Settings > CI/CD**
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1. Find the Runner you wish to enable/disable
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1. Click **Enable for this project** or **Disable for this project**
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> **Note**:
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Consider that if you don't lock your specific Runner to a specific project, any
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user with Maintainer role in you project can assign your Runner to another arbitrary
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project without requiring your authorization, so use it with caution.
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CAUTION: **Caution:**
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Never add a private Runner that you're using in your private projects to a
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project that you share with other people.
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CAUTION: **Caution:**
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Never use a Runner from a project which has multiple maintainers in your
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private project.
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An admin can enable/disable a specific Runner for projects:
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1. Navigate to **Admin > Runners**
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1. Find the Runner you wish to enable/disable
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1. Click edit on the Runner
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1. Click **Enable** or **Disable** on the project
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## Protected Runners
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/13194) in GitLab 10.0.
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You can protect Runners from revealing sensitive information.
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Whenever a Runner is protected, the Runner picks only jobs created on
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[protected branches] or [protected tags], and ignores other jobs.
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To protect/unprotect Runners:
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1. Visit your project's **Settings > CI/CD**
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1. Find a Runner you want to protect/unprotect and make sure it's enabled
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1. Click the pencil button besides the Runner name
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1. Check the **Protected** option
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1. Click **Save changes** for the changes to take effect
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## Manually clearing the Runners cache
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Read [clearing the cache](../caching/index.md#clearing-the-cache).
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## How shared Runners pick jobs
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Shared Runners abide to a process queue we call fair usage. The fair usage
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algorithm tries to assign jobs to shared Runners from projects that have the
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lowest number of jobs currently running on shared Runners.
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**Example 1**
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We have following jobs in queue:
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- Job 1 for Project 1
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- Job 2 for Project 1
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- Job 3 for Project 1
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- Job 4 for Project 2
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- Job 5 for Project 2
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- Job 6 for Project 3
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With the fair usage algorithm jobs are assigned in following order:
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1. Job 1 is chosen first, because it has the lowest job number from projects with no running jobs (that is, all projects)
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1. Job 4 is next, because 4 is now the lowest job number from projects with no running jobs (Project 1 has a job running)
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1. Job 6 is next, because 6 is now the lowest job number from projects with no running jobs (Projects 1 and 2 have jobs running)
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1. Job 2 is next, because, of projects with the lowest number of jobs running (each has 1), it is the lowest job number
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1. Job 5 is next, because Project 1 now has 2 jobs running and Job 5 is the lowest remaining job number between Projects 2 and 3.
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1. Lastly we choose Job 3... because it's the only job left
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---
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**Example 2**
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We have following jobs in queue:
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- Job 1 for project 1
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- Job 2 for project 1
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- Job 3 for project 1
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- Job 4 for project 2
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- Job 5 for project 2
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- Job 6 for project 3
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With the fair usage algorithm jobs are assigned in following order:
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1. Job 1 is chosen first, because it has the lowest job number from projects with no running jobs (that is, all projects)
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1. We finish job 1
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1. Job 2 is next, because, having finished Job 1, all projects have 0 jobs running again, and 2 is the lowest available job number
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1. Job 4 is next, because with Project 1 running a job, 4 is the lowest number from projects running no jobs (Projects 2 and 3)
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1. We finish job 4
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1. Job 5 is next, because having finished Job 4, Project 2 has no jobs running again
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1. Job 6 is next, because Project 3 is the only project left with no running jobs
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1. Lastly we choose Job 3... because, again, it's the only job left (who says 1 is the loneliest number?)
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## Using shared Runners effectively
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If you are planning to use shared Runners, there are several things you
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should keep in mind.
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### Using tags
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You must set up a Runner to be able to run all the different types of jobs
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that it may encounter on the projects it's shared over. This would be
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problematic for large amounts of projects, if it wasn't for tags.
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By tagging a Runner for the types of jobs it can handle, you can make sure
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shared Runners will [only run the jobs they are equipped to run](../yaml/README.md#tags).
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For instance, at GitLab we have Runners tagged with "rails" if they contain
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the appropriate dependencies to run Rails test suites.
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### Allowing Runners with tags to pick jobs without tags
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When you [register a Runner][register], its default behavior is to **only pick**
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[tagged jobs](../yaml/README.md#tags).
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NOTE: **Note:**
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Owner [permissions](../../user/permissions.md) are required to change the
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Runner settings.
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To make a Runner pick untagged jobs:
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1. Visit your project's **Settings > CI/CD > Runners**.
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1. Find the Runner you want to pick untagged jobs and make sure it's enabled.
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1. Click the pencil button.
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1. Check the **Run untagged jobs** option.
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1. Click the **Save changes** button for the changes to take effect.
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NOTE: **Note:**
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The Runner tags list can not be empty when it's not allowed to pick untagged jobs.
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Below are some example scenarios of different variations.
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#### Runner runs only tagged jobs
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The following examples illustrate the potential impact of the Runner being set
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to run only tagged jobs.
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Example 1:
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1. The Runner is configured to run only tagged jobs and has the `docker` tag.
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1. A job that has a `hello` tag is executed and stuck.
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Example 2:
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1. The Runner is configured to run only tagged jobs and has the `docker` tag.
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1. A job that has a `docker` tag is executed and run.
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Example 3:
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1. The Runner is configured to run only tagged jobs and has the `docker` tag.
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1. A job that has no tags defined is executed and stuck.
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#### Runner is allowed to run untagged jobs
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The following examples illustrate the potential impact of the Runner being set
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to run tagged and untagged jobs.
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Example 1:
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1. The Runner is configured to run untagged jobs and has the `docker` tag.
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1. A job that has no tags defined is executed and run.
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1. A second job that has a `docker` tag defined is executed and run.
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Example 2:
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1. The Runner is configured to run untagged jobs and has no tags defined.
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1. A job that has no tags defined is executed and run.
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1. A second job that has a `docker` tag defined is stuck.
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### Setting maximum job timeout for a Runner
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For each Runner you can specify a _maximum job timeout_. Such timeout,
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if smaller than [project defined timeout], will take the precedence. This
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feature can be used to prevent Shared Runner from being appropriated
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by a project by setting a ridiculous big timeout (for example, one week).
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When not configured, Runner will not override project timeout.
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How this feature will work:
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**Example 1 - Runner timeout bigger than project timeout**
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1. You set the _maximum job timeout_ for a Runner to 24 hours
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1. You set the _CI/CD Timeout_ for a project to **2 hours**
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1. You start a job
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1. The job, if running longer, will be timed out after **2 hours**
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**Example 2 - Runner timeout not configured**
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1. You remove the _maximum job timeout_ configuration from a Runner
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1. You set the _CI/CD Timeout_ for a project to **2 hours**
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1. You start a job
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1. The job, if running longer, will be timed out after **2 hours**
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**Example 3 - Runner timeout smaller than project timeout**
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1. You set the _maximum job timeout_ for a Runner to **30 minutes**
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1. You set the _CI/CD Timeout_ for a project to 2 hours
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1. You start a job
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1. The job, if running longer, will be timed out after **30 minutes**
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### Be careful with sensitive information
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With some [Runner Executors](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/README.html),
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if you can run a job on the Runner, you can get full access to the file system,
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and thus any code it runs as well as the token of the Runner. With shared Runners, this means that anyone
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that runs jobs on the Runner, can access anyone else's code that runs on the
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Runner.
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In addition, because you can get access to the Runner token, it is possible
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to create a clone of a Runner and submit false jobs, for example.
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The above is easily avoided by restricting the usage of shared Runners
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on large public GitLab instances, controlling access to your GitLab instance,
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and using more secure [Runner Executors](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/README.html).
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### Forks
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Whenever a project is forked, it copies the settings of the jobs that relate
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to it. This means that if you have shared Runners set up for a project and
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someone forks that project, the shared Runners will also serve jobs of this
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project.
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## Attack vectors in Runners
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Mentioned briefly earlier, but the following things of Runners can be exploited.
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We're always looking for contributions that can mitigate these
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[Security Considerations](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/security/).
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### Resetting the registration token for a Project
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If you think that registration token for a Project was revealed, you should
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reset them. It's recommended because such a token can be used to register another
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Runner to the Project. It may then be used to obtain the values of secret
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variables or clone the project code, that normally may be unavailable for the
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attacker.
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To reset the token:
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1. Go to **Settings > CI/CD** for a specified Project.
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1. Expand the **General pipelines settings** section.
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1. Find the **Runner token** form field and click the **Reveal value** button.
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1. Delete the value and save the form.
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1. After the page is refreshed, expand the **Runners settings** section
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and check the registration token - it should be changed.
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From now on the old token is no longer valid and will not register
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any new Runners to the project. If you are using any tools to provision and
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register new Runners, the tokens used in those tools should be updated to reflect the
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value of the new token.
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## Determining the IP address of a Runner
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/17286) in GitLab 10.6.
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It may be useful to know the IP address of a Runner so you can troubleshoot
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issues with that Runner. GitLab stores and displays the IP address by viewing
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the source of the HTTP requests it makes to GitLab when polling for jobs. The
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IP address is always kept up to date so if the Runner IP changes it will be
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automatically updated in GitLab.
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The IP address for shared Runners and specific Runners can be found in
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different places.
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### Shared Runners
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To view the IP address of a shared Runner you must have admin access to
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the GitLab instance. To determine this:
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1. Visit **Admin Area > Overview > Runners**
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1. Look for the Runner in the table and you should see a column for "IP Address"
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### Specific Runners
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You can find the IP address of a Runner for a specific project by:
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1. Visit your project's **Settings > CI/CD**
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1. Find the Runner and click on it's ID which links you to the details page
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1. On the details page you should see a row for "IP Address"
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[install]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/
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[fifo]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFO_(computing_and_electronics)
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[register]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/register/
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[protected branches]: ../../user/project/protected_branches.md
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[protected tags]: ../../user/project/protected_tags.md
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[project defined timeout]: ../pipelines/settings.md#timeout
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