deploying github self-hosted runner?

[wez]

I'd like to use proxmox to deploy the github self-hosted runner application in ephemeral mode.

The idea is that there is a VM that boots up, registers as an ephemeral single-use runner (https://docs.github.com/en/actions/...nners#using-ephemeral-runners-for-autoscaling), then terminate and the VM is then either reset to a snapshot, or completely destroyed and re-built.

Has anyone already done something like this and are they willing to share how they've set it up? It seems to me as though I'd need to run something outside of proxmox to automate this.

I'm am completely new to proxmox, but I am willing to read docs; I would appreciate being pointed to the right docs to read!

Thanks!

 

[leesteken]

but I am willing to read docs; I would appreciate being pointed to the right docs to read!

You can setup a VM with common Cloud-Init: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#qm_cloud_init
You can manage VMs from the command line or API: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pv...l_machines_with_span_class_monospaced_qm_span or https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pv...strong_shell_interface_for_the_proxmox_ve_api
You can trigger actions on VM start and stop with hookscripts: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#_hookscripts
I hope this can get you started.

 

[wez]

Thanks, I'll check those out!

 

[imikejackson]

@wez Did you ever solve this issue? We are looking to do the same thing.

I have not had good luck on PVE 8 with the hookscripts. There are a few ways that I am thinking that this could be done. You could run something on the ProxMox server itself that checks Github for Queued actions and then starts up VMs on your cluster that have the GitHub runner installed and will start in ephemeral mode. I feel like this could scale well. Just keep firing up VMs as they are needed (to a max value for your CI cluster).

Does anyone else have any thoughts or better yet, example codes or instructions?

 

[morph027]

I've started something similar years ago as a dynamic gitlab runner (example pipeline): https://morph027.gitlab.io/pve-cloud-init-creator/

Quite complex, as custom userdata relies on snippet storage, which is not yet usable via the API (see https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2208)

One could also copy the files via SSH which simplifies things for the sake of exposed SSH access. Will try to add this to the docs as well.

I might cleanup the docs a bit and can probably provide an example how to bootstrap github runners.

 

[dharsanb]

I'm working on a project to do the same. I have been using the terraform-aws-github-runner.

Currently working on something that works on Hetzner / Proxmox. The reason it's different from running on AWS is that AWS has SSM parameter store where you can store secrets / tokens.

In case of Hetzner / Proxmox, it doesn't have this feature and hosting Vault instance comes with it's own issues because you'll have to pass the vault secret using cloud-init and it's not the best way to pass secrets. So instead of using pull model, you've use push model where you push token / secrets using SSH.

Currently one project does it on Hetzner: https://github.com/testflows/TestFlows-GitHub-Hetzner-Runners