Different types of GitHub runners | GitHub runners various types | Self hosted vs GitHub Hosted runner

A self-hosted GitHub runner is a machine (physical or virtual) that you set up and manage to run GitHub Actions workflows. GitHub Actions is a CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) and automation service provided by GitHub. It allows you to define workflows in your GitHub repositories to automate build, test, and deployment processes. 

• GitHub-hosted runner
• Self-hosted runner
• Larger runner 
• ephemeral self-hosted runners (on-demand)

GitHub-hosted runners:

• These are runners provided by GitHub, and they are hosted on GitHub's infrastructure.
• GitHub provides various virtual machine configurations for different operating systems and environments.
• They are automatically scaled based on the demand, and you don't have to manage their infrastructure.
• GitHub-hosted runners have time and resource limitations, and you may need to consider these limitations based on your project's needs.

Self-hosted runners:

A self-hosted runner differs from the default GitHub-hosted runners in that it runs on infrastructure that you control. Self-hosted runners can be physical, virtual, in a container, on-premises, or in a cloud.

GitHub-hosted large runners:

GitHub offers customers on GitHub Team and GitHub Enterprise Cloud plans a range of managed virtual machines with more RAM, CPU, and disk space. These runners are hosted by GitHub and have the runner application and other tools preinstalled.

Ephemeral self-hosted runners:

GitHub Actions now supports ephemeral (i.e. single job) self-hosted runners to make autoscaling your runners easier. After a job is run, ephemeral runners are automatically unregistered from the service, allowing you to do any required post-job management. Ephemeral runners are a good choice for self-managed environments where you need each job to run on a clean image.

How to setup Docker Containers as Build Agents | Setup dynamic Docker Slave and Integrate with Jenkins Master | Jenkins Build Agent Setup using Docker

Jenkins has powerful feature of master slave architecture which enables distributed builds. This article we will learn how to setup slave nodes using Docker and integrate with Jenkins Master.

Advantages of using Docker Containers as Jenkins Build Agents

• Ephemeral 
• Better resource utilization
• Customized agents as it can run different builds like Java 8, Java 11 
• Scalability 

Let us see how to configure slave nodes dynamically using Docker. If you like to learn how to setup Jenkins Master on Ubuntu EC2 instance, click here.

Watch this in YouTube channel:

Pre-requisites:

• Jenkins Master is already setup and running
• port 8080 opened in Jenkins EC2's firewall rule
• Setup Docker host. Creating another EC2 instance is recommended to serve as a Docker Host. 
• port 4243 opened in docker host machine 
• 32768 - 60999 opened in docker host machine 

Step 1 - Configure Docker Host with Remote API

Login to Docker host machine. Open docker service file. Search for ExecStart and replace that line with the following.

sudo vi /lib/systemd/system/docker.service

You can replace with below line:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H tcp://0.0.0.0:4243 -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock

Restart Docker service

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload

   sudo service docker restart

Validate API by executing below curl command

curl http://localhost:4243/version

Step 2 - Build Jenkins slave Docker image

Download Dockerfile from below repo.

git clone https://github.com/akannan1087/jenkins-docker-slave; cd jenkins-docker-slave

Build Docker image

sudo docker build -t my-jenkins-slave .

Perform below command to see the list of docker images:

sudo docker images

Step 3 - Configure Jenkins Server with Docker plug-in

Now login to Jenkins Master. Make sure you install Docker plug-in in Jenkins.

Now go to Manage Jenkins -> Configure Nodes Cloud

Click on Docker Cloud Details

Enter docker host dns name or ip address

tcp://docker_host_dns:4243

Make sure Enabled is selected

Now click on Test Connection to make sure connecting with docker host is working. 

Step 4 - Configure Docker Agent Templates

Now click on Docker Agent templates:

Enter label as "docker-slave" and give some name

Click on Enabled

Now enter the name of the docker image you have built previously in docker host.

enter /home/jenkins as Remote file system root

 

Choose Connect with SSH as connection method:

Enter SSH credentials per your Dockerfile - jenkins/password

choose Never Pull as pull strategy as we have already image stored in DockerHost.

Click on Save.

Step 5 - Create build job in Jenkins

Now Create a pipeline job in Jenkins with below pipeline code:

pipeline {

    agent { 

        label "docker-slave"

     }

    stages {

        stage('Hello') {

            steps {

                echo 'Hello World'

            }

        }

    }

}

Click Apply and Save. 

Now build the job. Now you will see output like below:

Create a free style job

Choose Restrict where this project can be run and enter docker-slave as label