Migrating to the new runner registration workflow (FREE ALL)

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In GitLab 16.0, we introduced a new runner creation workflow that uses authentication tokens to register runners. The legacy workflow that uses registration tokens is deprecated and will be removed in GitLab 17.0.

For information about the current development status of the new workflow, see epic 7663.

For information about the technical design and reasons for the new architecture, see Next GitLab Runner Token Architecture.

Feedback

If you experience problems or have concerns about the new runner registration workflow, or if the following information is not sufficient, you can let us know in the feedback issue.

The new runner registration workflow

For the new runner registration workflow, you:

Create a runner directly in the GitLab UI.
Receive an authentication token.
Use the authentication token instead of the registration token when you register a runner with this configuration. Runner managers registered in multiple hosts appear under the same runner in the GitLab UI, but with an identifying system ID.

The new runner registration workflow has the following benefits:

Preserved ownership records for runners, and minimized impact on users.
The addition of a unique system ID ensures that you can reuse the same authentication token across multiple runners. For more information, see Reusing a GitLab Runner configuration.

Estimated time frame for planned changes

In GitLab 15.10 and later, you can use the new runner registration workflow.
In GitLab 16.6, we plan to disable registration tokens.
In GitLab 17.0, we plan to completely remove support for runner registration tokens.

Prevent your runner registration workflow from breaking

Until GitLab 16.6, you can still use the legacy runner registration workflow.

In GitLab 16.6, the legacy runner registration workflow will be disabled automatically. You will be able to manually re-enable the legacy runner registration workflow for a limited time. For more information, see Using registration tokens after GitLab 16.6.

If no action is taken before your GitLab instance is upgraded to GitLab 16.6, then your runner registration workflow will break.

To avoid a broken workflow, you must:

Create a shared runner and obtain the authentication token.
Replace the registration token in your runner registration workflow with the authentication token.

Using registration tokens after GitLab 16.6

To continue using registration tokens after GitLab 16.6:

On GitLab.com, you can manually re-enable the legacy runner registration process in the top-level group settings until GitLab 16.8.
On GitLab self-managed, you can manually re-enable the legacy runner registration process in the Admin Area settings until GitLab 17.0.

Plans to implement a UI setting to re-enable registration tokens are proposed in issue 411923

Changes to the `gitlab-runner register` command syntax

The gitlab-runner register command will stop accepting registration tokens and instead accept new authentication tokens generated in the GitLab runners administration page. These authentication tokens are recognizable by their glrt- prefix.

When you create a runner in the GitLab UI, you specify configuration values that were previously command-line options prompted by the gitlab-runner register command. These command-line options have been deprecated.

If you specify an authentication token with:

the --token command-line option, the gitlab-runner register command does not accept the configuration values.
the --registration-token command-line option, the gitlab-runner register command ignores the configuration values.

Authentication tokens have the prefix, glrt-.

To ensure minimal disruption to your automation workflow, legacy-compatible registration processing triggers if an authentication token is specified in the legacy parameter --registration-token.

Example command for GitLab 15.9:

gitlab-runner register \
    --non-interactive \
    --executor "shell" \
    --url "https://gitlab.com/" \
    --tag-list "shell,mac,gdk,test" \
    --run-untagged "false" \
    --locked "false" \
    --access-level "not_protected" \
    --registration-token "GR1348941C6YcZVddc8kjtdU-yWYD"

In GitLab 15.10 and later, you create the runner and some of the attributes in the UI, like the tag list, locked status, and access level. In GitLab 15.11 and later, these attributes are no longer accepted as arguments to register.

The following example shows the new command:

gitlab-runner register \
    --non-interactive \
    --executor "shell" \
    --url "https://gitlab.com/" \
    --token "glrt-2CR8_eVxiioB1QmzPZwa"

Impact on autoscaling

In autoscaling scenarios such as GitLab Runner Operator or GitLab Runner Helm Chart, the registration token is replaced with the authentication token generated from the UI. This means that the same runner configuration is reused across jobs, instead of creating a runner for each job. The specific runner can be identified by the unique system ID that is generated when the runner process is started.

Impact on existing runners

Existing runners will continue to work as usual. This change only affects registration of new runners.

Creating runners programmatically

A new POST /user/runners REST API was introduced in GitLab 15.11, which allows a runner to be created in the context of an authenticated user. This should only be used in scenarios where the runner configuration is dynamic, or not reusable. If the runner configuration is static, it is preferable to reuse the authentication token of an existing runner.

The following snippet shows how a group runner could be created and registered with a Group Access Token using the new creation flow. The process is very similar when using Project Access Tokens or Personal Access Tokens:

# `GROUP_ID` contains the numerical ID of the group where the runner will be created
# `GITLAB_TOKEN` can be a Personal Access Token for a group owner, or a Group Access Token on the respective group
#   created with `owner` access and `api` scope.
#
# The output will be parsed by `jq` to extract the token of the newly created runner
RUNNER_TOKEN=$(curl --silent --request POST "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/user/runners" \
    --header "private-token: $GITLAB_TOKEN" \
    --data runner_type=group_type --data group_id=$GROUP_ID --data 'description=My runner' --data 'tag_list=java,linux' \
  | jq -r '.token')

gitlab-runner register \
    --non-interactive \
    --executor "shell" \
    --url "https://gitlab.com/" \
    --token "$RUNNER_TOKEN"

Installing GitLab Runner with Helm chart

Several runner configuration options cannot be set during runner registration. These options can only be configured:

When you create a runner in the UI.
With the user/runners REST API endpoint.

The following configuration options are no longer supported in values.yaml:

## All these fields are DEPRECATED and the runner WILL FAIL TO START if you specify them
runnerRegistrationToken: ""
locked: true
tags: ""
maximumTimeout: ""
runUntagged: true
protected: true

If you store the runner token in secrets, you must also modify them.

In the legacy runner registration workflow, fields were specified with:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: gitlab-runner-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  runner-registration-token: "REDACTED" # DEPRECATED, set to ""
  runner-token: ""

In the new runner registration workflow, you must use runner-token instead:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: gitlab-runner-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  runner-registration-token: "" # need to leave as an empty string for compatibility reasons
  runner-token: "REDACTED"