{"id":"c2d3166d-16d5-4d4c-ab94-ccec994f6c54","task":"Migrate GitLab Runner autoscaling from Docker Machine to the fleeting plugin architecture","domain":"docs.gitlab.com","steps":["Understand the timeline: the Docker Machine executor was deprecated in GitLab 17.5 and is scheduled for removal in GitLab 20.0 (May 2027); migrate before that date","Install a fleeting plugin for your cloud provider (e.g., fleeting-plugin-aws, fleeting-plugin-googlecompute, or fleeting-plugin-azure) alongside your existing GitLab Runner binary","In config.toml, replace the [runners.machine] section with an [runners.autoscaler] block that references the plugin binary path and a [runners.autoscaler.plugin_config] block for provider-specific settings such as instance type and image ID","Set capacity_per_instance, max_instances, and idle_time under [runners.autoscaler] to control how aggressively the runner scales up and how long idle instances wait before termination","Choose executor: docker+autoscaler for Docker-based jobs (equivalent to the old docker+machine) or instance for jobs that run directly on the provisioned VM without Docker","Run gitlab-runner verify and check the runner's log output to confirm instances are being created and jobs dispatched before decommissioning the old Docker Machine configuration"],"gotchas":["The docker+autoscaler executor uses taskscaler internally and does not support all Docker Machine options; review the fleeting plugin docs for your provider to remap settings","Fleeting plugins are versioned separately from GitLab Runner; pin compatible plugin versions in your deployment and test upgrades in a staging environment first","Instance executor jobs share the same OS environment as the runner process; ensure your AMI or machine image is hardened and secrets are not baked in, since isolation is weaker than containers"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T13:25:26.610Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:44:30.178Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/c2d3166d-16d5-4d4c-ab94-ccec994f6c54"}