Runners are not getting registered with github when using ubuntu based custom ami

[mahela-aws]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to create some runners using an ubuntu based image which we have created based on packer template provided here https://github.com/philips-labs/terraform-aws-github-runner/blob/develop/images/ubuntu-focal/github_agent.ubuntu.pkr.hcl
But unfortunately runners are not picking up any jobs. It's not getting registered with github.
any help on this greatly appreciated.

We have a working setup with amzn-lunix-2 runners but however we want to switch to ubuntu runners since there are few public actions that we're trying use only supported with ubuntu.

Thanks,

[davecozens]

Appreciate this is an old thread, but I'm having the same issues - the runner appears to start but never appears as registered in the runners list on github. I'm using the default image, so I believe amazon linux 2?

How were you able to resolve this?

[Amanraj0007]

@davecozens
how did you resolved this issue ? facing same

[davecozens]

I manually modified the security group so I could SSH into the box and watch it start up.

You can view the startup logs using:
sudo tail -n 30 -f var/log/cloud-init-output.log

And the scripts themselves are in
sudo vi /var/lib/cloud/instances/{instance-id}/scripts/*

I don't recall what the precise cause was in the end, but that was how I found it...

[Amanraj0007]

@npalm @davecozens @mahela-aws
could you please help here how this issue resolved?

[npalm]

Just checkout the ubtuntu example l, it works. Checked it last week

[Amanraj0007]

@npalm
yes ubuntu example works but ...prebuilt example with ubuntu image is not working for us..
can you please help here.

[AndriiMartyn]

Same issue with the prebuilt example Ubuntu jammy and ami builded with Packer.
I’m using organization runners with enable_organization_runners = true
Does anyone maked this work?

My config:

data "aws_ssm_parameter" "github_app_key_base64" {
  name = "/github_runner_app/key_base64"
}
data "aws_ssm_parameter" "github_app_id" {
  name = "/github_runner_app/app_id"
}
data "aws_caller_identity" "current" {}
resource "random_id" "random" {
  byte_length = 20
}
module "base" {
  source = "../base"
  prefix     = "${var.project}-runners"
  aws_region = var.AWS_REGION
}
module "runners" {
  source                          = "philips-labs/github-runner/aws"
  version                         = "v5.6.0"
  aws_region                      = var.AWS_REGION
  vpc_id                          = module.base.vpc.vpc_id
  subnet_ids                      = module.base.vpc.private_subnets
  create_service_linked_role_spot = true
  enable_organization_runners = true
  enable_ssm_on_runners = true
  enable_runner_binaries_syncer = false
  runner_extra_labels = [var.project, "dev"]
  runner_os = "linux"
  prefix = "${var.project}-runners"
  tags = {
    Project = var.project
  }
  github_app = {
    key_base64     = data.aws_ssm_parameter.github_app_key_base64.value
    id             = data.aws_ssm_parameter.github_app_id.value
    webhook_secret = random_id.random.hex
  }
  webhook_lambda_zip                = "../webhook.zip"
  runner_binaries_syncer_lambda_zip = "../runner-binaries-syncer.zip"
  runners_lambda_zip                = "../runners.zip"
  enable_userdata = false
  ami_filter      = { name = [var.ami_name_filter], state = ["available"] }
  ami_owners      = [data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id]
  delay_webhook_event   = 5
  runners_maximum_count = 3
  scale_down_schedule_expression = "cron(* * * * ? *)"
}
module "github-runner_webhook-github-app" {
  source  = "philips-labs/github-runner/aws//modules/webhook-github-app"
  version = "5.6.0"
  github_app = {
    key_base64     = data.aws_ssm_parameter.github_app_key_base64.value
    id             = data.aws_ssm_parameter.github_app_id.value
    webhook_secret = random_id.random.hex
  }
  webhook_endpoint = module.runners.webhook.endpoint
}

Checked log with session manager:

Cloud-init v. 23.3.3-0ubuntu0~22.04.1 running 'modules:config' at Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:52:57 +0000. Up 21.12 seconds.
Cloud-init v. 23.3.3-0ubuntu0~22.04.1 running 'modules:final' at Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:53:16 +0000. Up 39.73 seconds.
2024-01-10 13:53:58,193 - cc_scripts_per_boot.py[WARNING]: Failed to run module scripts_per_boot (per-boot in /var/lib/cloud/scripts/per-boot)
2024-01-10 13:53:58,194 - util.py[WARNING]: Running module scripts_per_boot (<module 'cloudinit.config.cc_scripts_per_boot' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_scripts_per_boot.py'>) failed
Cloud-init v. 23.3.3-0ubuntu0~22.04.1 finished at Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:53:58 +0000. Datasource DataSourceEc2Local.  Up 81.84 seconds

[AndriiMartyn]

Found it!
Checking startup log in /var/log gives result that it trying to use ec2_user
Need to add runner_run_as = "ubuntu"
So it should be fixed in ubuntu prebuilt example.