feat: add persistent runner support for merge queue zombienet tests (#9959)

# Description
#9877

Co-authored-by: Javier Viola <[email protected]>

Author: DenzelPenzel

.github/workflows/zombienet-reusable-preflight.yml

@@ -236,10 +236,19 @@ jobs:
             cat .github/zombienet-env | grep -Ev '^\s*#|^\s*$'
             . .github/zombienet-env
 
+            # Determine if we should use persistent runners (for merge queues)
+            RUNNER_SUFFIX=""
+            if [[ $GITHUB_REF_NAME == *"gh-readonly-queue"* ]]; then
+              RUNNER_SUFFIX="_PERSISTENT"
+            fi
+
+            # Set zombienet v1 configuration
             if [[ "$ZOMBIENET_PROVIDER" == "native" ]]; then
               echo "ZOMBIENET_IMAGE=${ZOMBIENET_IMAGE_FOR_NATIVE}"
-              echo "ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER=${ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE}"
-              echo "ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER=${ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE}"
+              DEFAULT_RUNNER_VAR="ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE${RUNNER_SUFFIX}"
+              LARGE_RUNNER_VAR="ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE${RUNNER_SUFFIX}"
+              echo "ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER=${!DEFAULT_RUNNER_VAR}"
+              echo "ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER=${!LARGE_RUNNER_VAR}"
             else
               echo "ZOMBIENET_IMAGE=${ZOMBIENET_IMAGE_FOR_K8S}"
               # runner size for k8s is not relevant, it "only" spawns pods and runs the test
@@ -249,8 +258,10 @@ jobs:
 
             if [[ "$ZOMBIE_PROVIDER" == "native" ]]; then
               echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE=${ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE_FOR_NATIVE}"
-              echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER=${ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE}"
-              echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER=${ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE}"
+              SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_VAR="ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE${RUNNER_SUFFIX}"
+              SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_VAR="ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE${RUNNER_SUFFIX}"
+              echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER=${!SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_VAR}"
+              echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER=${!SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_VAR}"
             else
               echo "ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE=${ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE_FOR_K8S}"
               # runner size for k8s is not relevant, it "only" spawns pods and runs the test

.github/zombienet-env

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ ZOMBIENET_PROVIDER=native
 ZOMBIENET_IMAGE_FOR_NATIVE=docker.io/paritytech/zombienet:v1.3.133
 ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE=parity-zombienet-native-default
 ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE=parity-zombienet-native-large
+ZOMBIENET_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE_PERSISTENT=parity-zombienet-native-default-persistent
+ZOMBIENET_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE_PERSISTENT=parity-zombienet-native-large-persistent
 ZOMBIENET_IMAGE_FOR_K8S=docker.io/paritytech/zombienet:v1.3.133
 ZOMBIENET_RUNNER_FOR_K8S=parity-zombienet
 DEBUG=zombie,zombie::network-node,zombie::kube::client::logs
@@ -12,6 +14,8 @@ ZOMBIE_PROVIDER=native
 ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE_FOR_NATIVE=docker.io/paritytech/ci-unified:bullseye-1.84.1-2025-01-28-v202502131220
 ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE=parity-zombienet-native-default
 ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE=parity-zombienet-native-large
+ZOMBIENET_SDK_DEFAULT_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE_PERSISTENT=parity-zombienet-native-default-persistent
+ZOMBIENET_SDK_LARGE_RUNNER_FOR_NATIVE_PERSISTENT=parity-zombienet-native-large-persistent
 ZOMBIENET_SDK_IMAGE_FOR_K8S=docker.io/paritytech/zombienet:v1.3.133
 ZOMBIENET_SDK_RUNNER_FOR_K8S=parity-zombienet
 RUST_LOG=info,zombienet_orchestrator=trace,cumulus_zombienet_sdk_helpers=debug