GitHub Actions Runner
This role will deploy/redeploy/uninstall and register/unregister local GitHub Actions Runner on Linux and macOS Systems (see compatibility list ). It supports Enterprise, Organization and Repository Runners.
Requirements
-
System must have access to the GitHub API.
-
The role require Personal Access Token to access the GitHub. The token can be set as
PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN
environment variable.
Note
The token must have the repo
scope (when creating a repo runner), the admin:org
scope (when creating a runner for an organization),
the manage_runners:enterprise
scope (when creating a enterprise runner).
Personal Access Token for GitHub account can be created here.
Warning
Never store you personal access token in the GitHub repository. Use GitHub Secrets or some different secrets service.
-
Runner user has to be pre-created. Recommended role:
monolithprojects.user_management
-
CentOS systems require EPEL repository. Recommended role:
robertdebock.epel
Supported CPU architecture
- ARM, ARM64 (dependencies installation is not covered by this role)
- AMD64, x86_64
Supported Operating Systems
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- CentOS 7
- Rocky Linux 8+
- Fedora 29+
- Debian 9+
- Ubuntu 16.04+
- macOS High Sierra +
Weekly tested on:
- Debian 11
- Fedora 37
- Rocky Linux 8
- Ubuntu 20,22
Role Variables
This is a copy from defaults/main.yml
---
# Runner user - user under which is the local runner service running
runner_user: "{{ lookup('env','USER') }}"
# Directory where the local runner will be installed
runner_dir: /opt/actions-runner
# Version of the GitHub Actions Runner
runner_version: "latest"
# State in which the runner service will be after the role is done (started, stopped, absent)
runner_state: "started"
# If found on the server, delete already existing runner service and install it again
reinstall_runner: no
# Do not show Ansible logs which may contain sensitive data (registration token)
hide_sensitive_logs: yes
# GitHub address
github_url: "https://github.com"
# GitHub API
github_api_url: "https://api.github.com"
# Personal Access Token for your GitHub account
access_token: "{{ lookup('env', 'PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN') }}"
# Is it the runner for organization or not?
runner_org: no
# Labels to apply to the runner
runner_labels: []
# Group to add organization runner to
runner_group: ""
# GitHub Actions Runner repository (change it if you want to use custom Actions Runner fork)
runner_download_repository: "actions/runner"
# Extra arguments to pass to `config.sh`.
# Several arguments muste be set as one string (i.e. "--ephemeral --my_special_fork")
runner_extra_config_args: ""
# Name to assign to this runner in GitHub (System hostname as default)
runner_name: "{{ ansible_hostname }}"
# GitHub Repository user or Organization owner used for Runner registration
# github_account: "youruser"
# GitHub repository owner name (if other than github_account)
# github_owner: "yourorg"
# Github repository name
# github_repo: "yourrepo"
# GitHub Enterprise name
# github_enterprise: "yourenterprise"
# Configuring a custom .env file
# custom_env: |
# http_proxy=YOUR_URL_HERE
# ftp_proxy=YOUR_URL_HERE
# HTTPS_PROXY=YOUR_URL_HERE
# https_proxy=YOUR_URL_HERE
# no_proxy=localhost,127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2
# HTTP_PROXY=
Example Playbooks
In this example the Ansible role will install (or update) the GitHub Actions Runner service (latest available version). The runner will be registered for my_awesome_repo GitHub repo. Runner service will be stated and will run under the same user as the Ansible is using for ssh connection (ansible).
---
- name: Install GitHub Actions Runner
hosts: all
user: ansible
become: yes
vars:
- github_account: github-access-user
- github_repo: my_awesome_repo
roles:
- role: monolithprojects.github_actions_runner
Same example as above, but runner will be added to an organization and deployed on GitHub Enterprise Server.
---
- name: Install GitHub Actions Runner
hosts: all
user: ansible
become: yes
vars:
- github_account: my_awesome_org
- runner_org: yes
- runner_on_ghes: yes
roles:
- role: monolithprojects.github_actions_runner
If you have a Github Enterprise Cloud license and you want to manage all the self-hosted runners from the enterprise:
---
- name: Install GitHub Actions Runner
hosts: all
user: automation
become: yes
vars:
- github_enterprise: my_awesome_enterprise
- runner_org: no
roles:
- role: monolithprojects.github_actions_runner
In this example the Ansible role will deploy (or update) the GitHub Actions runner service (version 2.165.2) and register the runner for the GitHub repo. Runner service will run under the user runner-user
. Runner will be registered with two labels.
The runner service will be stopped and disabled. Runner will use custom environment variables (from file named .env
in the self-hosted runner application directory).
---
- name: Stop GitHub Actions Runner
hosts: all
become: yes
vars:
- runner_version: "2.165.2"
- runner_user: runner-user
- github_account: github-access-user
- github_repo: my_awesome_repo
- runner_state: "stopped"
- runner_labels:
- production
- west
- custom_env: |
HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.local:8080
http_proxy=http://proxy.local:8080
HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.local:8080
https_proxy=http://proxy.local:8080
no_proxy=localhost,127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2
roles:
- role: monolithprojects.github_actions_runner
In this example the Ansible role will uninstall the runner service and unregister it from the GitHub Repository.
---
- name: Uninstall GitHub Actions Runner
hosts: all
become: yes
vars:
- github_account: github-access-user
- github_repo: my_awesome_repo
- runner_state: "absent"
roles:
- role: monolithprojects.github_actions_runner
License
MIT
Author Information
Created in 2020 by Michal Muransky