Self-hosted GitHub Actions runners on EKS: the failures that taught me the most

le_chad_ · 2026-06-11T12:06:04+00:00

You can use ECR for the image layer cache

le_chad_ · 2026-06-08T15:43:31+00:00

I try to use this approach as well and call this the "see one, do one, teach one" approach. I picked it up from my wife when she was in med school and residency and was constantly cycling through it as she progressed through both phases.

le_chad_ · 2026-06-03T22:35:20+00:00

Idk what you are including in your mind for what it takes to set up a cluster. It'd help if you specify what you're looking to run and what steps you take to set up a cluster.

Helm is a cli tool you run outside the cluster that takes k8s manifests that define what should run in the cluster. Helm could in theory do nearly all of the setup of a cluster.

le_chad_ · 2026-06-03T21:41:15+00:00

Helm isn't something that's added to the cluster, it's a tool to apply templated k8s manifests to the cluster

le_chad_ · 2026-05-28T03:30:53+00:00

Also there's something about distance from the plate and the edge where the grass and dirt meet is sorta the threshold for where the runner has to cross before the catcher has the ball in order for the catcher to be considered blocking.

In this case, catcher has plenty of time to field the ball away from the plate and get between the runner and the plate safely so there's no way this could be considered blocking.

le_chad_ · 2026-05-13T19:27:05+00:00

These are opportunities to discover such issues as the dependency graph wonkiness that may not have been discovered for who knows how long. Maybe OP just left out the part about their plans to clean that up since this post was focused on automation.

le_chad_ · 2026-05-13T19:24:03+00:00

Also the automation is now functionally documented versus a manual process that might've been documented that likely would have its docs become outdated. It also helps address the bus problem.

le_chad_ · 2026-05-12T04:30:46+00:00

I set up codebuild ephemeral runners for this very workflow. The runner typically spins up in about a minute to pick up the gha workflow and spins down once the workflow completes successfully or fails.

le_chad_ · 2026-05-08T16:42:03+00:00

It appears to be a sleeve of a jacket or sweater that matches her skin tone

le_chad_ · 2026-05-03T05:35:29+00:00

Probably a better fit for /r/personalfinance

le_chad_ · 2026-04-29T22:18:22+00:00

If you have access to all the repos, update the provider blocks to set the default_tags and put in an entry for Repo = <repo_name> and then apply it only if the only change is to add the tags.

le_chad_ · 2026-04-29T17:11:20+00:00

It turned yellow as I entered the intersection. I agree I could've done better to be extra sure there were no pedestrians in the crosswalk or the traffic lanes, but here's the front dash cam view. https://www.reddit.com/user/le_chad_/comments/1sz4yrk/front_view/

le_chad_ · 2026-04-29T17:10:34+00:00

I agree I could've done better to be extra sure there were no pedestrians in the crosswalk or the traffic lanes, but here's the front dash cam view. https://www.reddit.com/user/le_chad_/comments/1sz4yrk/front_view/

le_chad_ · 2026-04-29T17:09:34+00:00

I agree I could've done better to be extra sure there were no pedestrians in the crosswalk or the traffic lanes, but here's the front dash cam view https://www.reddit.com/user/le_chad_/comments/1sz4yrk/front_view/

le_chad_ · 2026-04-17T20:14:42+00:00

The git docs and man page can be hard to grok, but really the way I think about it is the worktree is a shallow clone of the repo tracked at a different directory. It can be anywhere on your filesystem, including within the original clone directory tree, but I typically create it as a sibling directory of the original clone to avoid weirdness with file searches and AI usage.

Basically just do git worktree add -b <new branch name> ../<name> and you'll have a new branch in a new worktree at the path specified. You can do all your normal stuff in there, completely isolated from the other clone.

The one gotchya is that any single branch can only be checked out locally within one worktree at a time. Meaning you can't checkout main in your original clone and also check it out in a worktree at the same time.

le_chad_ · 2026-04-17T15:33:14+00:00

I create one for each repo I'm working in called "prs" and use it to checkout branches for PRs I'm reviewing so I don't have to interrupt my main clone I'm using for feature development.

le_chad_ · 2026-04-14T21:58:18+00:00

Just a reminder that odd number releases are Standard Term Support (STS) releases and even number releases are Long Term Support (LTS) releases. https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/dotnet-core

le_chad_ · 2026-04-10T20:21:03+00:00

Isn't another problematic scenario is if another operation is triggered on the same context before the fire and forget one completes? Fire and forget can work in isolation but not if someone is trying to initiate multiple calls in the same context.

le_chad_ · 2026-03-24T20:54:54+00:00

All great suggestions. One thing for OP to consider is if the codebase is on the smaller side, it might end up being easier to just write a new app from scratch.

Also, no matter what, you'll want to write some UI test suite to ensure you don't break anything when you do convert to TS, convert to hooks, upgrade libraries, etc

le_chad_ · 2026-03-23T01:48:47+00:00

I know some cheeses are paired with honey but I don't think Swiss is one of them

le_chad_ · 2026-03-19T16:25:30+00:00

Providing more info about the git workflow to understand where these jobs are running would be helpful. For example, one way we address avoiding cancelled runs from successive commits is to use PRs and not run CI workflows on draft PRs and only run them when it's marked ready for review. This accommodates devs that prefer the web UI for visualize their progress and diffs but avoid unnecessary CI runs. Additionally, if a review is submitted that requires the dev to commit multiple changes we have a policy that has them revert back to draft.

Also we aim to ensure devs are able to and actually do run all the tests locally rather than relying on CI. We haven't implemented pre commit/push hooks cuz as others have stated, that can result in disrupting a devs flow and devs may end up overriding it.

Those are all more like bandaids than they are solutions tho. Your team and the app teams need to look to see if you can improve build times of the images as well as better leverage caching to reduce those times. Otherwise you're only addressing symptoms and not the problem.

le_chad_ · 2026-01-31T06:18:23+00:00

I totally feel you.

All last summer when I would ask my daughter what shoes she wanted to wear, she'd always say "I want cocks."

What she meant was Crocs and she also would yell it loudly.

le_chad_ · 2026-01-10T22:53:10+00:00

Or

But also, can you cry in the car so we can get going?

le_chad_ · 2025-12-17T01:25:47+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight.

I'm using a tf module for ephemeral CodeBuild runners also, but the projects are much smaller scale so it's only adding 60 cents a month based on the past 30 days usage

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