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Machine runner 3 manual installation

1 month ago
Cloud Server v4.4+

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/Debian

    • 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 access the Runners section of the CircleCI web app an organization admin must agree to the terms at Org  Runners.

Runner terms and conditions
Figure 1. Runner terms and conditions

Once the terms have been accepted, 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 you have a github or bitbucket type organization, 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 you have a circleci type organization, you can check roles by navigating to Org  People. Full details on roles and permissions are available in the Roles and Permissions Overview.

Find out about organization types in the Users, Organizations and Integrations Guide.

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.

To install self-hosted runners, you need to create a CircleCI namespace and resource class. Once set up you will receive a resource class token. You must be an organization admin to complete this process. View your installed runners on the inventory page in the web app by selecting Runners from the sidebar.

If you already create orb in your organization you will already have a namespace configured. You must use this same namespace for runners. Each organization can only create a single namespace.

  1. Create a namespace for your organization’s self-hosted runners if you do not already have one configured. We suggest using a lowercase representation of your CircleCI organization’s account name.

    Use the following command to create your CircleCI organization’s namespace:

    $ circleci namespace create <name> --org-id <your-organization-id>

  2. Create a resource class for your runner using the following command. You will configure jobs to use this resource class when you want them to run on your slef-hosted runner:

    $ 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 can add a description but this is optional.

    Resource class names must follow specific naming conventions.

    • The namespace can contain lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, and dashes.

    • The resource class name can contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, colons, underscores, dashes, and plus signs.

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

      The token is only displayed once, 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 installation. You can do this by adding the URL to $HOME/circleci-runner-config.yaml using a 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