Gitlab CI

Getting started with Gitlab CI runners in code.ornl.gov running on ExCL systems.

Register a Runner

Runners can be registered as either a group runner or for a single repository (also know as a project runner). Group runners are made available to all the repositories in a group.

Send the following information to [e-mail] and we will register the runner as a system runner.

• URL

• Registration Token

• Executor (choose shell or docker with image)

• Project Name (This can be group name or repo name)

• ExCL System

• Tag List

The method for obtaining this information differs depending on if you want to register a group runner or a single repository runner. See Group Runner and Single Repo Runner (Project Runner)) sections below.

After the runner is added, you can edit the runner to change the tags and description.

Group Runner

Navigate to the group page. Click on Build → Runners. Then select New group runner and progress until you have created the runner and are provided with a command to run in the command line to register the runner. Since we use system runners instead of user runners, you will need to send this information to [e-mail] to get the runner registered.

Single Repo Runner (Project Runner)

Navigate to the repo page. Click on Settings → CI/CD → Runners. Then select New project runner and progress until you have created the runner and are provided with a command to run in the command line to register the runner. Since we use system runners instead of user runners, you will need to send this information to [e-mail] to get the runner registered.

List of ExCL Systems with a runner

Any system can be requested as a runner. These systems are already being used as a runner. (Updated October 2023)

• docker.ftpn.ornl.gov

• explorer.ftpn.ornl.gov

• intrepid.ftpn.ornl.gov

• justify.ftpn.ornl.gov

• leconte.ftpn.ornl.gov

• lewis.ftpn.ornl.gov

• milan2.ftpn.ornl.gov

• milan3.ftpn.ornl.gov

• oswald00.ftpn.ornl.gov

• oswald02.ftpn.ornl.gov

• oswald03.ftpn.ornl.gov

• pcie.ftpn.ornl.gov

• zenith.ftpn.ornl.gov

Using Slurm with Gitlab CI

The system slurm-gitlab-runner is setup specifically to run CI jobs that then run the execution using slurm with sbatch --wait.

For a complete example and template for how to use the Slurm with GitLab in ExCL see this pipeline and this template.

This template includes two helper scripts, runner_watcher.sh and slurm-tee.py.

runner_watcher.sh watches the CI job and cancels the Slurm job if the CI job is canceled or times out.

slurm-tee.py watches the slurm-out.txt and slurm-err.txt files and prints their content to std-out so that the build log can be watched from the GitLab web interface. Unlike regular less --folow, slurm-tee watches the multiple files for changes and also exits once the slurm job completes.

Spack and Conda with Gitlab-CI

.setup:
  tags: [shell]
  before_script:
    - source /auto/ciscratch/spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
    - source /auto/ciscratch/conda/etc/profile.d/conda.sh

build:
  extends: [.setup]
  script: 
    - spack env create -d . spack.yaml
    - spack env activate .
    - spack install
    - conda create -p ./envs
    - conda activate ./envs
    - conda install pip