How to fix Gitlab Runner 'dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied'

Problem:

In your Gitlab build jobs that use docker you see error messages like

Got permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Post http://%2Fvar%2Frun%2Fdocker.sock/v1.40/auth: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied

Solution

usermod -a -G docker gitlab-runner

to give the user running the jobs permission to access docker resources then restart the server/VM on which the runner is installed ! Still doesn’t work? Check if you have installed docker correctly. We recommend to use our automated install script, see How to install docker and docker-compose on Ubuntu in 30 seconds.