Use self-hosted runners with testground & libp2p/test-plan repo

[laurentsenta]

• [ ] install missing dependencies on the runner until we can build testground
• [ ] when we're done this might be an ideal time to document the workflow to install self-hosted runners in an org / repo (since we just done it).

[laurentsenta]

using a test repo (forked to an organization): https://github.com/singulargarden/pl-github

I could use the self-hosted runner that you created @galargh. The self-hosted runner works 🥳

except our runner is missing gcc (and maybe a few other dependencies) to build testground: https://github.com/singulargarden/pl-github/runs/6692012837?check_suite_focus=true

[galargh]

Sweet. Let's create an ami with all the required dependencies using packer.

[laurentsenta]

Getting close: https://github.com/philips-labs/terraform-aws-github-runner/compare/develop...laurentsenta:feat/ipdx-testground-image

Built with:

packer build -var-file="./testground.pkrvars.hcl" .
packer build -var-file="./go1.18.pkrvars.hcl" .

It generates AMI like: github-runner-ubuntu-focal-amd64-202206021224-testground.

If you login with the AWS testground org, they are visible in https://eu-west-1.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=eu-west-1#Images:visibility=owned-by-me

We should be able to use them with something like: https://github.com/pl-strflt/tf-aws-gh-runner/pull/1/files

Would it make sense to merge this PR and test it works end to end before we make it nice and reusable?

I'm not sure yet:

• where to version these images: do we want to fork the whole philips-labs repo or cherry-pick scripts and configs in the https://github.com/pl-strflt/tf-aws-gh-runner repo ?
• which AWS org we used to setup the current runners (I'd like to build the AMIs there) ?

[galargh]

For anyone else following this issue, we're going to pair on this tomorrow. We'll update the issue with whatever we come up with together.

[laurentsenta]

Current state: We got the whole workflow running with custom AMIs, etc: https://github.com/singulargarden/pl-github/actions/runs/2435526535

Left to do:

• [ ] tweak our setup so the testground test passes (see context deadline exceeded & go mod download errors)
• [ ] define "final" names & content for each of our AMIs

[aktech]

2 cents on self-hosting runners:

I built a service for running self-hosted GitHub Action runners on cloud with 0 maintenance and free for open source: https://cirun.io/

• It's on-demand, which means you only pay to your cloud provider for the time you're using it. It also supports arm based runners.
• All you need is a simple configuration .cirun.yml file, here is a demo.
• Also available on GitHub Marketplace as well: https://github.com/marketplace/cirun-io

[galargh]

@laurentsenta Do we still want to proceed with this?

[laurentsenta]

@galargh with stability improvements and TaaS getting closer, it's not that urgent. I'm going to close this, we can reopen it later, thanks for asking,