Can I have a private runner while using GitLab.com?

GitLab CI/CD
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We are using GitLab.com to host our code, however I have a need to run jobs in my own environment. I know that GitLab.com has shared runners, which should work for most things, but there are some jobs that rely on on-prem resources (redis, database, etc.) that aren’t accessible to GitLab.com.

Is it possible to register a runner that executes on-prem with the cloud hosted version of GitLab?

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I’m not really an expert at this yet, but:

  • You can install a runner anywhere. Runners talk to gitlab, not the other way around, so it doesn’t matter if the runner is behind a firewall or not.
  • You can lock a runner to a specific project (Go to that project’s page, and select Settings -> CI/CD and expand the “Runners Settings” section for instructions)
  • Alternatively, you can create a shared runner, but lock it to only accept jobs with certain tags. Then only jobs you have that use that tag will run on that runner (You would put that tag in the .gitlab-ci.yml file)
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@fedordoc What if my “CI / CD” Settings don’t show anything related to runners? Does utilizing private runners while on managed gitlab.com require a paid account? Currently on free tier here.

Have been trawling an answer to this question but so far no luck.

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@fedordoc Sorry, misread your answer, you can of course see runner-related stuff like you said under Settings, “CI /CD”. I was mistakenly looking at the top level “CI / CD” and couldn’t see anything runner-related there. :persevere: