Features of GitLab Runner include the following:
- The ability to run multiple jobs concurrently
- The use of multiple tokens with multiple servers (even per project)
- The ability to limit the number of concurrent jobs per token
The jobs GitLab Runner can execute can do the following:
- Run on a local computer without containers or virtualization
- Run inside Docker containers
- Run inside Docker containers and execute jobs over SSH
- Run using Docker containers with autoscaling on different clouds and virtualization hypervisors
- Run by connecting to a remote SSH server, where it can be executed
Additional features include the following:
- GitLab Runner supports Bash, Windows Batch, and Windows PowerShell
- The runner binary works on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows (all Docker-supported platforms)
- A runner allows the customization of a job-running environment
- A runner can have an automatic configuration reload without restart
- It is to easy set up, with support for Docker, Docker SSH, Parallels, or SSH-running environments
- Runners also support the caching of Docker containers
- The Runner package supports installation as a service for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows
- You can enable an embedded Prometheus metrics HTTP server in a runner
You can find an overview of the registered runners in GitLab by logging in as an admin and checking the Runners menu on the left, as shown in the following screenshot:
You should now see a list of runners that have registered on your GitLab instance, as shown in the following screenshot:
As shown in the following screenshot, if you click a runner, you will see that it is possible to do the following:
- Configure a paused runner not to accept new jobs
- Designate a runner as protected
- Set a runner to pick up jobs with or without tags
- Lock a runner to projects
- Set a maximum timeout for a job
- Tag runners
On the left, you will be able to see which jobs have been recently processed by a runner, as shown in the following screenshot:
So far, you have seen how GitLab CI fits in with the GitLab product and also how GitLab Runners are registered with an instance. We have also looked at the basic features of GitLab Runners and showed you how to create a configuration file for jobs to be picked up and executed by a runner.