A Guide to Setting Up a Self-Hosted Runner on an Amazon EC2 Machine

Overview

Setting up a self-hosted runner on an Amazon EC2 machine for GitHub Actions workflows is a powerful way to customize and optimize your continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This process allows you to leverage your own infrastructure while benefiting from the automation and scalability of GitHub Actions.

Introduction

This document outlines the step-by-step process of creating and configuring a self-hosted runner on an Amazon EC2 machine. Once set up, the runner acts as a dedicated agent for executing jobs triggered by GitHub Actions workflows associated with your repository. Here’s a brief overview of the key steps involved:

Runner Flow

1. Registration: Register the self-hosted runner with your GitHub repository. This involves obtaining a registration token from GitHub and configuring the registration token in the Self-Hosted Runner (Amazon EC2).
2. Authentication: The self-hosted runner will authenticate with GitHub using the provided registration token once registered.
3. Listening for Jobs: The self-hosted runner will continuously listen for incoming job requests from GitHub Actions workflows associated with the repository.
4. Job Execution: When a job is triggered, GitHub dispatches it to an available self-hosted runner. The runner executes the job by cloning the repository, running the specified workflow steps, and reporting the results to GitHub.
5. Cleanup: After completing the job, the self-hosted runner cleans up any temporary files and awaits further instructions

Step-by-Step Guide

The steps below detail creating and configuring a self-hosted runner on an Amazon EC2 machine for running your GitHub Actions workflows.

Steps:

1. Download the Runner Package:

Connect to your Amazon EC2 instance using your preferred SSH client.

Create a directory to store the runner files:

Bash

Download the latest runner package using curl. Replace the version number (v2.314.1) with the latest available version you want to use. You can find the latest version on the GitHub Actions releases page https://github.com/actions/runner/releases.

Bash

(Optional) Validate the Download:

Note: – Before proceeding, ensure the shasum command is available on your Amazon EC2 instance. You can check by running:

Bash

This step verifies the package integrity using its SHA-256 hash. You can find the hash value for each release on the GitHub Actions releases page.

Bash

If the hash values match, the download is valid. Otherwise, redownload the package.

Extract the Installer:

Bash

Execute sudo ./bin/installdependencies.sh to install any missing Dotnet Core 6.0 dependencies.

2. Configure the Runner:

Run the configuration script:

Bash

Replace the following:

https://github.com/xxxxx/xxxxxxx: Replace with the URL of your GitHub repository.

AQ5LI5U2SRPVTMF2RM272BLGBJNCQ: Replace with a valid personal access token generated from your GitHub account with the repo scope. You can create a personal access token under Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens.

Conclusion

Proper setup and management of self-hosted runners on Amazon EC2 instances can significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of your development and deployment pipelines.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon EC2 and we will get back to you quickly.

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