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---
stage: Verify
group: Runner
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---
# SaaS runners on Windows (beta) **(FREE SAAS)**
SaaS runners on Windows are in [beta](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/gitlab-the-product/#beta)
and shouldn't be used for production workloads.
During this beta period, the [shared runner quota for CI/CD minutes](../../pipelines/cicd_minutes.md)
applies for groups and projects in the same manner as Linux runners. This may
change when the beta period ends, as discussed in this [related issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/30834).
Windows runners on GitLab.com autoscale by launching virtual machines on
the Google Cloud Platform. This solution uses an
[autoscaling driver](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/custom-executor-drivers/autoscaler/tree/master/docs/readme.md)
developed by GitLab for the [custom executor](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/custom.html).
Windows runners execute your CI/CD jobs on `n1-standard-2` instances with
2 vCPUs and 7.5 GB RAM. You can find a full list of available Windows packages in
the [package documentation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/shared-runners/images/gcp/windows-containers/blob/main/cookbooks/preinstalled-software/README.md).
We want to keep iterating to get Windows runners in a stable state and
[generally available](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/gitlab-the-product/#generally-available-ga).
You can follow our work towards this goal in the
[related epic](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/2162).
## Configuration
The full contents of our `config.toml` are:
NOTE:
Settings that aren't public are shown as `X`.
```toml
concurrent = X
check_interval = 3
[[runners]]
name = "windows-runner"
url = "https://gitlab.com/"
token = "TOKEN"
executor = "custom"
builds_dir = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\builds"
cache_dir = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\cache"
shell = "powershell"
[runners.custom]
config_exec = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\autoscaler.exe"
config_args = ["--config", "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\config.toml", "custom", "config"]
prepare_exec = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\autoscaler.exe"
prepare_args = ["--config", "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\config.toml", "custom", "prepare"]
run_exec = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\autoscaler.exe"
run_args = ["--config", "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\config.toml", "custom", "run"]
cleanup_exec = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\autoscaler.exe"
cleanup_args = ["--config", "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\config.toml", "custom", "cleanup"]
```
The full contents of our `autoscaler/config.toml` are:
```toml
Provider = "gcp"
Executor = "winrm"
OS = "windows"
LogLevel = "info"
LogFormat = "text"
LogFile = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\autoscaler.log"
VMTag = "windows"
[GCP]
ServiceAccountFile = "PATH"
Project = "some-project-df9323"
Zone = "us-east1-c"
MachineType = "n1-standard-2"
Image = "IMAGE"
DiskSize = 50
DiskType = "pd-standard"
Subnetwork = "default"
Network = "default"
Tags = ["TAGS"]
Username = "gitlab_runner"
[WinRM]
MaximumTimeout = 3600
ExecutionMaxRetries = 0
[ProviderCache]
Enabled = true
Directory = "C:\\GitLab-Runner\\autoscaler\\machines"
```
## Example `.gitlab-ci.yml` file
Below is a sample `.gitlab-ci.yml` file that shows how to start using the runners for Windows:
```yaml
.shared_windows_runners:
tags:
- shared-windows
- windows
- windows-1809
stages:
- build
- test
before_script:
- Set-Variable -Name "time" -Value (date -Format "%H:%m")
- echo ${time}
- echo "started by ${GITLAB_USER_NAME}"
build:
extends:
- .shared_windows_runners
stage: build
script:
- echo "running scripts in the build job"
test:
extends:
- .shared_windows_runners
stage: test
script:
- echo "running scripts in the test job"
```
## Limitations and known issues
- All the limitations mentioned in our [beta
definition](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/#beta).
- The average provisioning time for a new Windows VM is 5 minutes.
This means that you may notice slower build start times
on the Windows runner fleet during the beta. In a future
release we intend to update the autoscaler to enable
the pre-provisioning of virtual machines. This is intended to significantly reduce
the time it takes to provision a VM on the Windows fleet. You can
follow along in the [related issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/custom-executor-drivers/autoscaler/-/issues/32).
- The Windows runner fleet may be unavailable occasionally
for maintenance or updates.
- The Windows runner virtual machine instances do not use the
GitLab Docker executor. This means that you can't specify
[`image`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#image) or [`services`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#services) in
your pipeline configuration.
- For the beta release, we have included a set of software packages in
the base VM image. If your CI job requires additional software that's
not included in this list, then you must add installation
commands to [`before_script`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#before_script) or [`script`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#script) to install the required
software. Note that each job runs on a new VM instance, so the
installation of additional software packages needs to be repeated for
each job in your pipeline.
- The job may stay in a pending state for longer than the
Linux runners.
- There is the possibility that we introduce breaking changes which will
require updates to pipelines that are using the Windows runner
fleet.
|
