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Deploy GitHub Runners

Deploy a GitHub Actions runner on the DSRI to run your GitHub Actions workflows with more resources than GitHub-hosted runners, which are limited to 7GB RAM, 1 CPU and 6 hours per job.

Why use a GitHub runner?​

  • Run larger workloads with more CPU, memory and no time restrictions
  • A step can be any Bash command, or a reusable Action from the GitHub Marketplace
  • Parallelization up to 255 jobs
  • Good logging system directly available in your GitHub repository
  • Define triggers (on code push, cron job, manual request) and secrets easily

For more information about GitHub Actions, go to https://github.com/features/actions

Prerequisites​

  • Helm installed on your computer
  • Access to a DSRI project (oc project my-project)
  • A GitHub Personal Access Token (classic) - see below

Create a GitHub Personal Access Token​

caution

Use a classic token. Fine-grained tokens are not supported by the runner chart.

  1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
  2. Click Generate new token → Generate new token (classic)
  3. Give it a meaningful name (e.g. DSRI Runner my-project)
  4. Select the following scopes:
    • ✅ repo
    • ✅ workflow
    • ✅ admin:org - only if deploying for a GitHub organization
  5. Click Generate token and copy it immediately

Install the Helm chart​

helm repo add openshift-actions-runner https://redhat-actions.github.io/openshift-actions-runner-chart
helm repo update

Deploy a Runner​

Make sure you are in the correct DSRI project before deploying:

oc project my-project

There are two types of runners: one for a specific repository, or one for an entire GitHub organization. Choose the one that fits your use case.

For a repository​

Deploy a runner that only picks up jobs from one specific GitHub repository.

1. Set your credentials and repository details:

export GITHUB_PAT="TOKEN"
export GITHUB_OWNER=your-github-username
export GITHUB_REPO=your-repo-name

2. Deploy the runner:

helm install actions-runner openshift-actions-runner/actions-runner \
    --set-string githubPat=$GITHUB_PAT \
    --set-string githubOwner=$GITHUB_OWNER \
    --set-string githubRepository=$GITHUB_REPO \
    --set runnerLabels="{ dsri, $GITHUB_OWNER }"

3. Verify the deployment:

oc get pods
helm get manifest actions-runner | oc get -f -

The pod should show 1/1 Running. Then confirm the runner registered on GitHub:

Go to https://github.com/<your-username>/<your-repo>/settings/actions/runners. The runner should appear with status Idle.

For an organization​

Deploy a runner available to all repositories in a GitHub organization. Requires admin:org scope on your PAT.

1. Set your credentials and organization name:

export GITHUB_PAT="TOKEN"
export GITHUB_OWNER=My-Org

2. Deploy the runner:

helm install actions-runner openshift-actions-runner/actions-runner \
    --set-string githubPat=$GITHUB_PAT \
    --set-string githubOwner=$GITHUB_OWNER \
    --set runnerLabels="{ dsri, $GITHUB_OWNER }" \
    --set replicas=3 \
    --set serviceAccountName=anyuid \
    --set memoryRequest="512Mi" \
    --set memoryLimit="100Gi" \
    --set cpuRequest="100m" \
    --set cpuLimit="64"

3. Verify the deployment:

oc get pods
helm get manifest actions-runner | oc get -f -

Then confirm the runners registered on GitHub by going to your organization's Settings → Actions → Runners. You should see 3 runners listed with status Idle.

See all available parameters for further customization.

Use the runner in a workflow​

In your repository, create a workflow file under .github/workflows/ and set runs-on to target your DSRI runner:

jobs:
  your-job:
    runs-on: ["self-hosted", "dsri", "your-github-username-or-org"]
    steps:
      - name: Hello from DSRI
        run: echo "Running on DSRI!"

Uninstall the runner​

helm uninstall actions-runner

See also​