### Provide your own PostgreSQL instance **[CORE ONLY]**
If you want to use your own deployed PostgreSQL instance(s),
see [Provide your own PostgreSQL instance](#provide-your-own-postgresql-instance-core-only)
for more details. However, you can use the GitLab Omnibus package to easily
deploy the bundled PostgreSQL.
### High Availability with GitLab Omnibus **[PREMIUM ONLY]**
> Important notes:
> - This document will focus only on configuration supported with [GitLab Premium](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/), using the Omnibus GitLab package.
> - If you are a Community Edition or Starter user, consider using a cloud hosted solution.
> - This document will not cover installations from source.
>
> - If HA setup is not what you were looking for, see the [database configuration document](http://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/database.html)
> for the Omnibus GitLab packages.
> Please read this document fully before attempting to configure PostgreSQL HA
> for GitLab.
>
> This configuration is GA in EE 10.2.
The recommended configuration for a PostgreSQL HA requires:
- A minimum of three database nodes
- Each node will run the following services:
-`PostgreSQL` - The database itself
-`repmgrd` - A service to monitor, and handle failover in case of a failure
-`Consul` agent - Used for service discovery, to alert other nodes when failover occurs
- A minimum of three `Consul` server nodes
- A minimum of one `pgbouncer` service node
You also need to take into consideration the underlying network topology,
making sure you have redundant connectivity between all Database and GitLab instances,
otherwise the networks will become a single point of failure.
#### Architecture
![PG HA Architecture](pg_ha_architecture.png)
Database nodes run two services with PostgreSQL:
- Repmgrd. Monitors the cluster and handles failover when issues with the master occur. The failover consists of:
- Selecting a new master for the cluster.
- Promoting the new node to master.
- Instructing remaining servers to follow the new master node.
On failure, the old master node is automatically evicted from the cluster, and should be rejoined manually once recovered.
- Consul. Monitors the status of each node in the database cluster and tracks its health in a service definition on the consul cluster.
Alongside pgbouncer, there is a consul agent that watches the status of the PostgreSQL service. If that status changes, consul runs a script which updates the configuration and reloads pgbouncer
##### Connection flow
Each service in the package comes with a set of [default ports](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#ports). You may need to make specific firewall rules for the connections listed below:
- Application servers connect to [PgBouncer default port](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#pgbouncer)
- PgBouncer connects to the primary database servers [PostgreSQL default port](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#postgresql)
- Repmgr connects to the database servers [PostgreSQL default port](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#postgresql)
- Postgres secondaries connect to the primary database servers [PostgreSQL default port](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#postgresql)
- Consul servers and agents connect to each others [Consul default ports](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/package-information/defaults.html#consul)
#### Required information
Before proceeding with configuration, you will need to collect all the necessary
information.
##### Network information
PostgreSQL does not listen on any network interface by default. It needs to know
which IP address to listen on in order to be accessible to other services.
Similarly, PostgreSQL access is controlled based on the network source.
This is why you will need:
> IP address of each nodes network interface
> - This can be set to `0.0.0.0` to listen on all interfaces. It cannot
> be set to the loopack address `127.0.0.1`
>
> Network Address
> - This can be in subnet (i.e. `192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0`) or CIDR (i.e.
> `192.168.0.0/24`) form.
##### User information
Various services require different configuration to secure
the communication as well as information required for running the service.
Bellow you will find details on each service and the minimum required
information you need to provide.
##### Consul information
When using default setup, minimum configuration requires:
-`CONSUL_USERNAME`. Defaults to `gitlab-consul`
-`CONSUL_DATABASE_PASSWORD`. Password for the database user.
-`CONSUL_PASSWORD_HASH`. This is a hash generated out of consul username/password pair.
Can be generated with:
```sh
sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 CONSUL_USERNAME
```
-`CONSUL_SERVER_NODES`. The IP addresses or DNS records of the Consul server nodes.
Few notes on the service itself:
- The service runs under a system account, by default `gitlab-consul`.
- If you are using a different username, you will have to specify it. We
will refer to it with `CONSUL_USERNAME`,
- There will be a database user created with read only access to the repmgr
database
- Passwords will be stored in the following locations:
-`PGBOUNCER_NODE`, is the IP address or a FQDN of the node running Pgbouncer.
Few notes on the service itself:
- The service runs as the same system account as the database
- In the package, this is by default `gitlab-psql`
- If you use a non-default user account for Pgbouncer service (by default `pgbouncer`), you will have to specify this username. We will refer to this requirement with `PGBOUNCER_USERNAME`.
- The service will have a regular database user account generated for it
- This defaults to `repmgr`
- Passwords will be stored in the following locations:
-`/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: hashed, and in plain text
-`/var/opt/gitlab/pgbouncer/pg_auth`: hashed
##### Repmgr information
When using default setup, you will only have to prepare the network subnets that will
be allowed to authenticate with the service.
Few notes on the service itself:
- The service runs under the same system account as the database
- In the package, this is by default `gitlab-psql`
- The service will have a superuser database user account generated for it
- This defaults to `gitlab_repmgr`
#### Installing Omnibus GitLab
First, make sure to [download/install](https://about.gitlab.com/installation)
GitLab Omnibus **on each node**.
Make sure you install the necessary dependencies from step 1,
add GitLab package repository from step 2.
When installing the GitLab package, do not supply `EXTERNAL_URL` value.
#### Configuring the Consul nodes
On each Consul node perform the following:
1. Make sure you collect [`CONSUL_SERVER_NODES`](#consul-information) before executing the next step.
1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` replacing values noted in the `# START user configuration` section:
```ruby
# Disable all components except Consul
roles ['consul_role']
# START user configuration
# Replace placeholders:
#
# Y.Y.Y.Y consul1.gitlab.example.com Z.Z.Z.Z
# with the addresses gathered for CONSUL_SERVER_NODES
1. [Reconfigure GitLab] for the changes to take effect.
##### Consul Checkpoint
Before moving on, make sure Consul is configured correctly. Run the following
command to verify all server nodes are communicating:
```
/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/consul members
```
The output should be similar to:
```
Node Address Status Type Build Protocol DC
CONSUL_NODE_ONE XXX.XXX.XXX.YYY:8301 alive server 0.9.2 2 gitlab_consul
CONSUL_NODE_TWO XXX.XXX.XXX.YYY:8301 alive server 0.9.2 2 gitlab_consul
CONSUL_NODE_THREE XXX.XXX.XXX.YYY:8301 alive server 0.9.2 2 gitlab_consul
```
If any of the nodes isn't `alive` or if any of the three nodes are missing,
check the [Troubleshooting section](#troubleshooting) before proceeding.
#### Configuring the Database nodes
1. Make sure you collect [`CONSUL_SERVER_NODES`](#consul-information), [`PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH`](#pgbouncer-information), [`POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH`](#postgresql-information), the [number of db nodes](#postgresql-information), and the [network address](#network-information) before executing the next step.
1. On the master database node, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` replacing values noted in the `# START user configuration` section:
```ruby
# Disable all components except PostgreSQL and Repmgr and Consul
If the 'Role' column for any node says "FAILED", check the
[Troubleshooting section](#troubleshooting) before proceeding.
Also, check that the check master command works successfully on each node:
```
su - gitlab-consul
gitlab-ctl repmgr-check-master || echo 'This node is a standby repmgr node'
```
This command relies on exit codes to tell Consul whether a particular node is a master
or secondary. The most important thing here is that this command does not produce errors.
If there are errors it's most likely due to incorrect `gitlab-consul` database user permissions.
Check the [Troubleshooting section](#troubleshooting) before proceeding.
#### Configuring the Pgbouncer node
1. Make sure you collect [`CONSUL_SERVER_NODES`](#consul-information), [`CONSUL_PASSWORD_HASH`](#consul-information), and [`PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH`](#pgbouncer-information) before executing the next step.
1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` replacing values noted in the `# START user configuration` section:
```ruby
# Disable all components except Pgbouncer and Consul agent
1. [Reconfigure GitLab] for the changes to take effect.
##### Application node post-configuration
Ensure that all migrations ran:
```sh
gitlab-rake gitlab:db:configure
```
> **Note**: If you encounter a `rake aborted!` error stating that PGBouncer is failing to connect to
PostgreSQL it may be that your PGBouncer node's IP address is missing from
PostgreSQL's `trust_auth_cidr_addresses` in `gitlab.rb` on your database nodes. See
[PGBouncer error `ERROR: pgbouncer cannot connect to server`](#pgbouncer-error-error-pgbouncer-cannot-connect-to-server)
in the Troubleshooting section before proceeding.
##### Ensure GitLab is running
At this point, your GitLab instance should be up and running. Verify you are
able to login, and create issues and merge requests. If you have troubles check
the [Troubleshooting section](#troubleshooting).
#### Example configuration
Here we'll show you some fully expanded example configurations.
##### Example recommended setup
This example uses 3 consul servers, 3 postgresql servers, and 1 application node.
We start with all servers on the same 10.6.0.0/16 private network range, they
can connect to each freely other on those addresses.
Here is a list and description of each machine and the assigned IP:
*`10.6.0.11`: Consul 1
*`10.6.0.12`: Consul 2
*`10.6.0.13`: Consul 3
*`10.6.0.21`: PostgreSQL master
*`10.6.0.22`: PostgreSQL secondary
*`10.6.0.23`: PostgreSQL secondary
*`10.6.0.31`: GitLab application
All passwords are set to `toomanysecrets`, please do not use this password or derived hashes.
The external_url for GitLab is `http://gitlab.example.com`
Please note that after the initial configuration, if a failover occurs, the PostgresSQL master will change to one of the available secondaries until it is failed back.
##### Example recommended setup for Consul servers
On each server edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:
```ruby
# Disable all components except Consul
roles ['consul_role']
consul['configuration'] = {
server: true,
retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13)
}
```
[Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab][reconfigure GitLab] for the changes to take effect.
##### Example recommended setup for PostgreSQL servers
###### Primary node
On primary node edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:
```ruby
# Disable all components except PostgreSQL and Repmgr and Consul
This example uses 3 postgresql servers, and 1 application node.
It differs from the [recommended setup](#example-recommended-setup) by moving the consul servers into the same servers we use for PostgreSQL.
The trade-off is between reducing server counts, against the increased operational complexity of needing to deal with postgres [failover](#failover-procedure) and [restore](#restore-procedure) procedures in addition to [consul outage recovery](consul.md#outage-recovery) on the same set of machines.
In this example we start with all servers on the same 10.6.0.0/16 private network range, they can connect to each freely other on those addresses.
Here is a list and description of each machine and the assigned IP:
*`10.6.0.21`: PostgreSQL master
*`10.6.0.22`: PostgreSQL secondary
*`10.6.0.23`: PostgreSQL secondary
*`10.6.0.31`: GitLab application
All passwords are set to `toomanysecrets`, please do not use this password or derived hashes.
The external_url for GitLab is `http://gitlab.example.com`
Please note that after the initial configuration, if a failover occurs, the PostgresSQL master will change to one of the available secondaries until it is failed back.
##### Example minimal configuration for database servers
##### Primary node
On primary database node edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:
```ruby
# Disable all components except PostgreSQL, Repmgr, and Consul
1. On each pgbouncer node, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:
1. Ensure `gitlab_rails['db_password']` is set to the plaintext password for
the `gitlab` database user
1. [Reconfigure GitLab] for the changes to take effect
## Troubleshooting
#### Consul and PostgreSQL changes not taking effect.
Due to the potential impacts, `gitlab-ctl reconfigure` only reloads Consul and PostgreSQL, it will not restart the services. However, not all changes can be activated by reloading.
To restart either service, run `gitlab-ctl restart SERVICE`
For PostgreSQL, it is usually safe to restart the master node by default. Automatic failover defaults to a 1 minute timeout. Provided the database returns before then, nothing else needs to be done. To be safe, you can stop `repmgrd` on the standby nodes first with `gitlab-ctl stop repmgrd`, then start afterwards with `gitlab-ctl start repmgrd`.
On the consul server nodes, it is important to restart the consul service in a controlled fashion. Read our [consul documentation](consul.md#restarting-the-server-cluster) for instructions on how to restart the service.
**Note**: We recommend that you follow the instructions here for a full [PostgreSQL cluster](#high-availability-with-gitlab-omnibus-premium-only).
If you are reading this section due to an old bookmark, you can find that old documentation [in the repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/v10.1.4/doc/administration/high_availability/database.md#configure-using-omnibus).