Action Runners#
There are two broad categories of Action Runners: Github Hosted and Self-Hosted. Github's documentation on how to use a runner for a job can be found Here. It also contains the offical list of runners.
Github Hosted Runners#
This is the default runner to use.
- These runners do NOT have access to on-prem resources.
- How to use github hosted runners
- If you need to access an on-prem resource you can use the provided "Github Hosted+VPN" runner that connects the runner to the campus network
- Use the following in your action file
runs-on: umn-enterprise-vpn - Using this incurs an additional cost to the University. For reasonable use, the cost is covered by OIT. Heavy use may require setting up a cost center to be tied to an Azure Subscription for billing.
- Also, if your team is using Co-pilot it will be lumped in with that.
Self-hosted Runners#
GitHub does not recommend using public repositories with self-hosted runners. Forks of your public repository enable potentially dangerous code to be run on the self-hosted runners via pull request.
OIT does not recommend using self-hosted runners unless absolutely necessary to avoid security weaknesses
Troubleshooting#
If you suspect something is wrong, you can switch the runs-on line in your workflow file (in the .github/workflows directory) to a GitHub-hosted runner like ubuntu-latest. This will help rule out an issue specific to the UMN self-hosted runner. To test if an upcoming patch cycle will ameliorate issues with existing self-hosted runners, you can switch to umn-enterprise-vpn.
Build your own self-hosted runners#
Self hosted runners are installed on your own hosts and do not include any tools/apps/binaries. Each team would be required to manage the installation and updates on their own.
Self Hosted runners may be needed to access on-prem resources such as Artifactory.