Set up a GCP VM build infrastructure

note

Currently, this feature is behind the Feature Flag CI_VM_INFRASTRUCTURE. Contact Harness Support to enable the feature.

This topic describes how to set up a CI build infrastructure in Google Cloud Platform. You will create an Ubuntu VM and then install a CI Delegate and Drone Runner on it. The Delegate creates VMs dynamically in response to CI build requests.

For information on using Kubernetes as a build farm, see Set up a Kubernetes cluster build infrastructure.

The following diagram illustrates a build farm. The Harness Delegate communicates directly with your Harness instance. The VM Runner maintains a pool of VMs for running builds. When the Delegate receives a build request, it forwards the request to the Runner, which runs the build on an available VM.

Important Notes

• Google Cloud VM configuration:
  • For the delegate VM, use a machine type with 4 vCPU and 16 GB memory or more.
  • Harness recommends the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic) machine image.
  • The VM must allow ingress access on ports 22 and 9079.

To find images to use on Google Compute Engine, use the following command:

gcloud compute images list

A valid image reference looks like this: projects/{PROJECT}/global/images/{IMAGE}

For example: projects/docs-test/global/images/ubuntu-pro-1804-bionic-v20220131

Step 1: Set up the delegate VM

1. Log into the Google Cloud Console and launch the VM that will host your Harness delegate.

2. Install Docker on the VM.

3. Install Docker Compose on the VM. You must have Docker Compose version 3.7 or higher installed.

4. Run this command on the VM:

   gcloud auth application-default login

   This creates the following credentials file:

   /home/$(whoami)/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json

5. Create a /runner folder on your VM and cd into it:

   mkdir /runner
   cd /runner

Step 2: Configure the Drone pool on the Google VM

The pool.yml file defines the VM spec and pool size for the VM instances used to run the pipeline. A pool is a group of instantiated VMs that are immediately available to run CI pipelines.

1. In the /runner folder, create a new pool.yml file.
2. Set up the file as described in the following example. Note the following:
   • To avoid latency issues between delegate and build VMs, specify the same zone where your delegate is running in the spec: zone: field.
   • Set up spec: account: with your Google project ID and your JSON credentials file.
   • For information about specific settings, go to the Pool Settings Reference. You can also learn more in the Drone documentation for Drone Pool and Google.

Example pool.yml

version: "1"
instances:
  - name: ubuntu-gcp
    default: true
    type: google
    pool: 1
    limit: 1
    platform:
      os: linux
      arch: amd64
    spec:
      account:
        project_id: ci-play
        json_path: /path/to/key.json
      image: projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/images/ubuntu-pro-1804-bionic-v20220510
      machine_type: e2-small
      zone:
        - us-centra1-a
        - us-central1-b
        - us-central1-c
      disk:
        size: 100
        type: "pd-balanced"

Later in this workflow, you'll reference the pool identifier in Harness Manager to map the pool with a Stage Infrastructure in a CI Pipeline. This is described later in this topic.

Step 3: Configure the docker-compose.yaml file

1. In your Harness account, organization, or project, select Delegates under Project Setup.
2. Click New Delegate and select Switch back to old delegate install experience.
3. Select Docker and then select Continue.
4. Enter a Delegate Name. Optionally, you can add Tags or Delegate Tokens. Then, select Continue.
5. Select Download YAML file to download the docker-compose.yaml file to your local machine.

Next, you'll add the Runner spec to the new Delegate definition. The Harness Delegate and Runner run on the same VM. The Runner communicates with the Harness Delegate on localhost and port 3000 of your VM.

1. Copy your local docker-compose.yaml file to the /runner folder on the VM. This folder should now have both docker-compose.yaml and pool.yml.

2. Open docker-compose.yaml in a text editor.

3. Append the following to the end of the docker-compose.yaml file:

   drone-runner-aws:  
       restart: unless-stopped  
       image: drone/drone-runner-aws:latest  
       volumes:  
         - /runner:/runner  
         - /path/to/google/credentials/file/:/key  
           # example: /home/jsmith/.config/gcloud/:/key  
       entrypoint: ["/bin/drone-runner-aws", "delegate", "--pool", "pool.yml"]  
       working_dir: /runner  
       ports:  
         - "3000:3000"

4. Under services: harness-ng-delegate: restart: unless-stopped, add the following line:

   network_mode: "host"

5. Save docker-compose.yaml.

Example: docker-compose.yaml with Runner spec

version: "3.7"  
services:  
  harness-ng-delegate:  
    restart: unless-stopped  
    network_mode: "host"  
    deploy:  
      resources:  
        limits:  
          cpus: "0.5"  
          memory: 2048M  
    image: harness/delegate:latest  
    environment:  
      - ACCOUNT_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
      - ACCOUNT_SECRET=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
      - MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT=https://app.harness.io  
      - WATCHER_STORAGE_URL=https://app.harness.io/public/qa/premium/watchers  
      - WATCHER_CHECK_LOCATION=current.version  
      - REMOTE_WATCHER_URL_CDN=https://app.harness.io/public/shared/watchers/builds  
      - DELEGATE_STORAGE_URL=https://app.harness.io  
      - DELEGATE_CHECK_LOCATION=delegateqa.txt  
      - USE_CDN=true  
      - CDN_URL=https://app.harness.io  
      - DEPLOY_MODE=KUBERNETES  
      - DELEGATE_NAME=qwerty  
      - NEXT_GEN=true  
      - DELEGATE_DESCRIPTION=  
      - DELEGATE_TYPE=DOCKER  
      - DELEGATE_TAGS=  
      - DELEGATE_TASK_LIMIT=50  
      - DELEGATE_ORG_IDENTIFIER=  
      - DELEGATE_PROJECT_IDENTIFIER=  
      - PROXY_MANAGER=true  
      - VERSION_CHECK_DISABLED=false  
      - INIT_SCRIPT=echo "Docker delegate init script executed."  
  drone-runner-aws:  
    restart: unless-stopped  
    image: drone/drone-runner-aws:latest  
    volumes:  
      - /runner:/runner  
      - /home/jsmith/.config/gcloud/:/key  
    entrypoint: ["/bin/drone-runner-aws", "delegate", "--pool", "pool.yml"]  
    working_dir: /runner  
    ports:  
      - "3000:3000"

For more information on Harness Docker Delegate environment variables, go to the Harness Docker Delegate environment variables reference.

Step 4: Install the Delegate and Runner

1. SSH into the Delegate VM and cd to /runner.

2. Confirm that the folder has both setup files, for example:

   $ ls -a
   . .. docker-compose.yml pool.yml

3. Run the following command to install the Delegate and Runner:

   $ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

4. Verify that both containers are running correctly. You might need to wait a few minutes for both processes to start. You can run the following commands to check the process status:

   $ docker ps  
   $ docker logs <delegate-container-id>  
   $ docker logs <runner-container-id>

5. In the Harness UI, verify that the Delegate appears in the Delegates list. It might take two or three minutes for the Delegates list to update. Make sure the Connectivity Status is Connected. If the Connectivity Status is Not Connected, make sure the Docker host can connect to https://app.harness.io.

   

The Delegate and Runner are now installed, registered, and connected.

Step 5: Select pipeline build infrastructure

1. In your CI pipeline's Build stage, select the Infrastructure tab, and then select VMs.

2. In the Pool ID, enter the pool name from your pool.yml.

   

This pipeline's Build stage now uses your GCP VMs for its build infrastructure.

Pool Settings Reference

You can configure the following settings in your pool.yml file.

Subfields	Examples	Description
name (String)	NA	name: windows_pool
pool (Integer)	NA	pool: 1
limit (Integer)	NA	limit: 3
platform	os (String)	platform: os: windowsarch (String)
spec		Configure the settings of your build VMs as described in Build VM Settings.

Build VM Settings

• account: Specify your GCP project Id and the full path and filename of your local Google credentials file.
• image: The image type to use for the build VM.
• machine_type: The google machine type. See About Machine Families in the Google Cloud docs.
• zone: To minimize latency, specify the zone where the Delegate is running.

Troubleshooting (Advanced)

If you have problems running the delegate, runner, or VMs, you can collect debug and trace information in your container logs.

1. Create a .env file with the following options in your /runner folder:

   DRONE_DEBUG=true  
   DRONE_TRACE=true
2. Shut down the delegate and runner: docker-compose down
3. In your docker-compose.yml file, update the drone-runner-aws: entrypoint to include the .env file:

    drone-runner-aws:  
    restart: unless-stopped  
    image: drone/drone-runner-aws:1.0.0-rc.9  
    volumes:  
      - /runner:/runner  
      - /home/jsmith/.config/gcloud/:/key  
    entrypoint: ["/bin/drone-runner-aws", "delegate", "--envfile", ".env", "--pool", "pool.yml"]  
    working_dir: /runner  
    ports:  
      - "3000:3000"      
4. Restart the delegate and runner: docker-compose up

See Also

• Set up a Kubernetes cluster build infrastructure
• For more details on VM Runner, go to this GitHub page.