We host a GitLab instance on AWS that is at v17.4.2. I would like to install a running locally. The docs say to keep the major and minor the same, but these are not available and I can’t upgrade our GitLab version.
The docs seem to imply I can install the latest, or install a specific version.
Would I be ok running the latest runner or should I really install the specific version of the runner to match the GitLab instance?
You can get the gitlab-runner here for 17.4.x: runner/gitlab-runner - Results for 'gitlab-runner-17.4' in runner/gitlab-runner
All you need to do now is filter the search to get the one for the correct OS version you need to run it on.
Agree with Ian. It is generally advisable to keep the same major versions for server and runner (17.x <> 17.x) as suggested in the docs. Other variants may work but are not tested and could introduce unwanted or unknown behavior.
I tried download the gitlab-runner-helper-images from that same link but 17.4 is not found. I can view the available versions up till about page 9 of the display list before I get a message saying IP blocked. And doing it from my company site says the same thing.
Any way to find the gitlab-runner-helper-image that also needs to be installed?
Here is the message it displays after about 270 entries (page 9).
You are currently viewing from a blocked IP address or country.
Client IP: xx.xx.xx.xx
Ray ID: 9686b3b48a4469d2
Location: US
Which specific package OS/environment/platform are you looking for to install GitLab Runner? That might help filter the package overview and provide direct download URLs.
This is why I said in my post all you need to do now is filter it, see screenshot below:
In the package type you can choose whether you are wanting a deb or rpm or whatever package. And in the distribution box you have the option to filter it for ubuntu, debian, el/8 or whatever your Linux distro is. Had you done this as I mentioned, you wouldn’t have to click with 9+ pages of results.
I amended the version number of my search from 17.4 to 17.4.2 like your Gitlab version, now there are only six pages to search through: runner/gitlab-runner - Results for 'gitlab-runner-17.4.2' in runner/gitlab-runner or filter the Linux distribution and you will probably only have 1 page or results to look at.
I think you didn’t understand my post. I have already downloaded the gitlab-runner_17.4.2-1_amd64.deb for Jammy, and now trying to get the gitlab-runner-helper-image from the same link. But when I search for it, it doesn’t appear because it acts like it only has access to 270 entries (9 pages worth) before that IP blocked error appears. So the version I need isn’t being found after filtering.
I have Ubuntu 22.04. Again, the filter doesn’t find the version I need. It only goes back as far as 17.9 and I need 17.4.2.
OK, there is an easy way around that. Create a file called /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gitlab-runner.list with the following content:
# this file was generated by packages.gitlab.com for
# the repository at https://packages.gitlab.com/runner/gitlab-runner
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/runner_gitlab-runner-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.gitlab.com/runner/gitlab-runner/ubuntu/ jammy main
deb-src [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/runner_gitlab-runner-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.gitlab.com/runner/gitlab-runner/ubuntu/ jammy main
now, install the Gitlab runner like this:
apt-get install gitlab-runner=17.4.2-1
that should pull in any dependencies that the package needs. If you already have Gitlab runner packages installed then you will need to remove them first including the helper package. I don’t believe a helper package exists for that version, so I think your problem is you are trying to install an older runner, when a newer one is already installed.
And this does work, because I just did it:
apt-get install gitlab-runner=17.4.2-1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
docker-engine
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gitlab-runner
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 501 MB of archives.
After this operation, 569 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://packages.gitlab.com/runner/gitlab-runner/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 gitlab-runner amd64 17.4.2-1 [501 MB]
Fetched 500 MB in 20s (24.5 MB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package gitlab-runner.
(Reading database ... 195145 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gitlab-runner_17.4.2-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gitlab-runner (17.4.2-1) ...
And here it is when installed:
dpkg -l | grep -i gitlab
ii gitlab-runner 17.4.2-1 amd64 GitLab Runner
as you can see, it’s installing just the gitlab-runner package, no helper package. So remove the newer gitlab-runner and helper packages that you already have installed.
One thing I will add is that if the above copy/paste doesn’t work for the apt list file due to missing GPG key, then run this script from the Gitlab runner install instructions:
curl -L "https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/runner/gitlab-runner/script.deb.sh" | sudo bash
since that will create the apt list file that I copied/pasted above.
In general you should keep the version aligned with your version of Gitlab but in practice I’ve noticed no issues with a big skew when I needed something from a newer version of the runner far removed from my Gitlab.