Install Gitlab runner on ECS Cluster

Question

We are running AWS ECS/ECR with Gitlab CI as CI/CD. Due to load increase we are searching for the best way to autoscale the runner on AWS. I know Gitlab supports Autoscaling for its ci-runner. https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/configuration/runner_autoscale_aws/

But I'm wondering if it would be possible to leverage the ECS cluster on AWS for this purpose. Has anybody ever set up the runner on an ECS cluster with Loadbalancer and Autoscaling on ECS side and could provide some insights regarding such a setup?

merci in advance

A

Answer 1

Since each CI task is usually run in a container (or other isolated environment), this would require the GitLab runner to natively talk to ECS to spin up new containers for jobs

I don't think it's gonna happen; GL supports Kubernetes, which is more versatile in that it's not tied to AWS, and also support EC2 autoscaling for AWS. ECS sounds like a lot of extra effort for a very narrow benefit.