The Runner is a super important part of the GitLab ecosystem. Builds, tests, deployments — you name it, and the Runner’s got you covered.
In simple terms, Runners are agents that execute GitLab CI/CD jobs in your pipeline. So if you're setting up GitLab in a meaningful way, you'll definitely need one. Fortunately, installing a Runner is pretty straightforward—just like setting up the GitLab server.
Step 1 : Setup Docker Dependencies
yum install containerd.io docker-ce-cli docker-ce
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now docker
Step 2 : Setup Gitlab Runner Repository
curl -L "https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/runner/gitlab-runner/script.rpm.sh" | sudo -E bash
Step 3 : Install Gitlab Runner
yum -y --disablerepo='*' --enablerepo='gitlab_gitlab-runner' install gitlab-runner-17.10.1-1.x86_64
Step 4: Register the Runner
- Head over to
http://<YOUR_GITLAB_URL>/admin/runners - Click New Instance Runner
- Enable Run untagged jobs and Paused
- Hit Create Runner to generate your token
gitlab-runner register --non-interactive --url {GITLAB_URL} --token {RUNNER_TOKEN} --description "{RUNNER_NAME}" --executor docker
Go to Gitlab - http:///admin/runners and check for the new runner.
Congratulations! You've successfully created your Runner!
In case you got stuck somewhere, feel free to drop a comment — I’ll try to answer as best as I can.
You can also checkout gitlab forum for any additional help or queries.
Top comments (1)
i would say guides like this actually help me not overthink the setup stuff - solid