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Machine runner 3 manual installation

Language Icon 3 months ago · 8 min read
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This page describes how to manually start CircleCI’s machine runner 3 on macOS and Linux.

We recommend installing and using CircleCI machine runner 3 with the Homebrew package on macOS and the Linux packages on Linux. The manual method described on this page is an optional alternative.
Only a single machine runner per machine instance is supported by CircleCI
If you follow this manual installation method, CircleCI machine runner 3 will not automatically update.

Prerequisites

To install machine runners and run jobs, you will need to have root access, and have the following utilities and tools installed on your system:

  • Coreutils - Linux only

  • Homebrew - macOS only

  • curl (installed by default on macOS)

  • sha256sum (if not pre-installed):

    • brew install coreutils

    • sudo apt install coreutils for Ubuntu/Debain

    • sudo yum install coreutils for Red Hat

  • tar

  • Gzip - Linux only

  • sepolicy (RHEL 8 only) - Linux only

  • rpmbuild (RHEL 8 only) - Linux only

  • The CircleCI CLI if you wish to install runners from the command line

Self-hosted runner terms agreement

  • Web app installation

  • CLI installation

Before you can install self-hosted runners through the web app, you will need to agree to the CircleCI Runner Terms. To be able to gain access to the Self-Hosted Runners section of the CircleCI web app or your CircleCI server app, an admin in your organization needs to navigate to Organization Settings  Self-Hosted Runners, and agree to the terms.

Runner terms and conditions

Once the terms have been accepted, Self-Hosted Runners will appear permanently in the side navigation.

Your role within your org is determined differently depending on how you integrate with your code, as follows:

  • If your code is integrated with CircleCI via the GitHub OAuth App or Bitbucket Cloud, CircleCI mirrors VCS permissions for organizations. If you are an admin on your organization’s VCS, you are an admin on CircleCI. If you are unsure, check the admin permissions on your VCS.

  • If your code is integrated with CircleCI via the GitHub App, GitLab, or Bitbucket Data Center, you can check roles by navigating to Organization Settings  People. Full details on roles and permissions are available in the Roles and permissions overview.

To find out which GitHub integration you are using, head to the CircleCI web app, select your org, select Organization Home from the sidebar, and inspect the URL in your browser:

For more information about the differences, see the GitHub docs comparison page.

If you are installing and using self-hosted runners through the CLI, you are agreeing to the CircleCI Runner Terms.

1. Create namespace and resource class

If you are installing self-hosted runners for server, the CircleCI CLI needs to be configured using your server API key. Run circleci setup to configure the CLI and access the option to supply a new API token if required.

In order to install self-hosted runners, you will need to create a namespace and authentication token by performing the steps listed below.

To create resource classes and tokens you need to be an organization administrator in the VCS provider.

You can view your installed runners on the inventory page in the web app or your CircleCI server app, by clicking Self-Hosted Runners on the left navigation.

  1. Create a namespace for your organization’s self-hosted runners. Each organization can only create a single namespace. We suggest using a lowercase representation of your CircleCI organization’s account name. If you already use orbs, this namespace should be the same namespace orbs use.

    Use the following command to create a namespace:

    circleci namespace create <name> --org-id <your-organization-id>
    If your organization already has a namespace, you will receive an error if you run the above command to create a different namespace. The error message returns the name of the existing namespace. In this case, move on to step 2 below, using your existing namespace.

  2. Create a resource class for your self-hosted runner’s namespace using the following command:

    circleci runner resource-class create <namespace>/<resource-class> <description> --generate-token

    Make sure to replace <namespace> and <resource-class> with your org namespace and desired resource class name, respectively. You may optionally add a description.

    Example: circleci runner resource-class create my-namespace/my-resource-class my-description --generate-token.

    The resource class token is returned after the runner resource class is successfully created.

    The token cannot be retrieved again, so be sure to store it safely.

2. Download the CircleCI machine runner

The current CircleCI machine runner binary can always be found by using current as the version. To install a specific previous version of the CircleCI runner the $RUNNER_VERSION environment variable can be changed from the value of current to the specific preferred version. 
export RUNNERVERSION='current'
export CPUARCH=$(/usr/bin/arch | grep 'x86_64' >/dev/null 2>/dev/null && echo 'amd64' || echo 'arm64')
export OSTARGET=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
curl -s -L "https://circleci-binary-releases.s3.amazonaws.com/circleci-runner/${RUNNERVERSION}/circleci-runner_${OSTARGET}_${CPUARCH}.tar.gz" -o $HOME/circleci-runner.tar.gz && tar -zxvf $HOME/circleci-runner.tar.gz

3. Mark the CircleCI machine runner as executable

Update permissions for your CircleCI machine runner to enable running its binary:

chmod +x $HOME/circleci-runner

4. Create the CircleCI machine runner configuration and working directory

  1. Create the directory in which CircleCI machine runner jobs will start:

    mkdir $HOME/circleci

  2. Create a CircleCI runner configuration file:

    touch $HOME/circleci-runner-config.yaml

  3. Populate the newly created file with the configuration for your runner. An example can be seen below.

    You will need to change the auth_token value from "your-auth-token" to the resource class token created in step 1. 
    nano $HOME/circleci-runner-config.yaml
    runner:
  name: "my-macos-runner"
  working_directory: "$HOME/circleci"
  cleanup_working_directory: true
api:
  auth_token: "your-auth-token"

  4. If you are using CircleCI server you will need to provide the URL for your install. You can do this by adding the URL to $HOME/circleci-runner-config.yaml using text editor of your choice.

    api:
  auth_token: "your-auth-token"
  # On server, set url to the hostname of your server installation.
  url: https://runner.circleci.com

5. Start the CircleCI machine runner

$HOME/circleci-runner machine --config $HOME/circleci-runner-config.yaml

Additional resources