• Install a fleeting plugin
• Install with the OCI registry distribution
  • plugin formats
  • Version constraint formats
• Install binary manually
• Fleeting plugin management

Fleeting

Fleeting is a library that GitLab Runner uses to provide a plugin-based abstraction for a cloud provider’s instance groups.

The following executors use fleeting to scale runners:

• Docker Autoscaler
• Instance

GitLab maintains these official plugins:

Cloud provider	Release status	Notes
Google Cloud	Generally available	Uses Google Cloud instance groups
AWS	Beta	Uses AWS Auto Scaling groups
Azure	Beta	Uses Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

To configure fleeting, in the config.toml, use the [runners.autoscaler] configuration section.

Install a fleeting plugin

To install a fleeting plugin, use either the:

• OCI registry distribution (recommended)
• Manual binary installation

Install with the OCI registry distribution

Plugins are installed to ~/.config/fleeting/plugins on UNIX systems, and %APPDATA%/fleeting/plugins on Windows. To override where plugins are installed, update the environment variable FLEETING_PLUGIN_PATH.

To install the fleeting plugin:

1. In the config.toml, in the [runners.autoscaler] section, add the fleeting plugin:

   AWS

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "aws:latest"
   

   Google Cloud

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "googlecloud:latest"
   

   Azure

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "azure:latest"
   

2. Run gitlab-runner fleeting install.

plugin formats

The plugin parameter supports the following formats:

• <name>
• <name>:<version constraint>
• <repository>/<name>
• <repository>/<name>:<version constraint>
• <registry>/<repository>/<name>
• <registry>/<repository>/<name>:<version constraint>

Where:

• registry.gitlab.com is the default registry.
• gitlab-org/fleeting/plugins is the default repository.
• latest is the default version.

Version constraint formats

The gitlab-runner fleeting install command uses the version constraint to find the latest matching version in the remote repository.

When GitLab Runner runs, it uses the version constraint to find the latest matching version that is installed locally.

Use the following version constraint formats:

Format	Description
latest	Latest version.
<MAJOR>	Selects the major version. For example, 1 selects the version that matches 1.*.*.
<MAJOR>:<MINOR>	Selects the major and minor version. For example, 1:5 selects the latest version that matches 1.5.*.
<MAJOR>:<MINOR>:<PATCH>	Selects the major and minor version, and patch. For example, 1:5:1 selects the version 1.5.1.

Install binary manually

To manually install a fleeting plugin:

1. Download the fleeting plugin binary for your system:
   • AWS.
   • Google Cloud
   • Azure
2. Ensure the binary has a name in the format of fleeting-plugin-<name>. For example, fleeting-plugin-aws.
3. Ensure the binary can be discovered from $PATH. For example, move it to /usr/bin/local.

4. In the config.toml, in the [runners.autoscaler] section, add the fleeting plugin. For example:

   AWS

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "fleeting-plugin-aws"
   

   Google Cloud

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "fleeting-plugin-googlecloud"
   

   Azure

   [[runners]]
     name = "my runner"
     url = "https://gitlab.com"
     token = "<token>"
     shell = "sh"
   
   executor = "instance"
   
   [runners.autoscaler]
     plugin = "fleeting-plugin-azure"
   

Fleeting plugin management

Use the following fleeting subcommands to manage fleeting plugins:

Command	Description
gitlab-runner fleeting install	Install the fleeting plugin from the OCI registry distribution.
gitlab-runner fleeting list	List referenced plugins and the version used.
gitlab-runner fleeting login	Sign in to private registries.