GitLab Runner (AlmaLinux 8)

Software included

Package	Version
GitLab Runner	latest
Docker	3.20.10
Docker compose	2.12.2
containerd.io	1.6.10

Initial start of the service

This application uses Docker to provide faster startup of the companion software (GitLab Runner) and direct use of it. This eliminates the need to familiarize yourself with its specifics in terms of configuration and installation. To start working directly with the application, all you need to do is take the IP address that is assigned to your virtual server and set it up in your GitLab.

Quick settings and frequently asked questions

• You can read more about how to add a new GitLab runner in the official GitLab documentation. In addition, please note the following details:
• Logging into the cloud service is done using an SSH key or password that you have specified.
• Docker is installed as recommended by the official docker documentation.
• The standard docker and docker compose commands are now available in this application.
• When the virtual machine is first started, it takes a few minutes before the Docker container containing the GitLab Runner is started.
• Execution of gitlab-runner commands is done using docker, for example docker exec -ti docker-gitlab-runner-gitlab-runner-1 gitlab-runner --help.

Working with Docker

The organization of this application is entirely done using Docker. In this way, we can provide you with ready-made applications faster. In addition, their configuration is more flexible and quite controllable. To be able to control this application, however, you need to know some basic Docker functionalities and features.

Restarting all services

Restarting the database and the Docker container that contains Elasticsearch itself, along with the rest of the software, can be done in two ways:

1. By restarting the entire virtual machine
2. Restarting the Docker containers, which is the faster option. To do this, access your machine via SSH, and run the following commands:

sudo su -
cd /opt/docker-gitlab-runner/
docker compose restart

Recreating Docker containers

Recreation of a docker container may be necessary if you've changed the configuration inside the docker-compose.yml file. If there are changes, please follow these steps:

cd /opt/docker-gitlab-runner/
docker compose stop
docker compose up -d

Checking the status of the Docker application

To check, you need to run the following commands:

sudo su -
docker ps -a

Please pay attention to the STATUS column. It should show how long the service has been running, for example Up X minutes. If the status is Restarting then you need to check what is wrong with the application. In such a case, you can check by following the application logs as follows:

1. Get the application's name that you can see in the NAMES column from the output of the docker ps -a command. View the logs with the docker logs <NAME> command, where is the name of the container.