Can you plz make manal how to setup runner.server with gitea-actions-runner on windows

[xlazom00]

Can you plz write manal how to setup runner.server with gitea-actions-runner on windows
And what limitations do we have right now ?
I want to use windows docker with windows containers
If I can pass data between jobs. I will need to build application and pass it to another docker image to test it
Thx

[ChristopherHX]

Thanks for showing interest

And what limitations do we have right now ?

Some more limitations, that should be part of the readme / implemented

This runner doesn't support

• anything of the yaml structure not supported by GitHub Actions.
• anything not supported by the gitea/act workflow model
• No GITEA_ env vars
• No ${{ gitea }}

For windows containers are no noticeable limitations, I'm aware of except what applies to linux containers for GitHub Actions.

If I can pass data between jobs. I will need to build application and pass it to another docker image to test it

Use upload / download artifacts actions for this, they should work. There are possible hacks available, but they don't improve reliability.

Can you plz write manal how to setup runner.server with gitea-actions-runner on windows

This can take a while for me to document this in an easier to setup form

I think a guided runner setup with multiple choice should be implemented that setups everything for you.
The current design state is only generally usable in form of the docker image that has everything preconfigured.

e.g. container: is needed in your workflow yaml to run via windows containers, no auto containers like in official act_runner.

[ChristopherHX]

Hey @xlazom00,

Do you still want to try windows containers?

I now have finished my initial improved setup assistant for runner registration

• Download gitea-actions-runner-0.0.16-windows-amd64.exe or newer
• Create a new runner folder and place this binary into it
• run .\gitea-actions-runner-0.0.16-windows-amd64.exe register
• Choose between custom worker (0) / official Github Actions Runner (1) / runner.server actions runner (windows container support) (2)? [0/1/2] answer with 2
• Specify the version of the runner? (for example, 3.12.1): just press Enter with an empty answer
• Now see the runner to download additional data into you cwd with progress indicator updating every 10s
• Continue with the usual setup steps
• Once you are at labels, only provide the basename e.g. windows-latest joined by , instead of any :host, :docker:// suffixes
• run .\gitea-actions-runner-0.0.16-windows-amd64.exe daemon

Try to queue a job e.g.

on: push
jobs:
  stress-test:
    runs-on: windows-container
    container: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:9.0-nanoserver-ltsc2022
    steps:
    - run: echo Test
    - uses: actions/github-script@v7
      with:
        script: |
          console.log("Hello World2")

Enjoy your windows container runner (with the GitHub Actions compatible subset of Gitea Actions)

You need to whitelist the runner binary in your Windows Firewall by either interactive prompt or manually adding a rule to allow all tcp in ports for the runner application.
Windows containers are subject to Windows Firewall rules due to using different virtual network adapters.

Please come back to me if you see job failures including the job (Gitea web ui) and the runner log (the console output of the runner)

Supporting Gitea Actions Features here could be looked into, but nothing to share for now.

You can then look at the .runner file generated and learn more about how this works internally

[xlazom00]

I did run windows containers without problems. But I found that github actions dont have a options to run local container 😭 so I will need Docker registry.
I want to setup CI for one Delphi application.
I made a image with compiler but I will need to push it my own registry.
And I dont know how can I run all this on one machine
Gitea, windows docker for delphi image
Linux docker for registry and all on windows host

[ChristopherHX]

I dont know how can I run all this on one machine
Gitea, windows docker for delphi image
Linux docker for registry and all on windows host

What comes up in my mind is (what you can do without me doing anything additionally)

• to use docker engine (or docker desktop, which I would always try to avoid as of the license change) for windows containers only.
• Install podman desktop for linux containers
  • use podman run for the registry instead of docker run

I assume these apps don't conflict, as wsl2 works side by side with windows containers

I found that github actions dont have a options to run local container 😭 so I will need Docker registry.

I can add an env variable that you can set in an .env file to skip docker pull for you. I have a linux server in my local network that hosts the docker registry, therefore I didn't have a need to add this in between implementing this and now.

[xlazom00]

Env var will be fine

[ChristopherHX]

PullRequest (Untested) ChristopherHX/runner.server#550

Download the patched runner for your win-x64 here https://github.com/ChristopherHX/runner.server/actions/runs/13168358208?pr=550 from the artifacts section. (Once this is included in the default runner.server version of this gitea runner such replacement is no longer needed for first time users)

Replace the bin folder inside the automatically created actions-runner-v3.12.2 folder by the first time setup of the gitea runner with the similar looking content of the archive.
Test this by setting it in your shell

$env:RUNNER_CONTAINER_SKIP_PULL="1"
.\gitea-actions-runner-0.0.16-windows-amd64.exe daemon

you should be able to create a .env file next to the .runner file

RUNNER_CONTAINER_SKIP_PULL=1

and should work as well

[xlazom00]

working fine THX

[xlazom00]

Btw
How can I configure how many cpus and memory docker container will have ?
And how many simultaneous docker container is allowed

[xlazom00]

@ChristopherHX
It looks like https://docs.github.com/en/actions/writing-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idcontaineroptions
Isn't supported

on:
  push:
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: windows-runner
    container: xe-radstudio-net3.5-ltsc2022:latest
    options: --cpu-count=8

[ChristopherHX]

@xlazom00 If you really tried your snipped, no wonder it didn't work

Please try

on:
  push:
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: windows-runner
    container:
      image: xe-radstudio-net3.5-ltsc2022:latest
      options: --cpu-count=8

And how many simultaneous docker container is allowed

Due to how the actions/runner spawns docker container, using bind mounts it has a max parallelism of 1 per runner.

• duplicate the cwd of your runner
• reregister the new folder as new runner

Now you should have parallelism + 1.

[xlazom00]

I am building with --cpu-count=8
thx for the fix
btw I didn't get any error for my original yaml

It will be nice that action runner will be able to run Runner.Worker.exe and prepare unique working directories dynamically.

[andyqp]

Due to how the actions/runner spawns docker container, using bind mounts it has a max parallelism of 1 per runner.

• duplicate the cwd of your runner
• reregister the new folder as new runner

Now you should have parallelism + 1.

could we then install the second windows service using "svc install"? I guess the alternative service name needs to be passed as an argument.

[ChristopherHX]

could we then install the second windows service using "svc install"?

idk

My assumption is yes I should bring over my "runner cloning" from my https://github.com/ChristopherHX/runner.server (Runner.Client cli not the windows container runtime) project over to this gitea runner.

This would effectively allow to increment the max parallel tasks for a single gitea runner.