debian-mirror-gitlab/doc/administration/reference_architectures/2k_users.md

---
stage: Systems
group: Distribution
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---

# Reference architecture: up to 2,000 users **(FREE SELF)**

This page describes GitLab reference architecture for up to 2,000 users.
For a full list of reference architectures, see
[Available reference architectures](index.md#available-reference-architectures).

> - **Supported users (approximate):** 2,000
> - **High Availability:** No. For a highly-available environment, you can
>   follow a modified [3K reference architecture](3k_users.md#supported-modifications-for-lower-user-counts-ha).
> - **Estimated Costs:** [See cost table](index.md#cost-to-run)
> - **Cloud Native Hybrid:** [Yes](#cloud-native-hybrid-reference-architecture-with-helm-charts-alternative)
> - **Validation and test results:** The Quality Engineering team does [regular smoke and performance tests](index.md#validation-and-test-results) to ensure the reference architectures remain compliant
>   - **Test requests per second (RPS) rates:** API: 40 RPS, Web: 4 RPS, Git (Pull): 4 RPS, Git (Push): 1 RPS
>   - **[Latest Results](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/performance/-/wikis/Benchmarks/Latest/2k)**
> - **Unsure which Reference Architecture to use?** [Go to this guide for more info](index.md#deciding-which-architecture-to-use).

| Service                    | Nodes | Configuration          | GCP             | AWS          | Azure    |
|----------------------------|-------|------------------------|-----------------|--------------|----------|
| Load balancer<sup>3</sup>  | 1     | 2 vCPU, 1.8 GB memory  | `n1-highcpu-2`  | `c5.large`   | `F2s v2` |
| PostgreSQL<sup>1</sup>     | 1     | 2 vCPU, 7.5 GB memory  | `n1-standard-2` | `m5.large`   | `D2s v3` |
| Redis<sup>2</sup>          | 1     | 1 vCPU, 3.75 GB memory | `n1-standard-1` | `m5.large`   | `D2s v3` |
| Gitaly<sup>5</sup>         | 1     | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory   | `n1-standard-4` | `m5.xlarge`  | `D4s v3` |
| GitLab Rails               | 2     | 8 vCPU, 7.2 GB memory  | `n1-highcpu-8`  | `c5.2xlarge` | `F8s v2` |
| Monitoring node            | 1     | 2 vCPU, 1.8 GB memory  | `n1-highcpu-2`  | `c5.large`   | `F2s v2` |
| Object storage<sup>4</sup> | -     | -                      | -               | -            | -        |
| NFS server (non-Gitaly)    | 1     | 4 vCPU, 3.6 GB memory  | `n1-highcpu-4`  | `c5.xlarge`  | `F4s v2` |

<!-- markdownlint-disable MD029 -->
1. Can be optionally run on reputable third-party external PaaS PostgreSQL solutions. See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.
    - [Google Cloud SQL](https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/high-availability#normal) and [Amazon RDS](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/) are known to work.
    - [Google AlloyDB](https://cloud.google.com/alloydb) and [Amazon RDS Multi-AZ DB clusters](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/multi-az-db-clusters-concepts.html) have not been tested and are not recommended. Both solutions are specifically not expected to work with GitLab Geo.
    - [Amazon Aurora](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/) is **incompatible** with load balancing enabled by default in [14.4.0](../../update/index.md#1440), and [Azure Database for PostgreSQL](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/postgresql/#overview) is **not recommended** due to [performance issues](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/reference-architectures/-/issues/61).
    - Consul is primarily used for Omnibus PostgreSQL high availability so can be ignored when using a PostgreSQL PaaS setup. However, Consul is also used optionally by Prometheus for Omnibus auto host discovery.
2. Can be optionally run on reputable third-party external PaaS Redis solutions. See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.
    - [Google Memorystore](https://cloud.google.com/memorystore) and [Amazon ElastiCache](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/) are known to work.
3. Can be optionally run on reputable third-party load balancing services (LB PaaS). See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.
    - [Google Cloud Load Balancing](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing) and [Amazon Elastic Load Balancing](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/) are known to work.
4. Should be run on reputable Cloud Provider or Self Managed solutions. More information can be found in the [Configure the object storage](#configure-the-object-storage) section.
5. Gitaly has been designed and tested with repositories of varying sizes that follow best practices. However, large repositories or monorepos that don't follow these practices can significantly impact Gitaly requirements. Refer to the [Large Repositories](#large-repositories) for more info.
<!-- markdownlint-enable MD029 -->

NOTE:
For all PaaS solutions that involve configuring instances, it is strongly recommended to implement a minimum of three nodes in three different availability zones to align with resilient cloud architecture practices.

```plantuml
@startuml 2k
skinparam linetype ortho

card "**External Load Balancer**" as elb #6a9be7

collections "**GitLab Rails** x3" as gitlab #32CD32
card "**Prometheus + Grafana**" as monitor #7FFFD4
card "**Gitaly**" as gitaly #FF8C00
card "**PostgreSQL**" as postgres #4EA7FF
card "**Redis**" as redis #FF6347
cloud "**Object Storage**" as object_storage #white

elb -[#6a9be7]-> gitlab
elb -[#6a9be7]--> monitor

gitlab -[#32CD32]--> gitaly
gitlab -[#32CD32]--> postgres
gitlab -[#32CD32]-> object_storage
gitlab -[#32CD32]--> redis

monitor .[#7FFFD4]u-> gitlab
monitor .[#7FFFD4]-> gitaly
monitor .[#7FFFD4]-> postgres
monitor .[#7FFFD4,norank]--> redis
monitor .[#7FFFD4,norank]u--> elb

@enduml
```

## Requirements

Before starting, you should take note of the following requirements / guidance for this reference architecture.

### Supported CPUs

This reference architecture was built and tested on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using the
[Intel Xeon E5 v3 (Haswell)](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/cpu-platforms)
CPU platform as a baseline ([Sysbench benchmark](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/performance/-/wikis/Reference-Architectures/GCP-CPU-Benchmarks)).

Newer, similarly sized CPUs are supported and may have improved performance as a result. For Omnibus environments, ARM-based equivalents are also supported.

NOTE:
Any "burstable" instance types are not recommended due to inconsistent performance.

### Supported infrastructure

As a general guidance, GitLab should run on most infrastructure such as reputable Cloud Providers (AWS, GCP) and their services,
or self managed (ESXi) that meet both the specs detailed above, as well as any requirements in this section.
However, this does not constitute a guarantee for every potential permutation.

See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.

### Additional workloads

The Reference Architectures have been [designed and tested](index.md#validation-and-test-results) for standard GitLab setups with
good headroom in mind to cover most scenarios. However, if any additional workloads are being added on the nodes,
such as security software, you may still need to adjust the specs accordingly to compensate.

This also applies for some GitLab features where it's possible to run custom scripts, for example [server hooks](../server_hooks.md).

As a general rule, it's recommended to have robust monitoring in place to measure the impact of
any additional workloads to inform any changes needed to be made.

### Large repositories

The Reference Architectures were tested with repositories of varying sizes that follow best practices.

However, large repositories or monorepos (several gigabytes or more) can **significantly** impact the performance
of Git and in turn the environment itself if best practices aren't being followed such as not storing
binary or blob files in LFS. Repositories are at the core of any environment the consequences can be wide-ranging
when they are not optimized. Some examples of this impact include [Git packing operations](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Packfiles)
taking longer and consuming high CPU / Memory resources or Git checkouts taking longer that affect both users and
CI pipelines alike.

As such, large repositories come with notable cost and typically will require more resources to handle,
significantly so in some cases. It's therefore **strongly** recommended then to review large repositories
to ensure they maintain good repo health and reduce their size wherever possible.

NOTE:
If best practices aren't followed and large repositories are present on the environment,
increased Gitaly specs may be required to ensure stable performance.

Refer to the [Managing large repositories documentation](../../user/project/repository/managing_large_repositories.md)
for more information and guidance.

## Setup components

To set up GitLab and its components to accommodate up to 2,000 users:

1. [Configure the external load balancing node](#configure-the-external-load-balancer)
   to handle the load balancing of the GitLab application services nodes.
1. [Configure PostgreSQL](#configure-postgresql), the database for GitLab.
1. [Configure Redis](#configure-redis).
1. [Configure Gitaly](#configure-gitaly), which provides access to the Git
   repositories.
1. [Configure the main GitLab Rails application](#configure-gitlab-rails)
   to run Puma, Workhorse, GitLab Shell, and to serve all frontend
   requests (which include UI, API, and Git over HTTP/SSH).
1. [Configure Prometheus](#configure-prometheus) to monitor your GitLab
   environment.
1. [Configure the object storage](#configure-the-object-storage) used for
   shared data objects.
1. [Configure NFS](#configure-nfs-optional) (optional, and not recommended)
   to have shared disk storage service as an alternative to Gitaly or object
   storage.
1. [Configure Advanced Search](#configure-advanced-search) (optional) for faster,
   more advanced code search across your entire GitLab instance.

## Configure the external load balancer

In a multi-node GitLab configuration, you'll need a load balancer to route
traffic to the application servers. The specifics on which load balancer to use
or its exact configuration is beyond the scope of GitLab documentation. We assume
that if you're managing multi-node systems like GitLab, you already have a load
balancer of choice. Some load balancer examples include HAProxy (open-source),
F5 Big-IP LTM, and Citrix Net Scaler. This documentation outline the ports and
protocols needed for use with GitLab.

This architecture has been tested and validated with [HAProxy](https://www.haproxy.org/)
as the load balancer. Although other load balancers with similar feature sets
could also be used, those load balancers have not been validated.

The next question is how you will handle SSL in your environment. There are
several different options:

- [The application node terminates SSL](#application-node-terminates-ssl).
- [The load balancer terminates SSL without backend SSL](#load-balancer-terminates-ssl-without-backend-ssl)
  and communication is not secure between the load balancer and the application node.
- [The load balancer terminates SSL with backend SSL](#load-balancer-terminates-ssl-with-backend-ssl)
  and communication is *secure* between the load balancer and the application node.

### Balancing algorithm

We recommend that a least-connection load balancing algorithm or equivalent
is used wherever possible to ensure equal spread of calls to the nodes and good performance.

We don't recommend the use of round-robin algorithms as they are known to not
spread connections equally in practice.

### Readiness checks

Ensure the external load balancer only routes to working services with built
in monitoring endpoints. The [readiness checks](../../user/admin_area/monitoring/health_check.md)
all require [additional configuration](../monitoring/ip_allowlist.md)
on the nodes being checked, otherwise, the external load balancer will not be able to
connect.

### Ports

The basic ports to be used are shown in the table below.

| LB Port | Backend Port | Protocol                 |
| ------- | ------------ | ------------------------ |
| 80      | 80           | HTTP (*1*)               |
| 443     | 443          | TCP or HTTPS (*1*) (*2*) |
| 22      | 22           | TCP                      |

- (*1*): [Web terminal](../../ci/environments/index.md#web-terminals-deprecated) support requires
  your load balancer to correctly handle WebSocket connections. When using
  HTTP or HTTPS proxying, this means your load balancer must be configured
  to pass through the `Connection` and `Upgrade` hop-by-hop headers. See the
  [web terminal](../integration/terminal.md) integration guide for
  more details.
- (*2*): When using HTTPS protocol for port 443, you will need to add an SSL
  certificate to the load balancers. If you wish to terminate SSL at the
  GitLab application server instead, use TCP protocol.

If you're using GitLab Pages with custom domain support you will need some
additional port configurations.
GitLab Pages requires a separate virtual IP address. Configure DNS to point the
`pages_external_url` from `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` at the new virtual IP address. See the
[GitLab Pages documentation](../pages/index.md) for more information.

| LB Port | Backend Port  | Protocol  |
| ------- | ------------- | --------- |
| 80      | Varies (*1*)  | HTTP      |
| 443     | Varies (*1*)  | TCP (*2*) |

- (*1*): The backend port for GitLab Pages depends on the
  `gitlab_pages['external_http']` and `gitlab_pages['external_https']`
  setting. See [GitLab Pages documentation](../pages/index.md) for more details.
- (*2*): Port 443 for GitLab Pages should always use the TCP protocol. Users can
  configure custom domains with custom SSL, which would not be possible
  if SSL was terminated at the load balancer.

#### Alternate SSH Port

Some organizations have policies against opening SSH port 22. In this case,
it may be helpful to configure an alternate SSH hostname that allows users
to use SSH on port 443. An alternate SSH hostname will require a new virtual IP address
compared to the other GitLab HTTP configuration above.

Configure DNS for an alternate SSH hostname such as `altssh.gitlab.example.com`.

| LB Port | Backend Port | Protocol |
| ------- | ------------ | -------- |
| 443     | 22           | TCP      |

### SSL

The next question is how you will handle SSL in your environment.
There are several different options:

- [The application node terminates SSL](#application-node-terminates-ssl).
- [The load balancer terminates SSL without backend SSL](#load-balancer-terminates-ssl-without-backend-ssl)
  and communication is not secure between the load balancer and the application node.
- [The load balancer terminates SSL with backend SSL](#load-balancer-terminates-ssl-with-backend-ssl)
  and communication is *secure* between the load balancer and the application node.

#### Application node terminates SSL

Configure your load balancer to pass connections on port 443 as `TCP` rather
than `HTTP(S)` protocol. This will pass the connection to the application node's
NGINX service untouched. NGINX will have the SSL certificate and listen on port 443.

See the [HTTPS documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html)
for details on managing SSL certificates and configuring NGINX.

#### Load balancer terminates SSL without backend SSL

Configure your load balancer to use the `HTTP(S)` protocol rather than `TCP`.
The load balancer will then be responsible for managing SSL certificates and
terminating SSL.

Since communication between the load balancer and GitLab will not be secure,
there is some additional configuration needed. See the
[proxied SSL documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html#configure-a-reverse-proxy-or-load-balancer-ssl-termination)
for details.

#### Load balancer terminates SSL with backend SSL

Configure your load balancers to use the 'HTTP(S)' protocol rather than 'TCP'.
The load balancers will be responsible for managing SSL certificates that
end users will see.

Traffic will also be secure between the load balancers and NGINX in this
scenario. There is no need to add configuration for proxied SSL since the
connection will be secure all the way. However, configuration will need to be
added to GitLab to configure SSL certificates. See
the [HTTPS documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html)
for details on managing SSL certificates and configuring NGINX.

<div align="right">
  <a type="button" class="btn btn-default" href="#setup-components">
    Back to setup components <i class="fa fa-angle-double-up" aria-hidden="true"></i>
  </a>
</div>

## Configure PostgreSQL

In this section, you'll be guided through configuring an external PostgreSQL database
to be used with GitLab.

### Provide your own PostgreSQL instance

If you're hosting GitLab on a cloud provider, you can optionally use a
managed service for PostgreSQL.

A reputable provider or solution should be used for this. [Google Cloud SQL](https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/high-availability#normal) and [Amazon RDS](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/) are known to work. However, Amazon Aurora is **incompatible** with load balancing enabled by default in [14.4.0](../../update/index.md#1440), and Azure Database for PostgreSQL is **not recommended** due to [performance issues](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/reference-architectures/-/issues/61). See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.

If you use a cloud-managed service, or provide your own PostgreSQL:

1. Set up PostgreSQL according to the
   [database requirements document](../../install/requirements.md#database).
1. Create a `gitlab` username with a password of your choice. The `gitlab` user
   needs privileges to create the `gitlabhq_production` database.
1. Configure the GitLab application servers with the appropriate details.
   This step is covered in [Configuring the GitLab Rails application](#configure-gitlab-rails).

See [Configure GitLab using an external PostgreSQL service](../postgresql/external.md) for
further configuration steps.

### Standalone PostgreSQL using Omnibus GitLab

1. SSH in to the PostgreSQL server.
1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab
   package of your choice. Be sure to follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2
   on the page.
1. Generate a password hash for PostgreSQL. This assumes you will use the default
   username of `gitlab` (recommended). The command will request a password
   and confirmation. Use the value that is output by this command in the next
   step as the value of `POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH`.

   ```shell
   sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab
   ```

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents below, updating placeholder
   values appropriately.

   - `POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH` - The value output from the previous step
   - `APPLICATION_SERVER_IP_BLOCKS` - A space delimited list of IP subnets or IP
     addresses of the GitLab application servers that will connect to the
     database. Example: `%w(123.123.123.123/32 123.123.123.234/32)`

   ```ruby
   # Disable all components except PostgreSQL related ones
   roles(['postgres_role'])

   # Set the network addresses that the exporters used for monitoring will listen on
   node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100'
   postgres_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9187'
   postgres_exporter['dbname'] = 'gitlabhq_production'
   postgres_exporter['password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH'

   # Set the PostgreSQL address and port
   postgresql['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0'
   postgresql['port'] = 5432

   # Replace POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH with a generated md5 value
   postgresql['sql_user_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH'

   # Replace APPLICATION_SERVER_IP_BLOCK with the CIDR address of the application node
   postgresql['trust_auth_cidr_addresses'] = %w(127.0.0.1/32 APPLICATION_SERVER_IP_BLOCK)

   # Prevent database migrations from running on upgrade automatically
   gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false
   ```

1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from the first Omnibus node you configured and add or replace
   the file of the same name on this server. If this is the first Omnibus node you are configuring then you can skip this step.

1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect.
1. Note the PostgreSQL node's IP address or hostname, port, and
   plain text password. These will be necessary when configuring the
   [GitLab application server](#configure-gitlab-rails) later.

Advanced [configuration options](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/database.html)
are supported and can be added if needed.

<div align="right">
  <a type="button" class="btn btn-default" href="#setup-components">
    Back to setup components <i class="fa fa-angle-double-up" aria-hidden="true"></i>
  </a>
</div>

## Configure Redis

In this section, you'll be guided through configuring an external Redis instance
to be used with GitLab.

### Provide your own Redis instance

Redis version 5.0 or higher is required, as this is what ships with
Omnibus GitLab packages starting with GitLab 13.0. Older Redis versions
do not support an optional count argument to SPOP which is now required for
[Merge Trains](../../ci/pipelines/merge_trains.md).

In addition, GitLab makes use of certain commands like `UNLINK` and `USAGE` which
were introduced only in Redis 4.

Managed Redis from cloud providers such as AWS ElastiCache will work. If these
services support high availability, be sure it is not the Redis Cluster type.

Note the Redis node's IP address or hostname, port, and password (if required).
These will be necessary when configuring the
[GitLab application servers](#configure-gitlab-rails) later.

### Standalone Redis using Omnibus GitLab

The Omnibus GitLab package can be used to configure a standalone Redis server.
The steps below are the minimum necessary to configure a Redis server with
Omnibus:

1. SSH in to the Redis server.
1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab
   package of your choice. Be sure to follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2
   on the page.
1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents:

   ```ruby
   ## Enable Redis
   roles(["redis_master_role"])

   redis['bind'] = '0.0.0.0'
   redis['port'] = 6379
   redis['password'] = 'SECRET_PASSWORD_HERE'

   gitlab_rails['enable'] = false

   # Set the network addresses that the exporters used for monitoring will listen on
   node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100'
   redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121'
   redis_exporter['flags'] = {
         'redis.addr' => 'redis://0.0.0.0:6379',
         'redis.password' => 'SECRET_PASSWORD_HERE',
   }
   ```

1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from the first Omnibus node you configured and add or replace
   the file of the same name on this server. If this is the first Omnibus node you are configuring then you can skip this step.

1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect.

1. Note the Redis node's IP address or hostname, port, and
   Redis password. These will be necessary when
   [configuring the GitLab application servers](#configure-gitlab-rails) later.

Advanced [configuration options](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/redis.html)
are supported and can be added if needed.

<div align="right">
  <a type="button" class="btn btn-default" href="#setup-components">
    Back to setup components <i class="fa fa-angle-double-up" aria-hidden="true"></i>
  </a>
</div>

## Configure Gitaly

[Gitaly](../gitaly/index.md) server node requirements are dependent on data size,
specifically the number of projects and those projects' sizes.

NOTE:
Increased specs for Gitaly nodes may be required in some circumstances such as
significantly large repositories or if any [additional workloads](#additional-workloads),
such as [server hooks](../server_hooks.md), have been added.

NOTE:
Gitaly has been designed and tested with repositories of varying sizes that follow best practices.
However, large repositories or monorepos not following these practices can significantly
impact Gitaly performance and requirements.
Refer to the [Large Repositories](#large-repositories) for more info.

Due to Gitaly having notable input and output requirements, we strongly
recommend that all Gitaly nodes use solid-state drives (SSDs). These SSDs
should have a throughput of at least 8,000
input/output operations per second (IOPS) for read operations and 2,000 IOPS
for write operations. These IOPS values are initial recommendations, and may be
adjusted to greater or lesser values depending on the scale of your
environment's workload. If you're running the environment on a Cloud provider,
refer to their documentation about how to configure IOPS correctly.

Be sure to note the following items:

- The GitLab Rails application shards repositories into
  [repository storage paths](../repository_storage_paths.md).
- A Gitaly server can host one or more storage paths.
- A GitLab server can use one or more Gitaly server nodes.
- Gitaly addresses must be specified to be correctly resolvable for *all*
  Gitaly clients.
- Gitaly servers must not be exposed to the public internet, as Gitaly's network
  traffic is unencrypted by default. The use of a firewall is highly recommended
  to restrict access to the Gitaly server. Another option is to
  [use TLS](#gitaly-tls-support).

NOTE:
The token referred to throughout the Gitaly documentation is an arbitrary
password selected by the administrator. This token is unrelated to tokens
created for the GitLab API or other similar web API tokens.

The following procedure describes how to configure a single Gitaly server named
`gitaly1.internal` with the secret token `gitalysecret`. We assume your GitLab
installation has two repository storages: `default` and `storage1`.

To configure the Gitaly server, on the server node you want to use for Gitaly:

1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab
   package of your choice. Be sure to follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2
   on the page, and _do not_ provide the `EXTERNAL_URL` value.
1. Edit the Gitaly server node's `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` file to configure
   storage paths, enable the network listener, and to configure the token:

   NOTE:
   You can't remove the `default` entry from `git_data_dirs` because [GitLab requires it](../gitaly/configure_gitaly.md#gitlab-requires-a-default-repository-storage).

<!--
Updates to example must be made at:
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/charts/gitlab/blob/master/doc/advanced/external-gitaly/external-omnibus-gitaly.md#configure-omnibus-gitlab
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/doc/administration/gitaly/index.md#gitaly-server-configuration
- all reference architecture pages
-->

   ```ruby
   # Avoid running unnecessary services on the Gitaly server
   postgresql['enable'] = false
   redis['enable'] = false
   nginx['enable'] = false
   puma['enable'] = false
   sidekiq['enable'] = false
   gitlab_workhorse['enable'] = false
   prometheus['enable'] = false
   alertmanager['enable'] = false
   grafana['enable'] = false
   gitlab_exporter['enable'] = false
   gitlab_kas['enable'] = false

   # Prevent database migrations from running on upgrade automatically
   gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false

   # Configure the gitlab-shell API callback URL. Without this, `git push` will
   # fail. This can be your 'front door' GitLab URL or an internal load
   # balancer.
   gitlab_rails['internal_api_url'] = 'https://gitlab.example.com'

   # Gitaly
   gitaly['enable'] = true

   # Make Gitaly accept connections on all network interfaces. You must use
   # firewalls to restrict access to this address/port.
   # Comment out following line if you only want to support TLS connections
   gitaly['listen_addr'] = "0.0.0.0:8075"
   gitaly['prometheus_listen_addr'] = "0.0.0.0:9236"

   # Gitaly and GitLab use two shared secrets for authentication, one to authenticate gRPC requests
   # to Gitaly, and a second for authentication callbacks from GitLab-Shell to the GitLab internal API.
   # The following two values must be the same as their respective values
   # of the GitLab Rails application setup
   gitaly['auth_token'] = 'gitalysecret'
   gitlab_shell['secret_token'] = 'shellsecret'

   # Set the network addresses that the exporters used for monitoring will listen on
   node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100'

   git_data_dirs({
     'default' => {
       'path' => '/var/opt/gitlab/git-data'
     },
     'storage1' => {
       'path' => '/mnt/gitlab/git-data'
     },
   })
   ```

1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from the first Omnibus node you configured and add or replace
   the file of the same name on this server. If this is the first Omnibus node you are configuring then you can skip this step.

1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect.

1. Confirm that Gitaly can perform callbacks to the internal API:
   - For GitLab 15.3 and later, run `sudo /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/gitaly check /var/opt/gitlab/gitaly/config.toml`.
   - For GitLab 15.2 and earlier, run `sudo /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/gitaly-hooks check /var/opt/gitlab/gitaly/config.toml`.

### Gitaly TLS support

Gitaly supports TLS encryption. To be able to communicate
with a Gitaly instance that listens for secure connections you will need to use `tls://` URL
scheme in the `gitaly_address` of the corresponding storage entry in the GitLab configuration.

You will need to bring your own certificates as this isn't provided automatically.
The certificate, or its certificate authority, must be installed on all Gitaly
nodes (including the Gitaly node using the certificate) and on all client nodes
that communicate with it following the procedure described in
[GitLab custom certificate configuration](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html#install-custom-public-certificates).

NOTE:
The self-signed certificate must specify the address you use to access the
Gitaly server. If you are addressing the Gitaly server by a hostname, add it as a Subject Alternative
Name. If you are addressing the Gitaly server by its IP address, you must add it
as a Subject Alternative Name to the certificate.

It's possible to configure Gitaly servers with both an unencrypted listening
address (`listen_addr`) and an encrypted listening address (`tls_listen_addr`)
at the same time. This allows you to do a gradual transition from unencrypted to
encrypted traffic, if necessary.

To configure Gitaly with TLS:

1. Create the `/etc/gitlab/ssl` directory and copy your key and certificate there:

   ```shell
   sudo mkdir -p /etc/gitlab/ssl
   sudo chmod 755 /etc/gitlab/ssl
   sudo cp key.pem cert.pem /etc/gitlab/ssl/
   sudo chmod 644 key.pem cert.pem
   ```

1. Copy the cert to `/etc/gitlab/trusted-certs` so Gitaly will trust the cert when
   calling into itself:

   ```shell
   sudo cp /etc/gitlab/ssl/cert.pem /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs/
   ```

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add:

   <!-- Updates to following example must also be made at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/charts/gitlab/blob/master/doc/advanced/external-gitaly/external-omnibus-gitaly.md#configure-omnibus-gitlab -->

   ```ruby
   gitaly['tls_listen_addr'] = "0.0.0.0:9999"
   gitaly['certificate_path'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/cert.pem"
   gitaly['key_path'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/key.pem"
   ```

1. Delete `gitaly['listen_addr']` to allow only encrypted connections.
1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure).

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## Configure GitLab Rails

This section describes how to configure the GitLab application (Rails) component.

In our architecture, we run each GitLab Rails node using the Puma webserver, and
have its number of workers set to 90% of available CPUs, with four threads. For
nodes running Rails with other components, the worker value should be reduced
accordingly. We've determined that a worker value of 50% achieves a good balance,
but this is dependent on workload.

On each node perform the following:

1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab
   package of your choice. Be sure to follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2
   on the page.
1. Create or edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and use the following configuration.
   To maintain uniformity of links across nodes, the `external_url`
   on the application server should point to the external URL that users will use
   to access GitLab. This would be the URL of the [load balancer](#configure-the-external-load-balancer)
   which will route traffic to the GitLab application server:

   ```ruby
   external_url 'https://gitlab.example.com'

   # Gitaly and GitLab use two shared secrets for authentication, one to authenticate gRPC requests
   # to Gitaly, and a second for authentication callbacks from GitLab-Shell to the GitLab internal API.
   # The following two values must be the same as their respective values
   # of the Gitaly setup
   gitlab_rails['gitaly_token'] = 'gitalysecret'
   gitlab_shell['secret_token'] = 'shellsecret'

   git_data_dirs({
     'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' },
     'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' },
     'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075' },
   })

   ## Disable components that will not be on the GitLab application server
   roles(['application_role'])
   gitaly['enable'] = false
   nginx['enable'] = true

   ## PostgreSQL connection details
   gitlab_rails['db_adapter'] = 'postgresql'
   gitlab_rails['db_encoding'] = 'unicode'
   gitlab_rails['db_host'] = '10.1.0.5' # IP/hostname of database server
   gitlab_rails['db_password'] = 'DB password'

   ## Redis connection details
   gitlab_rails['redis_port'] = '6379'
   gitlab_rails['redis_host'] = '10.1.0.6' # IP/hostname of Redis server
   gitlab_rails['redis_password'] = 'Redis Password'

   # Set the network addresses that the exporters used for monitoring will listen on
   node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100'
   gitlab_workhorse['prometheus_listen_addr'] = '0.0.0.0:9229'
   puma['listen'] = '0.0.0.0'
   sidekiq['listen_address'] = "0.0.0.0"

   # Configure Sidekiq with 2 workers and 10 max concurrency
   sidekiq['max_concurrency'] = 10
   sidekiq['queue_groups'] = ['*'] * 2

   # Add the monitoring node's IP address to the monitoring whitelist and allow it to
   # scrape the NGINX metrics. Replace placeholder `monitoring.gitlab.example.com` with
   # the address and/or subnets gathered from the monitoring node
   gitlab_rails['monitoring_whitelist'] = ['<MONITOR NODE IP>/32', '127.0.0.0/8']
   nginx['status']['options']['allow'] = ['<MONITOR NODE IP>/32', '127.0.0.0/8']

   # Object Storage
   # This is an example for configuring Object Storage on GCP
   # Replace this config with your chosen Object Storage provider as desired
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['enabled'] = true
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['connection'] = {
     'provider' => 'Google',
     'google_project' => '<gcp-project-name>',
     'google_json_key_location' => '<path-to-gcp-service-account-key>'
   }
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['artifacts']['bucket'] = "<gcp-artifacts-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['external_diffs']['bucket'] = "<gcp-external-diffs-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['lfs']['bucket'] = "<gcp-lfs-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['uploads']['bucket'] = "<gcp-uploads-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['packages']['bucket'] = "<gcp-packages-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['dependency_proxy']['bucket'] = "<gcp-dependency-proxy-bucket-name>"
   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['terraform_state']['bucket'] = "<gcp-terraform-state-bucket-name>"

   gitlab_rails['backup_upload_connection'] = {
     'provider' => 'Google',
     'google_project' => '<gcp-project-name>',
     'google_json_key_location' => '<path-to-gcp-service-account-key>'
   }
   gitlab_rails['backup_upload_remote_directory'] = "<gcp-backups-state-bucket-name>"

   ## Uncomment and edit the following options if you have set up NFS
   ##
   ## Prevent GitLab from starting if NFS data mounts are not available
   ##
   #high_availability['mountpoint'] = '/var/opt/gitlab/git-data'
   ##
   ## Ensure UIDs and GIDs match between servers for permissions via NFS
   ##
   #user['uid'] = 9000
   #user['gid'] = 9000
   #web_server['uid'] = 9001
   #web_server['gid'] = 9001
   #registry['uid'] = 9002
   #registry['gid'] = 9002
   ```

1. If you're using [Gitaly with TLS support](#gitaly-tls-support), make sure the
   `git_data_dirs` entry is configured with `tls` instead of `tcp`:

   ```ruby
   git_data_dirs({
     'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tls://gitaly1.internal:9999' },
     'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tls://gitaly1.internal:9999' },
     'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tls://gitaly2.internal:9999' },
   })
   ```

   1. Copy the cert into `/etc/gitlab/trusted-certs`:

      ```shell
      sudo cp cert.pem /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs/
      ```

1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from the first Omnibus node you configured and add or replace
   the file of the same name on this server. If this is the first Omnibus node you are configuring then you can skip this step.

1. To ensure database migrations are only run during reconfigure and not automatically on upgrade, run:

   ```shell
   sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure
   ```

   Only a single designated node should handle migrations as detailed in the
   [GitLab Rails post-configuration](#gitlab-rails-post-configuration) section.

1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect.

1. [Enable incremental logging](#enable-incremental-logging), unless you are using [NFS](#configure-nfs-optional).

1. Run `sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:gitaly:check` to confirm the node can connect to Gitaly.

1. Tail the logs to see the requests:

   ```shell
   sudo gitlab-ctl tail gitaly
   ```

When you specify `https` in the `external_url`, as in the previous example,
GitLab expects that the SSL certificates are in `/etc/gitlab/ssl/`. If the
certificates aren't present, NGINX will fail to start. For more information, see
the [HTTPS documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html).

### GitLab Rails post-configuration

1. Designate one application node for running database migrations during
   installation and updates. Initialize the GitLab database and ensure all
   migrations ran:

   ```shell
   sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:db:configure
   ```

   If you encounter a `rake aborted!` error message 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. Before proceeding, see
   [PgBouncer error `ERROR:  pgbouncer cannot connect to server`](../postgresql/replication_and_failover.md#pgbouncer-error-error-pgbouncer-cannot-connect-to-server).

1. [Configure fast lookup of authorized SSH keys in the database](../operations/fast_ssh_key_lookup.md).

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## Configure Prometheus

The Omnibus GitLab package can be used to configure a standalone Monitoring node
running [Prometheus](../monitoring/prometheus/index.md) and
[Grafana](../monitoring/performance/grafana_configuration.md):

1. SSH in to the Monitoring node.
1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab
   package of your choice. Be sure to follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2
   on the page.
1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents:

   ```ruby
   roles(['monitoring_role'])

   external_url 'http://gitlab.example.com'

   # Prometheus
   prometheus['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9090'
   prometheus['monitor_kubernetes'] = false

   # Grafana
   grafana['enable'] = true
   grafana['admin_password'] = '<grafana_password>'
   grafana['disable_login_form'] = false

   # Nginx - For Grafana access
   nginx['enable'] = true
   ```

1. Prometheus also needs some scrape configurations to pull all the data from the various
   nodes where we configured exporters. Assuming that your nodes' IPs are:

   ```plaintext
   1.1.1.1: postgres
   1.1.1.2: redis
   1.1.1.3: gitaly1
   1.1.1.4: rails1
   1.1.1.5: rails2
   ```

   Add the following to `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   prometheus['scrape_configs'] = [
     {
        'job_name': 'postgres',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.1:9187'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'redis',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.2:9121'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'gitaly',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.3:9236'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'gitlab-nginx',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.4:8060', '1.1.1.5:8060'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'gitlab-workhorse',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.4:9229', '1.1.1.5:9229'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'gitlab-rails',
        'metrics_path': '/-/metrics',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.4:8080', '1.1.1.5:8080'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'gitlab-sidekiq',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.4:8082', '1.1.1.5:8082'],
        ],
     },
     {
        'job_name': 'node',
        'static_configs' => [
        'targets' => ['1.1.1.1:9100', '1.1.1.2:9100', '1.1.1.3:9100', '1.1.1.4:9100', '1.1.1.5:9100'],
        ],
     },
   ]
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure).
1. In the GitLab UI, set `admin/application_settings/metrics_and_profiling` > Metrics - Grafana to `/-/grafana` to
`http[s]://<MONITOR NODE>/-/grafana`

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## Configure the object storage

GitLab supports using an object storage service for holding numerous types of data.
It's recommended over [NFS](#configure-nfs-optional) and in general it's better
in larger setups as object storage is typically much more performant, reliable,
and scalable.

GitLab has been tested on a number of object storage providers:

- [Amazon S3](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/)
- [Google Cloud Storage](https://cloud.google.com/storage)
- [Digital Ocean Spaces](https://www.digitalocean.com/products/spaces)
- [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Object/Tasks/s3compatibleapi.htm)
- [OpenStack Swift (S3 compatibility mode)](https://docs.openstack.org/swift/latest/s3_compat.html)
- [Azure Blob storage](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blobs-introduction)
- MinIO. We have [a guide to deploying this](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/advanced/external-object-storage/minio.html) within our Helm Chart documentation.

There are two ways of specifying object storage configuration in GitLab:

- [Consolidated form](../object_storage.md#consolidated-object-storage-configuration): A single credential is
  shared by all supported object types.
- [Storage-specific form](../object_storage.md#storage-specific-configuration): Every object defines its
  own object storage [connection and configuration](../object_storage.md#connection-settings).

The consolidated form is used in the following examples when available.

NOTE:
When using the [storage-specific form](../object_storage.md#storage-specific-configuration)
in GitLab 14.x and earlier, you should enable [direct upload mode](../../development/uploads/index.md#direct-upload).
The previous [background upload](../../development/uploads/index.md#direct-upload) mode,
which was deprecated in 14.9, requires shared storage such as [NFS](#configure-nfs-optional).

Using separate buckets for each data type is the recommended approach for GitLab.
This ensures there are no collisions across the various types of data GitLab stores.
There are plans to [enable the use of a single bucket](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/292958)
in the future.

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### Enable incremental logging

GitLab Runner returns job logs in chunks which Omnibus GitLab caches temporarily on disk in `/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-ci/builds` by default, even when using consolidated object storage. With default configuration, this directory needs to be shared through NFS on any GitLab Rails and Sidekiq nodes.

While sharing the job logs through NFS is supported, it's recommended to avoid the need to use NFS by enabling [incremental logging](../job_logs.md#incremental-logging-architecture) (required when no NFS node has been deployed). Incremental logging uses Redis instead of disk space for temporary caching of job logs.

## Configure NFS (optional)

For improved performance, [object storage](#configure-the-object-storage),
along with [Gitaly](#configure-gitaly), are recommended over using NFS whenever
possible.

See how to [configure NFS](../nfs.md).

WARNING:
Engineering support for NFS for Git repositories is deprecated, and [technical support is scheduled to be unavailable](../nfs.md#gitaly-and-nfs-deprecation)
after the release of GitLab 15.6. No further enhancements are planned for this feature.

Read:

- [Gitaly and NFS Deprecation](../nfs.md#gitaly-and-nfs-deprecation).
- About the [correct mount options to use](../nfs.md#upgrade-to-gitaly-cluster-or-disable-caching-if-experiencing-data-loss).

## Configure Advanced Search **(PREMIUM SELF)**

You can leverage Elasticsearch and [enable Advanced Search](../../integration/advanced_search/elasticsearch.md)
for faster, more advanced code search across your entire GitLab instance.

Elasticsearch cluster design and requirements are dependent on your specific
data. For recommended best practices about how to set up your Elasticsearch
cluster alongside your instance, read how to
[choose the optimal cluster configuration](../../integration/advanced_search/elasticsearch.md#guidance-on-choosing-optimal-cluster-configuration).

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## Cloud Native Hybrid reference architecture with Helm Charts (alternative)

As an alternative approach, you can also run select components of GitLab as Cloud Native
in Kubernetes via our official [Helm Charts](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/).
In this setup, we support running the equivalent of GitLab Rails and Sidekiq nodes
in a Kubernetes cluster, named Webservice and Sidekiq respectively. In addition,
the following other supporting services are supported: NGINX, Task Runner, Migrations,
Prometheus, and Grafana.

Hybrid installations leverage the benefits of both cloud native and traditional
compute deployments. With this, _stateless_ components can benefit from cloud native
workload management benefits while _stateful_ components are deployed in compute VMs
with Omnibus to benefit from increased permanence.

Refer to the Helm charts [Advanced configuration](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/advanced/)
documentation for setup instructions including guidance on what GitLab secrets to sync
between Kubernetes and the backend components.

NOTE:
This is an **advanced** setup. Running services in Kubernetes is well known
to be complex. **This setup is only recommended** if you have strong working
knowledge and experience in Kubernetes. The rest of this
section assumes this.

NOTE:
The 2,000 reference architecture is not a highly-available setup. To achieve HA,
you can follow a modified [3K reference architecture](3k_users.md#cloud-native-hybrid-reference-architecture-with-helm-charts-alternative).

NOTE:
**Gitaly Cluster is not supported to be run in Kubernetes**.
Refer to [epic 6127](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6127) for more details.

### Cluster topology

The following tables and diagram detail the hybrid environment using the same formats
as the normal environment above.

First are the components that run in Kubernetes. The recommendation at this time is to
use Google Cloud's Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and associated machine types, but the memory
and CPU requirements should translate to most other providers. We hope to update this in the
future with further specific cloud provider details.

| Service             | Nodes | Configuration          | GCP             | AWS          | Min Allocatable CPUs and Memory |
|---------------------|-------|------------------------|-----------------|--------------|---------------------------------|
| Webservice          | 3     | 8 vCPU, 7.2 GB memory  | `n1-highcpu-8`  | `c5.2xlarge` | 23.7 vCPU, 16.9 GB memory       |
| Sidekiq             | 2     | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory   | `n1-standard-4` | `m5.xlarge`  | 7.8 vCPU, 25.9 GB memory        |
| Supporting services | 2     | 2 vCPU, 7.5 GB memory  | `n1-standard-2` | `m5.large`   | 1.9 vCPU, 5.5 GB memory         |

- For this setup, we **recommend** and regularly [test](index.md#validation-and-test-results)
[Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine) and [Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/). Other Kubernetes services may also work, but your mileage may vary.
- Nodes configuration is shown as it is forced to ensure pod vCPU / memory ratios and avoid scaling during **performance testing**.
  - In production deployments, there is no need to assign pods to nodes. A minimum of three nodes in three different availability zones is strongly recommended to align with resilient cloud architecture practices.

Next are the backend components that run on static compute VMs via Omnibus (or External PaaS
services where applicable):

| Service                    | Nodes | Configuration          | GCP             | AWS         |
|----------------------------|-------|------------------------|-----------------|-------------|
| PostgreSQL<sup>1</sup>     | 1     | 2 vCPU, 7.5 GB memory  | `n1-standard-2` | `m5.large`  |
| Redis<sup>2</sup>          | 1     | 1 vCPU, 3.75 GB memory | `n1-standard-1` | `m5.large`  |
| Gitaly                     | 1     | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory   | `n1-standard-4` | `m5.xlarge` |
| Object storage<sup>3</sup> | -     | -                      | -               | -           |

<!-- Disable ordered list rule https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/blob/main/doc/Rules.md#md029---ordered-list-item-prefix -->
<!-- markdownlint-disable MD029 -->
1. Can be optionally run on reputable third-party external PaaS PostgreSQL solutions. See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.
    - [Google Cloud SQL](https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/high-availability#normal) and [Amazon RDS](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/) are known to work.
    - [Google AlloyDB](https://cloud.google.com/alloydb) and [Amazon RDS Multi-AZ DB clusters](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/multi-az-db-clusters-concepts.html) have not been tested and are not recommended. Both solutions are specifically not expected to work with GitLab Geo.
    - [Amazon Aurora](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/) is **incompatible** with load balancing enabled by default in [14.4.0](../../update/index.md#1440), and [Azure Database for PostgreSQL](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/postgresql/#overview) is **not recommended** due to [performance issues](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/reference-architectures/-/issues/61).
    - Consul is primarily used for Omnibus PostgreSQL high availability so can be ignored when using a PostgreSQL PaaS setup. However, Consul is also used optionally by Prometheus for Omnibus auto host discovery.
2. Can be optionally run on reputable third-party external PaaS Redis solutions. See [Recommended cloud providers and services](index.md#recommended-cloud-providers-and-services) for more information.
    - [Google Memorystore](https://cloud.google.com/memorystore) and [Amazon ElastiCache](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/) are known to work.
3. Should be run on reputable Cloud Provider or Self Managed solutions. More information can be found in the [Configure the object storage](#configure-the-object-storage) section.
<!-- markdownlint-enable MD029 -->

NOTE:
For all PaaS solutions that involve configuring instances, it is strongly recommended to implement a minimum of three nodes in three different availability zones to align with resilient cloud architecture practices.

```plantuml
@startuml 2k
skinparam linetype ortho

card "Kubernetes via Helm Charts" as kubernetes {
  card "**External Load Balancer**" as elb #6a9be7

  together {
    collections "**Webservice** x3" as gitlab #32CD32
    collections "**Sidekiq** x2" as sidekiq #ff8dd1
  }

  collections "**Supporting Services** x2" as support
}

card "**Gitaly**" as gitaly #FF8C00
card "**PostgreSQL**" as postgres #4EA7FF
card "**Redis**" as redis #FF6347
cloud "**Object Storage**" as object_storage #white

elb -[#6a9be7]-> gitlab

gitlab -[#32CD32]--> gitaly
gitlab -[#32CD32]--> postgres
gitlab -[#32CD32]-> object_storage
gitlab -[#32CD32]--> redis

sidekiq -[#ff8dd1]--> gitaly
sidekiq -[#ff8dd1]-> object_storage
sidekiq -[#ff8dd1]--> postgres
sidekiq -[#ff8dd1]--> redis

@enduml
```

### Resource usage settings

The following formulas help when calculating how many pods may be deployed within resource constraints.
The [2k reference architecture example values file](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/charts/gitlab/-/blob/master/examples/ref/2k.yaml)
documents how to apply the calculated configuration to the Helm Chart.

#### Webservice

Webservice pods typically need about 1 CPU and 1.25 GB of memory _per worker_.
Each Webservice pod consumes roughly 4 CPUs and 5 GB of memory using
the [recommended topology](#cluster-topology) because two worker processes
are created by default and each pod has other small processes running.

For 2,000 users we recommend a total Puma worker count of around 12.
With the [provided recommendations](#cluster-topology) this allows the deployment of up to 3
Webservice pods with 4 workers per pod and 1 pod per node. Expand available resources using
the ratio of 1 CPU to 1.25 GB of memory _per each worker process_ for each additional
Webservice pod.

For further information on resource usage, see the [Webservice resources](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/charts/gitlab/webservice/#resources).

#### Sidekiq

Sidekiq pods should generally have 0.9 CPU and 2 GB of memory.

[The provided starting point](#cluster-topology) allows the deployment of up to
4 Sidekiq pods. Expand available resources using the 0.9 CPU to 2 GB memory
ratio for each additional pod.

For further information on resource usage, see the [Sidekiq resources](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/charts/gitlab/sidekiq/#resources).

### Supporting

The Supporting Node Pool is designed to house all supporting deployments that don't need to be
on the Webservice and Sidekiq pools.

This includes various deployments related to the Cloud Provider's implementation and supporting
GitLab deployments such as NGINX or [GitLab Shell](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/charts/gitlab/gitlab-shell/).

If you wish to make any additional deployments, such as for Monitoring, it's recommended
to deploy these in this pool where possible and not in the Webservice or Sidekiq pools, as the Supporting pool has been designed
specifically to accommodate several additional deployments. However, if your deployments don't fit into the
pool as given, you can increase the node pool accordingly.

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