Runner Service

The Runner service is a core component responsible for executing evolutionary algorithms. This guide explains how to set up and run the runner service locally using Docker, integrated with the rest of the operational stack.

Prerequisites

Before running the runner, you must have the full operations stack up and running. This includes databases, authentication, and other microservices.

1. Clone the Operations Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Evolutionary-Algorithms-On-Click/operations.git

2. Follow the Docker Setup Instructions: Navigate to the operations/docker directory and follow the README instructions to start all services.

   Ensure you run:

   docker compose up -d

   This will start all containers, including a pre-built version of the runner.

Running the Local Runner

To develop or test changes in the runner repository, you need to replace the pre-built runner container with your local code.

Step 1: Stop the Existing Runner

Since the operations docker-compose starts a runner container, you must stop it to avoid port conflicts and ensure your local version connects instead.

docker stop runner

Step 2: Configure Environment

The docker-compose.yml in this repository is pre-configured to connect to the services running from the operations stack (using host.docker.internal for cross-container communication).

Key Environment Variables:

• COCKROACHDB_URL, REDIS_URL: Connect to databases via host networking.
• MINIO_URL: Connects to the object storage.
• WEBSOCKET_LOG_URL: For real-time logging.

Ensure your local .env or the default values in docker-compose.yml match the credentials set in your operations setup (e.g., MINIO_ACCESS_KEY, MINIO_SECRET_KEY).

Step 3: Start the Runner

Run the runner using the localized docker-compose.yml. This builds the image from your current source code.

# Build and start the runner
docker compose up --build

You should see logs indicating the runner is starting and connecting to Redis/CockroachDB.

Architecture

The following diagram illustrates how the Runner interacts with other operational services:

graph TD
    subgraph Operations Stack
        DB[(CockroachDB)]
        Redis[(Redis)]
        MinIO[(MinIO)]
        Auth[Auth Service]
        Controller[Runner Controller]
    end

    subgraph Local Development
        Runner[Runner Service]
    end

    Runner -->|Fetch Tasks| Redis
    Runner -->|Store Results| DB
    Runner -->|Load/Save Artifacts| MinIO
    Runner -.->|Report Status| Controller

    style Runner fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Operations Stack fill:#e1f5fe,stroke:#01579b

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