With the new release, GitLab SaaS has more powerful Linux machines ready for CI/CD jobs with Runner 15.4.
GitLab has updated its version control platform to version 15.4, delivering a raft of new features and improvements with the release, including enhanced integration with the code editor Visual Studio Code. Paid users of GitLab SaaS can also enjoy more powerful Linux machine types for running their CI/CD jobs.
Check CI configuration directly in VS Code
Along with the update to GitLab 15.4, the tool GitLab Workflow, which is important for working with Visual Studio Code, was also updated to version 3.50.0. This means that developers have more targeted support directly from VS Code, even with more complex configurations of continuous integration. To get around for a configuration that has keywords like include: or extends: used to ensure its correctness early on, the resulting configuration file can now be checked before committing and pushing it into VS Code. In addition, GitLab Workflow for VS Code offers further actions for working with CI/CD pipelines, for example with regard to restarting or aborting a pipeline. Developers should thus be able to perform more tasks directly in VS Code and have to switch contexts less often than before.
GitLab SaaS: more Linux power for CI/CD jobs
More powerful Linux machine types are now available for instances hosted by GitLab. As part of the Premium and Ultimate editions, which are subject to a fee, users can now select the options saas-linux-medium-amd64 and saas-linux-large-amd64 choose Linux Runner for the GitLab SaaS. According to the announcement, the two new types should offer more performance, especially for compute-intensive CI jobs, which is reflected in shorter build times.
Among the other innovations in GitLab 15.4, which will benefit all users, are, for example, simplifications when dealing with tables in Markdown. Sometimes difficult tasks like reordering a column are now easier to handle with data-driven tables in JSON syntax. The tables rendered from this then allow sorting according to specific fields "sortable": true as well as dynamic filtering with "filter" : true. The following video on JSON Tables in Markdown gives a first impression of the new possibilities:
