Prerequisites

In order to use ARC, ensure you have the following.

• A Kubernetes cluster

  • For a managed cloud environment, you can use AKS. For more information, seeAzure Kubernetes Service in the Azure documentation.

  • For a local setup, you can use minikube or kind. For more information, seeminikube start in the minikube documentation andkind in the kind documentation.

    Note

    OpenShift clusters are currently unsupported.

• Helm 3

  • For more information, seeInstalling Helm in the Helm documentation.

• While it is not required for ARC to be deployed, we recommend ensuring you have implemented a way to collect and retain logs from the controller, listeners, and ephemeral runners before deploying ARC in production workflows.

Installing Actions Runner Controller

1. To install the operator and the custom resource definitions (CRDs) in your cluster, do the following.

   1. In your Helm chart, update theNAMESPACE value to the location you want your operator pods to be created. This namespace must allow access to the Kubernetes API server.
   2. Install the Helm chart.

   The following example installs the latest version of the chart. To install a specific version, you can pass the--version argument along with the version of the chart you wish to install. You can find the list of releases in theGitHub Container Registry.

   Bash

   NAMESPACE="arc-systems"helm install arc \    --namespace"${NAMESPACE}" \    --create-namespace \    oci://ghcr.io/actions/actions-runner-controller-charts/gha-runner-scale-set-controller

   For additional Helm configuration options, seevalues.yaml in the ARC documentation.

2. To enable ARC to authenticate to GitHub, generate a personal access token (classic). For more information, seeAuthenticating ARC to the GitHub API.

Configuring a runner scale set

1. To configure your runner scale set, run the following command in your terminal, using values from your ARC configuration.

   When you run the command, keep the following in mind.

   • Update theINSTALLATION_NAME value carefully. You will use the installation name as the value ofruns-on in your workflows. For more information, seeWorkflow syntax for GitHub Actions.

   • Update theNAMESPACE value to the location you want the runner pods to be created.

   • SetGITHUB_CONFIG_URL to the URL of your repository, organization, or enterprise. This is the entity that the runners will belong to.

   • This example command installs the latest version of the Helm chart. To install a specific version, you can pass the--version argument with the version of the chart you wish to install. You can find the list of releases in theGitHub Container Registry.

     Note

     • As a security best practice, create your runner pods in a different namespace than the namespace containing your operator pods.
     • As a security best practice, create Kubernetes secrets and pass the secret references. Passing your secrets in plain text via the CLI can pose a security risk. For more information, seeDeploying runner scale sets with Actions Runner Controller.
     Bash

     INSTALLATION_NAME="arc-runner-set"NAMESPACE="arc-runners"GITHUB_CONFIG_URL="https://github.com/<your_enterprise/org/repo>"GITHUB_PAT="<PAT>"helm install"${INSTALLATION_NAME}" \    --namespace"${NAMESPACE}" \    --create-namespace \    --set githubConfigUrl="${GITHUB_CONFIG_URL}" \    --set githubConfigSecret.github_token="${GITHUB_PAT}" \    oci://ghcr.io/actions/actions-runner-controller-charts/gha-runner-scale-set

     For additional Helm configuration options, seevalues.yaml in the ARC documentation.

2. From your terminal, run the following command to check your installation.

   Bash

   helm list -A

   You should see an output similar to the following.

   NAME            NAMESPACE       REVISION        UPDATED                                 STATUS          CHART                                       APP VERSIONarc             arc-systems     1               2023-04-12 11:45:59.152090536 +0000 UTC deployed        gha-runner-scale-set-controller-0.4.0       0.4.0arc-runner-set  arc-runners     1               2023-04-12 11:46:13.451041354 +0000 UTC deployed        gha-runner-scale-set-0.4.0                  0.4.0

3. To check the manager pod, run the following command in your terminal.

   Bash

   kubectl get pods -n arc-systems

   If everything was installed successfully, the status of the pods shows asRunning.

   NAME                                                   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGEarc-gha-runner-scale-set-controller-594cdc976f-m7cjs   1/1     Running   0          64sarc-runner-set-754b578d-listener                       1/1     Running   0          12s

If your installation was not successful, seeTroubleshooting Actions Runner Controller errors for troubleshooting information.

Using runner scale sets

Now you will create and run a simple test workflow that uses the runner scale set runners.

1. In a repository, create a workflow similar to the following example. Theruns-on value should match the Helm installation name you used when you installed the autoscaling runner set.

   For more information on adding workflows to a repository, seeQuickstart for GitHub Actions.

   YAML

   name:ActionsRunnerControllerDemoon:workflow_dispatch:jobs:Explore-GitHub-Actions:# You need to use the INSTALLATION_NAME from the previous stepruns-on:arc-runner-setsteps:-run:echo"🎉 This job uses runner scale set runners!"

2. Once you've added the workflow to your repository, manually trigger the workflow. For more information, seeManually running a workflow.

3. To view the runner pods being created while the workflow is running, run the following command from your terminal.

   Bash

   kubectl get pods -n arc-runners

   A successful output will look similar to the following.

   NAMESPACE     NAME                                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS      AGEarc-runners   arc-runner-set-rmrgw-runner-p9p5n                     1/1     Running   0             21s

Next steps

Actions Runner Controller can help you efficiently manage your GitHub Actions runners. Ready to get started? Here are some helpful resources for taking your next steps with ARC:

• For detailed authentication information, seeAuthenticating ARC to the GitHub API.
• For help using ARC runners in your workflows, seeUsing Actions Runner Controller runners in a workflow.
• For deployment information, seeDeploying runner scale sets with Actions Runner Controller.

Legal notice

Portions have been adapted fromhttps://github.com/actions/actions-runner-controller/ under the Apache-2.0 license:

Copyright 2019 Moto IshizawaLicensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.You may obtain a copy of the License at    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, softwaredistributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.See the License for the specific language governing permissions andlimitations under the License.