GitLab Tutorials: How to setup and run GitLab Runner in a container?

Step 1 – Install Latest Version of Docker

Step 2 – Run “gitlab-runner” command in the container

# Use local system volume mounts to start the Runner container

$ docker run -d --name gitlab-runner --restart always \
  -v /srv/gitlab-runner/config:/etc/gitlab-runner \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  gitlab/gitlab-runner:latest

$ docker logs gitlab-runner

Step 3 – Register the runner

The following steps describe launching a short-lived gitlab-runner container to register the container you created during install. After you finish registration, the resulting configuration is written to your chosen configuration volume (for example, /srv/gitlab-runner/config) and is loaded by the runner using that configuration volume.

To register a runner using a Docker container: Run the register command based on the mount type:

$ docker run --rm -it -v /srv/gitlab-runner/config:/etc/gitlab-runner gitlab/gitlab-runner register


- Enter your GitLab instance URL (also known as the gitlab-ci coordinator URL).
- Enter the token you obtained to register the runner.
- Enter a description for the runner. You can change this value later in the GitLab user interface.
- Enter the tags associated with the runner, separated by commas. You can change this value later in the GitLab user interface.
- Enter any optional maintenance note for the runner.
- Provide the runner executor. For most use cases, enter docker.
- If you entered docker as your executor, you are asked for the default image to be used for projects that do not define one in .gitlab-ci.yml.

Reference

• https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/docker.html

Example of .gitlab-ci.yml

stages:
  - publish
  - deploy

variables:
  TAG_LATEST: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:latest
  TAG_COMMIT: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA

publish:
  image: docker:latest
  stage: publish
  services:
    - docker:dind
  script:
    - docker build -t $TAG_COMMIT -t $TAG_LATEST .
    - docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_BUILD_TOKEN $CI_REGISTRY
    - docker push $TAG_COMMIT
    - docker push $TAG_LATEST

deploy:
  image: alpine:latest
  stage: deploy
  tags:
    - deployment
  script:
    - chmod og= $ID_RSA
    - apk update && apk add openssh-client
    - ssh -i $ID_RSA -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $SERVER_USER@$SERVER_IP "docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_BUILD_TOKEN $CI_REGISTRY"
    - ssh -i $ID_RSA -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $SERVER_USER@$SERVER_IP "docker pull $TAG_COMMIT"
    - ssh -i $ID_RSA -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $SERVER_USER@$SERVER_IP "docker container rm -f my-app || true"
    - ssh -i $ID_RSA -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $SERVER_USER@$SERVER_IP "docker run -d -p 80:80 --name my-app $TAG_COMMIT"
  environment:
    name: production
    url: http://your_server_IP
  only:
    - master

image: node:4.2.2

variables:
  POSTGRES_USER: testuser
  POSTGRES_PASSWORD: testpass

services:
  - postgres:9.5.0

all_tests:
  script:
   - npm install
   - node ./specs/start.js

image: node:4.2.2

cache:
  paths:
  - node_modules/

stages:
  - test

test_async:
  stage: test
  script:
   - npm install
   - node ./specs/start.js ./specs/async.spec.js
  tags:
    - docker

test_db:
  stage: test
  services:
    - postgres:9.5.0
  script:
   - npm install
   - node ./specs/start.js ./specs/db-postgres.spec.js
  tags:
    - docker

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-examples/nodejs/-/tree/master/

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