Using a Container App Job as Github Actions Runner for your entire Github Orginization

2 minute read | By Keegan D'Souza

This blog will detail the specifc changes in order to accomplish using your Container App Job for Github Action Runners for all repos under your Github Organization.

Overview

You can use Container App Jobs as an Github Actions Runner. However there are specific steps in case you need to use your Container App Job for Github Action Runners for all repos under your Github Organization.

This blog will detail the specifc changes in order to accomplish this.

Prerequisite

Please validate your runner is working with a single repo under your personal account before switching over to a Github Organization, by following the below tutorial.

Tutorial: Deploy self-hosted CI/CD runners and agents with Azure Container Apps jobs

The following blog can help you troubleshooot common issues when settings this up: Troubleshooting Jobs When Using Self Hosted CICD Runners

The offical Keda Documentation for the scaler used can be found here: Github Runner Scaler - KEDA

Modification for Github Organization.

Generate a new personal access token.

  • Naviagate to your Github Organization Settings. Make sure Fine-grained personal access tokens are enabled. Under Third-party Access -> Personal access tokens -> Settings Github-Org-PAT-Permissions

  • Generate your personal account token (PAT) by naviating to your Github Account settings. Under Developer Settings -> Personal access tokens -> Fine-Graned Tokens - Generate new token. Your token should have the following permissions.

    Organization Permissions

    Setting Value
    Self Hosted Runners Select Read and write.

    Repository Permissions

    Setting Value
    Actions Select Read-only.
    Administration Select Read and write.
    Meta Select Read-only.

    PAT-Permissions

  • After your new personal access token is generated save this value.

  • Then update your container app secret containing your personal access token value, by navigating to your container app job on the Azure Portal under the secrets tab.

    Pat-ACA-Secret

Update the Keda Scaling rule MetaData.

  • On the Azure Portal for your Container App Job navigate to the Event-driven scaling tab, click on the github-scaling to edit it. The only two required values needed in the scale rule Metadata section are listed below.

    Scale rule Metadata

    Name Value
    owner the-name-of-your-organization
    runnerScope org

    Scale-Rule-Meta-Data

Update your container runner environment variables.

  • On the Azure Portal for your Container App Job navigate to the Containers tab and click on your container to edit it. These are the follow values you for the environment variables you need to edit.

    Runner Container Environment Variables

    Name Source Value
    GITHUB_PAT Reference a secret personal-access-token
    REGISTRATION_TOKEN_API_URL Manual https://api.github.com/orgs/your-organization-name/actions/runners/registration-token
    GH_URL Manual https://github.com/your-organization-name

runner-container-env-vars

Your Container App Job should now be able to act as a runner for your all repos under your entire Github Organization.

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