Machine runner installation on Windows

1 month ago5 min read

Server v4.0 - v4.6

Prerequisites

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

Self-hosted runner terms agreement

1. Create namespace and resource class

2. Set launch agent version (server only)

If you are installing the Windows machine runner for CircleCI cloud, skip ahead to the next step.

For server v4.x and up, use the table below to find the compatible machine runner launch-agent version for the version of server you are running:
Server version Launch agent version
4.0
1.1.73695-40bf772
4.1
1.1.73695-40bf772
4.2
1.1.73695-40bf772
4.3
1.1.73189-8792751

Substitute <launch-agent-version> with your launch-agent version for server and run the following:
$Env:agentVer = "<launch-agent-version>"

Server version	Launch agent version
4.0	1.1.73695-40bf772
4.1	1.1.73695-40bf772
4.2	1.1.73695-40bf772
4.3	1.1.73189-8792751

3. Machine runner installation on Windows

Download the Install-CircleCIRunner.ps1 script from GitHub to an easily accessible location.
Open PowerShell as an administrator and navigate to the directory where you placed the script file.

Run the following in your PowerShell:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072;
./Install-CircleCIRunner.ps1

The installation will be output into your PowerShell interface.

As part of the installation, the configuration file for the machine runner (launch-agent-config.yaml) will open in Notepad. Fill the file out with the requested information (see Self-hosted Runner Configuration Reference). The configuration file is located in the installation directory, C:\Program Files\CircleCI, by default.

After setup completes, the machine runner starts automatically and begins looking for jobs to process.

Machine runner configuration example

Once you have installed configuration runner, select Continue in the CircleCI web app and you will be presented with an example configuration snippet showing a job configured to use your new self-hosted runner resource class.

The fields you must set for a specific job to run using your machine runners are:

machine: true
resource_class: <namespace>/<resource-class>

Simple example of how you could set up a job:

version: 2.1

workflows:
  build-workflow:
    jobs:
      - runner
jobs:
  runner:
    machine: true
    resource_class: <namespace>/<resource-class>
    steps:
      - run: echo "Hi I'm on Runners!"

The job will then execute using your self-hosted runner when you push the .circleci/config.yml to your VCS provider.

Uninstall / reinstall steps

Uninstalling machine runners will prepare the system for installation again.

Download the Uninstall-CircleCIRunner.ps1 script from GitHub to an easily accessible location.
Open PowerShell as an administrator and navigate to the directory where you placed the script file.
Run the following in your PowerShell:
```
./Uninstall-CircleCIRunner.ps1
```

Continuous mode vs. single task mode for Windows self-hosted runners

By default, Windows machine runners run in single task mode in order to ensure high reliability of the underlying technology that the self-hosted runner uses to execute jobs. This is the recommended mode for Windows machine runners.

A Windows machine runner can be run in continuous mode, however, doing so eliminates the guarantee of a clean job environment. This may translate into jobs not executing as expected and failing.

Troubleshooting

Refer to the Troubleshoot Machine Runner section of the Troubleshoot Self-hosted Runner guide if you encounter issues installing or running machine runner on Windows.