Use ARM64 for docker deployment job (Wait until full feature release)

[pawlh]

GitHub has recently made ARM64 runners available, removing the need to use qemu when building for the production deployment

https://github.blog/2024-06-03-arm64-on-github-actions-powering-faster-more-efficient-build-systems/

The only reason I can see why this would not be feasible is if softwareconstruction240's GitHub plan is incompatible

[19mdavenport]

This availability is still in public beta. We will need to wait until this feature is fully released, but good to keep in mind: github/roadmap#970

[19mdavenport]

I probably should have checked this a while ago, but looks like this might be ready: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-01-16-linux-arm64-hosted-runners-now-available-for-free-in-public-repositories-public-preview/

[TheDavSmasher]

@19mdavenport So, what does the change entail, exactly? Or, rather, how to do it I mean

[19mdavenport]

@TheDavSmasher The linked article should be able to help somewhat. Otherwise, I'm not completely sure atm. @pawlh if you see this, could you give a slightly more detailed description of why you wanted this for the autograder?

[pawlh]

Yes- This is relevant because the EC2 instance that actually runs the autograder uses ARM64 as its architecture. When I first created the docker build steps, no compatible runners were available meaning I had to use an emulator in the workflow to allow it to build for a different architecture

If you check out this documentation, you'll see that the only change that would need to be done is to modify this line to be ubuntu-24.04-arm instead of ubuntu-latest. Also, we'd simply delete the qemu lines

I took a peek at the available runners for this project, but didn't see the ARM runners listed. That means either they haven't been rolled out to this repo yet or an admin for this repo will need to go into the action settings and add an ARM runner

[TheDavSmasher]

@pawlh in the available runners page, I'm unsure what it would look like to have the ARM runners as listed vs not listed. Aren't the ARM runners hosted by GitHub and is simply used when running?

Also, how would it look like for an adming to go to the actions setting to add the ARM runner?

[pawlh]

Aren't the ARM runners hosted by GitHub and is simply used when running?

I think so.

Also, how would it look like for an adming to go to the actions setting to add the ARM runner?

I think as long as you see something like this in the runner's config, you should be good:

I've never switched runners myself, but as best I can tell #625 does it correctly. I verified that the images used in the Dockerfile are multi-arch, so I think you are good to go with the changes you made 🤞🏻