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GitLab Runner Overview For Developers

This guide provides a quick overview of the GitLab runners used in UIS, any actions / decisions developers need to take and links to further information.

What is a GitLab runner?

A GitLab runner is a lightweight application used to execute CI/CD jobs defined in a GitLab projects .gitlab-ci.yml file. It works as an agent that connects the UIS GitLab instance with the systems where the CI/CD jobs are executed.

Types of runners

There are two types of runners used in UIS:

  • Product-wide Shared runners: These are runners shared across all projects under uis/devops. They are used for general purpose jobs that do not require any special permissions or configurations and currently run on on-prem VMs. They are selected by default for all jobs unless overridden.
  • Product-specific runners: These are runners dedicated to a single product and are hosted on GKE. They are used for jobs that require special permissions or configurations. They are selected by adding the appropriate tag to the job definition in the .gitlab-ci.yml file.

What do I need to do?

As long as you've configured GKE runners during your product setup and are using the standard boilerplate templates for your code / infrastructure, you don't need to do anything. Everything will automatically run on the correct runner.