Issue with our self hosted ARC runners set for Enterprise wide access

[wentworthm]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

ARC (Actions Runner Controller)

Discussion Details

We are attempting to setup an ARC runner with enterprise wide access so that multiple organization can use it. The scale set is configured to join at the enterprise-level and it joins successfully, but it doesn't pick up any jobs. It is attached to the default runner group and this worked on our dev instance but fails on our production instnace.

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[ahbaqdadi]

Successful enterprise registration doesn't establish that a particular organization/repository can use that runner group. Since development works and production does not, I would compare access and routing first; the information here isn't enough to identify the cause.

For the gha-runner-scale-set version of ARC:

1. Check both access levels. In the enterprise runner group's organization policy, verify the affected organization is allowed. In that organization's Settings → Actions → Runner groups, check the shared enterprise group's repository access for the affected repository. Also compare any selected-workflow restrictions, including the workflow path and pinned ref. Membership in the default group alone does not establish this access. GitHub documents enterprise sharing plus additional organization restrictions in runner group access.

2. Compare the actual job target with the production scale set name. The name comes from runnerScaleSetName, or the Helm installation name when it isn't overridden. For a name-based target, the job should use runs-on: YOUR_PRODUCTION_SCALE_SET_NAME with your real name substituted. Compare the resolved value if runs-on uses an expression. If the workflow explicitly selects a group and both organization and enterprise groups have that name (for example, Default), qualify the enterprise group as enterprise/Default; the access document above explains group-name ambiguity. See using ARC in a workflow.

3. Separate job assignment from pod creation. While a matching job is queued, inspect the controller and that scale set's listener logs: is the listener running, receiving an assignment, and requesting runners? If runners are requested, inspect pending/failed runner pods and Kubernetes events. If no listener is created, check the configured URL and authentication first. ARC troubleshooting describes these checks. Also compare minRunners/maxRunners: explicitly setting both to 0 drains the queue and prevents new runner pods. Zero minimum by itself is normal. Enterprise-level scale sets require PAT (classic) authentication; an organization-level GitHub App setup isn't interchangeable. See scale set deployment.

Could you share whether this is Enterprise Cloud or Server (and Server version), the ARC chart versions, the job's runs-on block, and whether the production listener sees an assignment? Use placeholders for private names and omit tokens, keys, and secret values. For Server, check the documentation version that matches your instance.

AI-assisted with Codex; checked against the linked GitHub documentation. I haven't reproduced your production setup.