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Article by Hrishabh @DevOps ••4 min read

GitHub Actions: A Comprehensive Overview 🚀

Introduction

GitHub Actions is a powerful tool that enables developers to automate workflows, build, and deploy code seamlessly. It provides flexible deployment options through GitHub-hosted runners and self-hosted runners. In this blog, we will explore both deployment methods, discuss common challenges, and share best practices for managing self-hosted runners.

GitHub-Hosted Runners: Effortless Deployment

GitHub provides “runners,” which are managed virtual machines (VMs) that run and test your code. These runners are available with different operating systems, including Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and macOS. By using GitHub-hosted runners, you benefit from:

  • Automated Maintenance: GitHub takes care of updating and patching the runners, ensuring they are always up to date.

  • Environment Flexibility: You can choose the operating system that best suits your codebase.

  • Ease of Use: Setting up workflows with GitHub-hosted runners is simple and quick, making them ideal for small to medium-sized projects.

Self-Hosted Runners: Greater Control and Customization

For developers who prefer to run and test their code on their own infrastructure, GitHub Actions supports “Self-Hosted Runners.” This option provides more control and customization over the build and test processes.

Benefits of Self-Hosted Runners:

  1. Full Control: You can configure the environment, software, and hardware to meet your specific requirements.

  2. Cost Efficiency: If you already have dedicated servers, self-hosted runners can be more cost-effective than using GitHub-hosted runners.

  3. Security and Compliance: Running workflows on your own infrastructure can help meet specific security or compliance requirements.

Setting Up a Self-Hosted Runner

Configuring a self-hosted runner is straightforward:

  1. Download and install the GitHub Actions runner package on your server.

  2. Register the runner with your GitHub repository.

  3. Run the run.sh script to start the runner.

Challenges and Solutions with GitHub Actions

While GitHub Actions is a robust solution, it comes with its share of challenges:

1. Monitoring Challenges

With multiple repositories using GitHub Actions, tracking the status of workflows across repositories can become cumbersome. It is easy to lose track of which repositories have actions applied or which workflows are pending.

Solution: Utilize GitHub’s built-in features such as the “Actions” tab, notifications, and third-party monitoring tools to centralize and streamline monitoring.

2. Managing Self-Hosted Runners

To keep a self-hosted runner online, the run.sh script must be continuously executed on the server. This can interfere with other terminal operations and make server management more complex.

Solution: I developed a service script that runs the run.sh script in the background, ensuring that the runner remains online without disrupting terminal operations. However, it is important to monitor the server’s CPU utilization, as running a persistent background process can increase resource consumption.

Conclusion

GitHub Actions offers flexible deployment options through both GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runners. While GitHub-hosted runners provide ease of use and automated maintenance, self-hosted runners offer greater control and customization. However, managing self-hosted runners comes with challenges such as monitoring workflow statuses and keeping the runner online.

By implementing solutions like background service scripts and leveraging monitoring tools, you can overcome these challenges and optimize your deployment process. Whether you choose GitHub-hosted or self-hosted runners, GitHub Actions empowers you to build, test, and deploy your code with confidence and efficiency.