Since an installation from source is a lot of work and error prone we strongly recommend the fast and reliable [Omnibus package installation](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/) (deb/rpm).
One reason the Omnibus package is more reliable is its use of Runit to restart any of the GitLab processes in case one crashes.
On heavily used GitLab instances the memory usage of the Sidekiq background worker will grow over time.
Omnibus packages solve this by [letting the Sidekiq terminate gracefully](http://doc.gitlab.com/ce/operations/sidekiq_memory_killer.html) if it uses too much memory.
After this termination Runit will detect Sidekiq is not running and will start it.
Since installations from source don't have Runit, Sidekiq can't be terminated and its memory usage will grow over time.
Make sure you view [this installation guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md) from the tag (version) of GitLab you would like to install.
In most cases this should be the highest numbered production tag (without rc in it).
You can select the tag in the version dropdown in the top left corner of GitLab (below the menu bar).
This guide is long because it covers many cases and includes all commands you need, this is [one of the few installation scripts that actually works out of the box](https://twitter.com/robinvdvleuten/status/424163226532986880).
This installation guide was created for and tested on **Debian/Ubuntu** operating systems. Please read [doc/install/requirements.md](./requirements.md) for hardware and operating system requirements. If you want to install on RHEL/CentOS we recommend using the [Omnibus packages](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/).
This is the official installation guide to set up a production server. To set up a **development installation** or for many other installation options please see [the installation section of the readme](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/README.md#installation).
The following steps have been known to work. Please **use caution when you deviate** from this guide. Make sure you don't violate any assumptions GitLab makes about its environment. For example many people run into permission problems because they changed the location of directories or run services as the wrong user.
`sudo` is not installed on Debian by default. Make sure your system is
up-to-date and install it.
# run as root!
apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade -y
apt-get install sudo -y
**Note:** During this installation some files will need to be edited manually. If you are familiar with vim set it as default editor with the commands below. If you are not familiar with vim please skip this and keep using the default editor.
**Note:** In order to receive mail notifications, make sure to install a mail server. By default, Debian is shipped with exim4 but this [has problems](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/4866#issuecomment-32726573) while Ubuntu does not ship with one. The recommended mail server is postfix and you can install it with:
sudo apt-get install -y postfix
Then select 'Internet Site' and press enter to confirm the hostname.
We recommend using a PostgreSQL database. For MySQL check [MySQL setup guide](database_mysql.md). *Note*: because we need to make use of extensions you need at least pgsql 9.1.
**Note:** As of bundler 1.5.2, you can invoke `bundle install -jN` (where `N` the number of your processor cores) and enjoy the parallel gems installation with measurable difference in completion time (~60% faster). Check the number of your cores with `nproc`. For more information check this [post](https://robots.thoughtbot.com/parallel-gem-installing-using-bundler). First make sure you have bundler >= 1.5.2 (run `bundle -v`) as it addresses some [issues](https://devcenter.heroku.com/changelog-items/411) that were [fixed](https://github.com/bundler/bundler/pull/2817) in 1.5.2.
**Note:** Make sure your hostname can be resolved on the machine itself by either a proper DNS record or an additional line in /etc/hosts ("127.0.0.1 hostname"). This might be necessary for example if you set up GitLab behind a reverse proxy. If the hostname cannot be resolved, the final installation check will fail with "Check GitLab API access: FAILED. code: 401" and pushing commits will be rejected with "[remote rejected] master -> master (hook declined)".
**Note:** You can set the Administrator/root password and e-mail by supplying them in environmental variables, `GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD` and `GITLAB_ROOT_EMAIL` respectively, as seen below. If you don't set the password (and it is set to the default one) please wait with exposing GitLab to the public internet until the installation is done and you've logged into the server the first time. During the first login you'll be forced to change the default password.
If you installed GitLab in another directory or as a user other than the default you should change these settings in `/etc/default/gitlab`. Do not edit `/etc/init.d/gitlab` as it will be changed on upgrade.
**Note:** Nginx is the officially supported web server for GitLab. If you cannot or do not want to use Nginx as your web server, have a look at the [GitLab recipes](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-recipes/).
**Note:** If you want to use HTTPS, replace the `gitlab` Nginx config with `gitlab-ssl`. See [Using HTTPS](#using-https) for HTTPS configuration details.
### Test Configuration
Validate your `gitlab` or `gitlab-ssl` Nginx config file with the following command:
sudo nginx -t
You should receive `syntax is okay` and `test is successful` messages. If you receive errors check your `gitlab` or `gitlab-ssl` Nginx config file for typos, etc. as indicated in the error message given.
If you'd like Resque to connect to a Redis server on a non-standard port or on a different host, you can configure its connection string via the `config/resque.yml` file.
# example
production: redis://redis.example.tld:6379
If you want to connect the Redis server via socket, then use the "unix:" URL scheme and the path to the Redis socket file in the `config/resque.yml` file.
# example
production: unix:/path/to/redis/socket
### Custom SSH Connection
If you are running SSH on a non-standard port, you must change the GitLab user's SSH config.
# Add to /home/git/.ssh/config
host localhost # Give your setup a name (here: override localhost)
user git # Your remote git user
port 2222 # Your port number
hostname 127.0.0.1; # Your server name or IP
You also need to change the corresponding options (e.g. `ssh_user`, `ssh_host`, `admin_uri`) in the `config\gitlab.yml` file.
Apart from the always supported markdown style there are other rich text files that GitLab can display. But you might have to install a dependency to do so. Please see the [github-markup gem readme](https://github.com/gitlabhq/markup#markups) for more information.