--- stage: Systems group: Gitaly 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 --- # Configure Gitaly **(FREE SELF)** The Gitaly service itself is configured by using a [TOML configuration file](reference.md). To change Gitaly settings: **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add or change the [Gitaly settings](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/1dd07197c7e5ae23626aad5a4a070a800b670380/files/gitlab-config-template/gitlab.rb.template#L1622-1676). 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). **For installations from source** 1. Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml` and add or change the [Gitaly settings](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/blob/master/config.toml.example). 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). The following configuration options are also available: - Enabling [TLS support](#enable-tls-support). - Configuring the [number of `gitaly-ruby` workers](#configure-number-of-gitaly-ruby-workers). - Limiting [RPC concurrency](#limit-rpc-concurrency). ## About the Gitaly token The token referred to throughout the Gitaly documentation is just an arbitrary password selected by the administrator. It is unrelated to tokens created for the GitLab API or other similar web API tokens. ## Run Gitaly on its own server By default, Gitaly is run on the same server as Gitaly clients and is [configured as above](#configure-gitaly). Single-server installations are best served by this default configuration used by: - [Omnibus GitLab](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/). - The GitLab [source installation guide](../../install/installation.md). However, Gitaly can be deployed to its own server, which can benefit GitLab installations that span multiple machines. NOTE: When configured to run on their own servers, Gitaly servers must be [upgraded](../../update/package/index.md) before Gitaly clients in your cluster. The process for setting up Gitaly on its own server is: 1. [Install Gitaly](#install-gitaly). 1. [Configure authentication](#configure-authentication). 1. [Configure Gitaly servers](#configure-gitaly-servers). 1. [Configure Gitaly clients](#configure-gitaly-clients). 1. [Disable Gitaly where not required](#disable-gitaly-where-not-required-optional) (optional). When running Gitaly on its own server, note the following regarding GitLab versions: - From GitLab 11.4, Gitaly was able to serve all Git requests without requiring a shared NFS mount for Git repository data, except for the [Elasticsearch indexer](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-elasticsearch-indexer). - From GitLab 11.8, the Elasticsearch indexer also uses Gitaly for data access. NFS can still be leveraged for redundancy on block-level Git data, but should be mounted only on the Gitaly servers. - From GitLab 11.8 to 12.2, it is possible to use Elasticsearch in a Gitaly setup that doesn't use NFS. To use Elasticsearch in these versions, the [repository indexer](../../integration/advanced_search/elasticsearch.md#elasticsearch-repository-indexer) must be enabled in your GitLab configuration. - [In GitLab 12.3 and later](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/6481), the new indexer is the default and no configuration is required. ### Network architecture The following list depicts the network architecture of Gitaly: - GitLab Rails shards repositories into [repository storages](../repository_storage_paths.md). - `/config/gitlab.yml` contains a map from storage names to `(Gitaly address, Gitaly token)` pairs. - The `storage name` -\> `(Gitaly address, Gitaly token)` map in `/config/gitlab.yml` is the single source of truth for the Gitaly network topology. - A `(Gitaly address, Gitaly token)` corresponds to a Gitaly server. - A Gitaly server hosts one or more storages. - A Gitaly client can use one or more Gitaly servers. - Gitaly addresses must be specified in such a way that they resolve correctly for **all** Gitaly clients. - Gitaly clients are: - Puma. - Sidekiq. - GitLab Workhorse. - GitLab Shell. - Elasticsearch indexer. - Gitaly itself. - A Gitaly server must be able to make RPC calls **to itself** by using its own `(Gitaly address, Gitaly token)` pair as specified in `/config/gitlab.yml`. - Authentication is done through a static token which is shared among the Gitaly and GitLab Rails nodes. The following digraph illustrates communication between Gitaly servers and GitLab Rails showing the default ports for HTTP and HTTPs communication. ![Gitaly network architecture diagram](img/gitaly_network_13_9.png) WARNING: Gitaly servers must not be exposed to the public internet as Gitaly's network traffic is unencrypted by default. The use of firewall is highly recommended to restrict access to the Gitaly server. Another option is to [use TLS](#enable-tls-support). In the following sections, we describe how to configure two Gitaly servers with secret token `abc123secret`: - `gitaly1.internal`. - `gitaly2.internal`. We assume your GitLab installation has three repository storages: - `default`. - `storage1`. - `storage2`. You can use as few as one server with one repository storage if desired. ### Install Gitaly Install Gitaly on each Gitaly server using either Omnibus GitLab or install it from source: - For Omnibus GitLab, [download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package you want but **do not** provide the `EXTERNAL_URL=` value. - To install from source, follow the steps at [Install Gitaly](../../install/installation.md#install-gitaly). ### Configure Gitaly servers To configure Gitaly servers, you must: - Configure authentication. - Configure storage paths. - Enable the network listener. The `git` user must be able to read, write, and set permissions on the configured storage path. To avoid downtime while rotating Gitaly's token, you can temporarily disable authentication using the `gitaly['auth_transitioning']` setting. For more information, see the documentation on [enabling "auth transitioning mode"](#enable-auth-transitioning-mode). #### Configure authentication Gitaly and GitLab use two shared secrets for authentication: - _Gitaly token_: used to authenticate gRPC requests to Gitaly - _GitLab Shell token_: used for authentication callbacks from GitLab Shell to the GitLab internal API **For Omnibus GitLab** To configure the _Gitaly token_, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```ruby gitaly['auth_token'] = 'abc123secret' ``` There are two ways to configure the _GitLab Shell token_. Method 1 (recommended): Copy `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` from the Gitaly client to same path on the Gitaly servers (and any other Gitaly clients). Method 2: Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```ruby gitlab_shell['secret_token'] = 'shellsecret' ``` **For installations from source** 1. Copy `/home/git/gitlab/.gitlab_shell_secret` from the Gitaly client to the same path on the Gitaly servers (and any other Gitaly clients). 1. On the Gitaly clients, edit `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`: ```yaml gitlab: gitaly: token: 'abc123secret' ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. On the Gitaly servers, edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml`: ```toml [auth] token = 'abc123secret' ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). #### Configure Gitaly server **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```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 grafana['enable'] = false gitlab_exporter['enable'] = false gitlab_kas['enable'] = false # If you run a separate monitoring node you can disable these services prometheus['enable'] = false alertmanager['enable'] = false # If you don't run a separate monitoring node you can # enable Prometheus access & disable these extra services. # This makes Prometheus listen on all interfaces. You must use firewalls to restrict access to this address/port. # prometheus['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9090' # prometheus['monitor_kubernetes'] = false # If you don't want to run monitoring services uncomment the following (not recommended) # node_exporter['enable'] = false # Prevent database connections during 'gitlab-ctl reconfigure' 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. # Don't forget to copy `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` from Gitaly client to Gitaly server. gitlab_rails['internal_api_url'] = 'https://gitlab.example.com' # 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" # Authentication token to ensure only authorized servers can communicate with # Gitaly server gitaly['auth_token'] = 'AUTH_TOKEN' ``` 1. Append the following to `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` for each respective Gitaly server: On `gitaly1.internal`: ```ruby git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'path' => '/var/opt/gitlab/git-data' }, 'storage1' => { 'path' => '/mnt/gitlab/git-data' }, }) ``` On `gitaly2.internal`: ```ruby git_data_dirs({ 'storage2' => { 'path' => '/srv/gitlab/git-data' }, }) ``` 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 1. Confirm that Gitaly can perform callbacks to the GitLab 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`. **For installations from source** 1. Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml`: ```toml listen_addr = '0.0.0.0:8075' runtime_dir = '/var/opt/gitlab/gitaly' [logging] format = 'json' level = 'info' dir = '/var/log/gitaly' ``` For GitLab 14.9 and earlier, set `internal_socket_dir = '/var/opt/gitlab/gitaly'` instead of `runtime_dir`. 1. Append the following to `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml` for each respective Gitaly server: On `gitaly1.internal`: ```toml [[storage]] name = 'default' path = '/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories' [[storage]] name = 'storage1' path = '/mnt/gitlab/git-data/repositories' ``` On `gitaly2.internal`: ```toml [[storage]] name = 'storage2' path = '/srv/gitlab/git-data/repositories' ``` 1. Edit `/home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml`: ```yaml gitlab_url: https://gitlab.example.com ``` 1. Save the files and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. Confirm that Gitaly can perform callbacks to the GitLab 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`. WARNING: If directly copying repository data from a GitLab server to Gitaly, ensure that the metadata file, default path `/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/.gitaly-metadata`, is not included in the transfer. Copying this file causes GitLab to use the [Rugged patches](index.md#direct-access-to-git-in-gitlab) for repositories hosted on the Gitaly server, leading to `Error creating pipeline` and `Commit not found` errors, or stale data. ### Configure Gitaly clients As the final step, you must update Gitaly clients to switch from using local Gitaly service to use the Gitaly servers you just configured. NOTE: GitLab requires a `default` repository storage to be configured. [Read more about this limitation](#gitlab-requires-a-default-repository-storage). This can be risky because anything that prevents your Gitaly clients from reaching the Gitaly servers causes all Gitaly requests to fail. For example, any sort of network, firewall, or name resolution problems. Additionally, you must [disable Rugged](../nfs.md#improving-nfs-performance-with-gitlab) if previously enabled manually. Gitaly makes the following assumptions: - Your `gitaly1.internal` Gitaly server can be reached at `gitaly1.internal:8075` from your Gitaly clients, and that Gitaly server can read, write, and set permissions on `/var/opt/gitlab/git-data` and `/mnt/gitlab/git-data`. - Your `gitaly2.internal` Gitaly server can be reached at `gitaly2.internal:8075` from your Gitaly clients, and that Gitaly server can read, write, and set permissions on `/srv/gitlab/git-data`. - Your `gitaly1.internal` and `gitaly2.internal` Gitaly servers can reach each other. You can't define Gitaly servers with some as a local Gitaly server (without `gitaly_address`) and some as remote server (with `gitaly_address`) unless you use [mixed configuration](#mixed-configuration). **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```ruby # Use the same token value configured on all Gitaly servers gitlab_rails['gitaly_token'] = '' git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, 'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, 'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075' }, }) ``` Alternatively, if each Gitaly server is configured to use a different authentication token: ```ruby git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075', 'gitaly_token' => '' }, 'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075', 'gitaly_token' => '' }, 'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075', 'gitaly_token' => '' }, }) ``` 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 1. Run `sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:gitaly:check` on the Gitaly client (for example, the Rails application) to confirm it can connect to Gitaly servers. 1. Tail the logs to see the requests: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl tail gitaly ``` **For installations from source** 1. Edit `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`: ```yaml gitlab: repositories: storages: default: gitaly_address: tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075 gitaly_token: AUTH_TOKEN_1 path: /some/local/path storage1: gitaly_address: tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075 gitaly_token: AUTH_TOKEN_1 path: /some/local/path storage2: gitaly_address: tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075 gitaly_token: AUTH_TOKEN_2 path: /some/local/path ``` NOTE: `/some/local/path` should be set to a local folder that exists, however no data is stored in this folder. This requirement is scheduled to be removed when [this issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/-/issues/1282) is resolved. 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. Run `sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:gitaly:check RAILS_ENV=production` to confirm the Gitaly client can connect to Gitaly servers. 1. Tail the logs to see the requests: ```shell tail -f /home/git/gitlab/log/gitaly.log ``` When you tail the Gitaly logs on your Gitaly server, you should see requests coming in. One sure way to trigger a Gitaly request is to clone a repository from GitLab over HTTP or HTTPS. WARNING: If you have [server hooks](../server_hooks.md) configured, either per repository or globally, you must move these to the Gitaly servers. If you have multiple Gitaly servers, copy your server hooks to all Gitaly servers. #### Mixed configuration GitLab can reside on the same server as one of many Gitaly servers, but doesn't support configuration that mixes local and remote configuration. The following setup is incorrect, because: - All addresses must be reachable from the other Gitaly servers. - `storage1` is assigned a Unix socket for `gitaly_address` which is invalid for some of the Gitaly servers. ```ruby git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, 'storage1' => { 'path' => '/mnt/gitlab/git-data' }, 'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075' }, }) ``` To combine local and remote Gitaly servers, use an external address for the local Gitaly server. For example: ```ruby git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, # Address of the GitLab server that also has Gitaly running on it 'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitlab.internal:8075', 'path' => '/mnt/gitlab/git-data' }, 'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075' }, }) # Make Gitaly accept connections on all network interfaces gitaly['listen_addr'] = "0.0.0.0:8075" # Or for TLS 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" ``` `path` can be included only for storage shards on the local Gitaly server. If it's excluded, default Git storage directory is used for that storage shard. ### GitLab requires a default repository storage When adding Gitaly servers to an environment, you might want to replace the original `default` Gitaly service. However, you can't reconfigure the GitLab application servers to remove the `default` entry from `git_data_dirs` because GitLab requires a `git_data_dirs` entry called `default`. [Read more](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/36175) about this limitation. To work around the limitation: 1. Define an additional storage location on the new Gitaly service and configure the additional storage to be `default`. 1. In the [Admin Area](../repository_storage_paths.md#configure-where-new-repositories-are-stored), set `default` to a weight of zero to prevent repositories being stored there. ### Disable Gitaly where not required (optional) If you run Gitaly [as a remote service](#run-gitaly-on-its-own-server), consider disabling the local Gitaly service that runs on your GitLab server by default, and run it only where required. Disabling Gitaly on the GitLab instance makes sense only when you run GitLab in a custom cluster configuration, where Gitaly runs on a separate machine from the GitLab instance. Disabling Gitaly on all machines in the cluster is not a valid configuration (some machines much act as Gitaly servers). To disable Gitaly on a GitLab server: **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```ruby gitaly['enable'] = false ``` 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). **For installations from source** 1. Edit `/etc/default/gitlab`: ```shell gitaly_enabled=false ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). ## Enable TLS support > - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/22602) in GitLab 11.8. > - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/-/issues/3160) in GitLab 13.6, outgoing TLS connections to GitLab provide client certificates if configured. Gitaly supports TLS encryption. To communicate with a Gitaly instance that listens for secure connections, use the `tls://` URL scheme in the `gitaly_address` of the corresponding storage entry in the GitLab configuration. Gitaly provides the same server certificates as client certificates in TLS connections to GitLab. This can be used as part of a mutual TLS authentication strategy when combined with reverse proxies (for example, NGINX) that validate client certificate to grant access to GitLab. You must supply your own certificates as this isn't provided automatically. The certificate corresponding to each Gitaly server must be installed on that Gitaly server. Additionally, the certificate (or its certificate authority) must be installed on all: - Gitaly servers. - Gitaly clients that communicate with it. ### Certificate requirements - The certificate must specify the address you use to access the Gitaly server. You must add the hostname or IP address as a Subject Alternative Name to the certificate. - You can 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 gradually transition from unencrypted to encrypted traffic if necessary. - The certificate's Common Name field is ignored. ### Configure Gitaly with TLS To configure Gitaly with TLS: **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Create certificates for Gitaly servers. 1. On the Gitaly clients, copy the certificates (or their certificate authority) into `/etc/gitlab/trusted-certs`: ```shell sudo cp cert.pem /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs/ ``` 1. On the Gitaly clients, edit `git_data_dirs` in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` as follows: ```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. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 1. On the Gitaly servers, 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 all Gitaly server certificates (or their certificate authority) to `/etc/gitlab/trusted-certs` on all Gitaly servers and clients so that Gitaly servers and clients trust the certificate when calling into themselves or other Gitaly servers: ```shell sudo cp cert1.pem cert2.pem /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs/ ``` 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add: ```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. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 1. Verify Gitaly traffic is being served over TLS by [observing the types of Gitaly connections](#observe-type-of-gitaly-connections). 1. Optional. Improve security by: 1. Disabling non-TLS connections by commenting out or deleting `gitaly['listen_addr']` in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`. 1. Saving the file. 1. [Reconfiguring GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). **For installations from source** 1. Create certificates for Gitaly servers. 1. On the Gitaly clients, copy the certificates into the system trusted certificates: ```shell sudo cp cert.pem /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/gitaly.crt sudo update-ca-certificates ``` 1. On the Gitaly clients, edit `storages` in `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml` as follows: ```yaml gitlab: repositories: storages: default: gitaly_address: tls://gitaly1.internal:9999 path: /some/local/path storage1: gitaly_address: tls://gitaly1.internal:9999 path: /some/local/path storage2: gitaly_address: tls://gitaly2.internal:9999 path: /some/local/path ``` NOTE: `/some/local/path` should be set to a local folder that exists, however no data is stored in this folder. This requirement is scheduled to be removed when [Gitaly issue #1282](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/-/issues/1282) is resolved. 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. On the Gitaly servers, create or edit `/etc/default/gitlab` and add: ```shell export SSL_CERT_DIR=/etc/gitlab/ssl ``` 1. On the Gitaly servers, 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 all Gitaly server certificates (or their certificate authority) to the system trusted certificates folder so Gitaly server trusts the certificate when calling into itself or other Gitaly servers. ```shell sudo cp cert.pem /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/gitaly.crt sudo update-ca-certificates ``` 1. Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml` and add: ```toml tls_listen_addr = '0.0.0.0:9999' [tls] certificate_path = '/etc/gitlab/ssl/cert.pem' key_path = '/etc/gitlab/ssl/key.pem' ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. Verify Gitaly traffic is being served over TLS by [observing the types of Gitaly connections](#observe-type-of-gitaly-connections). 1. Optional. Improve security by: 1. Disabling non-TLS connections by commenting out or deleting `listen_addr` in `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml`. 1. Saving the file. 1. [Restarting GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). ### Observe type of Gitaly connections For information on observing the type of Gitaly connections being served, see the [relevant documentation](monitoring.md#useful-queries). ## `gitaly-ruby` Gitaly was developed to replace the Ruby application code in GitLab. To save time and avoid the risk of rewriting existing application logic, we chose to copy some application code from GitLab into Gitaly. To be able to run that code, `gitaly-ruby` was created, which is a "sidecar" process for the main Gitaly Go process. Some examples of things that are implemented in `gitaly-ruby` are: - RPCs that deal with wikis. - RPCs that create commits on behalf of a user, such as merge commits. We recommend: - At least 300 MB memory per worker. - No more than one worker per core. NOTE: `gitaly-ruby` is planned to be eventually removed. To track progress, see the [Remove the Gitaly-Ruby sidecar](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/2862) epic. ### Configure number of `gitaly-ruby` workers `gitaly-ruby` has much less capacity than Gitaly implemented in Go. If your Gitaly server has to handle lots of requests, the default setting of having just one active `gitaly-ruby` sidecar might not be enough. If you see `ResourceExhausted` errors from Gitaly, it's very likely that you have not enough `gitaly-ruby` capacity. You can increase the number of `gitaly-ruby` processes on your Gitaly server with the following settings: **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: ```ruby # Default is 2 workers. The minimum is 2; 1 worker is always reserved as # a passive stand-by. gitaly['ruby_num_workers'] = 4 ``` 1. Save the file, and then [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). **For installations from source** 1. Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml`: ```toml [gitaly-ruby] num_workers = 4 ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). ## Limit RPC concurrency Clone traffic can put a large strain on your Gitaly service. The bulk of the work gets done in the either of the following RPCs: - `SSHUploadPackWithSidechannel` (for Git SSH). - `PostUploadPackWithSidechannel` (for Git HTTP). To prevent such workloads from overwhelming your Gitaly server, you can set concurrency limits in Gitaly's configuration file. For example: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['concurrency'] = [ { 'rpc' => "/gitaly.SmartHTTPService/PostUploadPackWithSidechanel", 'max_per_repo' => 20, 'max_queue_time' => "1s", 'max_queue_size' => 10 }, { 'rpc' => "/gitaly.SSHService/SSHUploadPackWithSidechannel", 'max_per_repo' => 20 'max_queue_time' => "1s", 'max_queue_size' => 10 } ] ``` - `rpc` is the name of the RPC to set a concurrency limit for per repository. - `max_per_repo` is the maximum number of in-flight RPC calls for the given RPC per repository. - `max_queue_time` is the maximum amount of time a request can wait in the concurrency queue to be picked up by Gitaly. - `max_queue_size` is the maximum size the concurrency queue (per RPC method) can grow to before requests are rejected by Gitaly. This limits the number of in-flight RPC calls for the given RPCs. The limit is applied per repository. In the example above: - Each repository served by the Gitaly server can have at most 20 simultaneous `PostUploadPackWithSidechannel` and `SSHUploadPackWithSidechannel` RPC calls in flight. - If another request comes in for a repository that has used up its 20 slots, that request gets queued. - If a request waits in the queue for more than 1 second, it is rejected with an error. - If the queue grows beyond 10, subsequent requests are rejected with an error. You can observe the behavior of this queue using the Gitaly logs and Prometheus. For more information, see the [relevant documentation](monitoring.md#monitor-gitaly-concurrency-limiting). ## Control groups FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default repository cgroups are not available. To make it available, ask an administrator to [enable the feature flag](../feature_flags.md) named `gitaly_run_cmds_in_cgroup`. Control groups (cgroups) in Linux allow limits to be imposed on how much memory and CPU can be consumed. See the [`cgroups` Linux man page](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/cgroups.7.html) for more information. cgroups can be useful for protecting the system against resource exhaustion because of over consumption of memory and CPU. Some Git operations are expensive by nature. `git clone`, for instance, spawns a `git-upload-pack` process on the server that can consume a lot of memory for large repositories. For example, a client that keeps on cloning a large repository over and over again. This situation could potentially use up all of the memory on a server, causing other operations to fail for other users. A repository can consume large amounts of memory for many reasons when cloned or downloaded. Using cgroups allows the kernel to kill these operations before they hog up all system resources. Gitaly shells out to Git for many of its operations. Git can consume a lot of resources for certain operations, especially for large repositories. Gitaly has built-in cgroups control. When configured, Gitaly assigns Git processes to a cgroup based on the repository the Git command is operating in. These cgroups are called repository cgroups. Each repository cgroup: - Has a memory and CPU limit. - Contains the Git processes for a single repository. - Uses a consistent hash to ensure a Git process for a given repository always ends up in the same cgroup. When a repository cgroup reaches its: - Memory limit, the kernel looks through the processes for a candidate to kill. - CPU limit, processes are not killed, but the processes are prevented from consuming more CPU than allowed. You configure repository cgroups for your GitLab installation to protect against system resource starvation from a few large repositories or bad actors. ### Configure repository cgroups (new method) > This method of configuring repository cgroups was introduced in GitLab 15.1. To configure repository cgroups in Gitaly using the new method, use the following settings for the new configuration method to `gitaly['cgroups']` in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: - `cgroups_mountpoint` is where the parent cgroup directory is mounted. Defaults to `/sys/fs/cgroup`. - `cgroups_hierarchy_root` is the parent cgroup under which Gitaly creates groups, and is expected to be owned by the user and group Gitaly runs as. Omnibus GitLab creates the set of directories `mountpoint//hierarchy_root` when Gitaly starts. - `cgroups_memory_bytes` is the total memory limit that is imposed collectively on all Git processes that Gitaly spawns. 0 implies no limit. - `cgroups_cpu_shares` is the CPU limit that is imposed collectively on all Git processes that Gitaly spawns. 0 implies no limit. The maximum is 1024 shares, which represents 100% of CPU. - `cgroups_repositories_count` is the number of cgroups in the cgroups pool. Each time a new Git command is spawned, Gitaly assigns it to one of these cgroups based on the repository the command is for. A circular hashing algorithm assigns Git commands to these cgroups, so a Git command for a repository is always assigned to the same cgroup. - `cgroups_repositories_memory_bytes` is the total memory limit imposed on all Git processes contained in a repository cgroup. 0 implies no limit. This value cannot exceed that of the top level `cgroups_memory_bytes`. - `cgroups_repositories_cpu_shares` is the CPU limit that is imposed on all Git processes contained in a repository cgroup. 0 implies no limit. The maximum is 1024 shares, which represents 100% of CPU. This value cannot exceed that of the top level`cgroups_cpu_shares`. For example: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['cgroups_mountpoint'] = "/sys/fs/cgroup" gitaly['cgroups_hierarchy_root'] => "gitaly" gitaly['cgroups_memory_bytes'] = 64424509440, # 60gb gitaly['cgroups_cpu_shares'] = 1024 gitaly['cgroups_repositories_count'] => 1000, gitaly['cgroups_repositories_memory_bytes'] => 32212254720 # 20gb gitaly['cgroups_repositories_cpu_shares'] => 512 ``` ### Configure repository cgroups (legacy method) To configure repository cgroups in Gitaly using the legacy method, use the following settings in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`: - `cgroups_count` is the number of cgroups created. Each time a new command is spawned, Gitaly assigns it to one of these cgroups based on the command line arguments of the command. A circular hashing algorithm assigns commands to these cgroups. - `cgroups_mountpoint` is where the parent cgroup directory is mounted. Defaults to `/sys/fs/cgroup`. - `cgroups_hierarchy_root` is the parent cgroup under which Gitaly creates groups, and is expected to be owned by the user and group Gitaly runs as. Omnibus GitLab creates the set of directories `mountpoint//hierarchy_root` when Gitaly starts. - `cgroups_memory_enabled` enables or disables the memory limit on cgroups. - `cgroups_memory_bytes` is the total memory limit each cgroup imposes on the processes added to it. - `cgroups_cpu_enabled` enables or disables the CPU limit on cgroups. - `cgroups_cpu_shares` is the CPU limit each cgroup imposes on the processes added to it. The maximum is 1024 shares, which represents 100% of CPU. For example: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['cgroups_count'] = 1000 gitaly['cgroups_mountpoint'] = "/sys/fs/cgroup" gitaly['cgroups_hierarchy_root'] = "gitaly" gitaly['cgroups_memory_limit'] = 32212254720 gitaly['cgroups_memory_enabled'] = true gitaly['cgroups_cpu_shares'] = 1024 gitaly['cgroups_cpu_enabled'] = true ``` ### Configuring oversubscription In the previous example using the new configuration method: - The top level memory limit is capped at 60gb. - Each of the 1000 cgroups in the repositories pool is capped at 20gb. This configuration leads to "oversubscription". Each cgroup in the pool has a much larger capacity than 1/1000th of the top-level memory limit. This strategy has two main benefits: - It gives the host protection from overall memory starvation (OOM), because the memory limit of the top-level cgroup can be set to a threshold smaller than the host's capacity. Processes outside of that cgroup are not at risk of OOM. - It allows each individual cgroup in the pool to burst up to a generous upper bound (in this example 20 GB) that is smaller than the limit of the parent cgroup, but substantially larger than 1/N of the parent's limit. In this example, up to 3 child cgroups can concurrently burst up to their max. In general, all 1000 cgroups would use much less than the 20 GB. ## Background Repository Optimization Empty directories and unneeded configuration settings may accumulate in a repository and slow down Git operations. Gitaly can schedule a daily background task with a maximum duration to clean up these items and improve performance. WARNING: This is an experimental feature and may place significant load on the host while running. Make sure to schedule this during off-peak hours and keep the duration short (for example, 30-60 minutes). **For Omnibus GitLab** Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add: ```ruby gitaly['daily_maintenance_start_hour'] = 4 gitaly['daily_maintenance_start_minute'] = 30 gitaly['daily_maintenance_duration'] = '30m' gitaly['daily_maintenance_storages'] = ["default"] ``` **For installations from source** Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml` and add: ```toml [daily_maintenance] start_hour = 4 start_minute = 30 duration = '30m' storages = ["default"] ``` ## Rotate Gitaly authentication token Rotating credentials in a production environment often requires downtime, causes outages, or both. However, you can rotate Gitaly credentials without a service interruption. Rotating a Gitaly authentication token involves: - [Verifying authentication monitoring](#verify-authentication-monitoring). - [Enabling "auth transitioning" mode](#enable-auth-transitioning-mode). - [Updating Gitaly authentication tokens](#update-gitaly-authentication-token). - [Ensuring there are no authentication failures](#ensure-there-are-no-authentication-failures). - [Disabling "auth transitioning" mode](#disable-auth-transitioning-mode). - [Verifying authentication is enforced](#verify-authentication-is-enforced). This procedure also works if you are running GitLab on a single server. In that case, "Gitaly server" and "Gitaly client" refers to the same machine. ### Verify authentication monitoring Before rotating a Gitaly authentication token, verify that you can [monitor the authentication behavior](monitoring.md#useful-queries) of your GitLab installation using Prometheus. You can then continue the rest of the procedure. ### Enable "auth transitioning" mode Temporarily disable Gitaly authentication on the Gitaly servers by putting them into "auth transitioning" mode as follows: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['auth_transitioning'] = true ``` After you have made this change, your [Prometheus query](#verify-authentication-monitoring) should return something like: ```prometheus {enforced="false",status="would be ok"} 4424.985419441742 ``` Because `enforced="false"`, it is safe to start rolling out the new token. ### Update Gitaly authentication token To update to a new Gitaly authentication token, on each Gitaly client **and** Gitaly server: 1. Update the configuration: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['auth_token'] = '' ``` 1. Restart Gitaly: ```shell gitlab-ctl restart gitaly ``` If you run your [Prometheus query](#verify-authentication-monitoring) while this change is being rolled out, you see non-zero values for the `enforced="false",status="denied"` counter. ### Ensure there are no authentication failures After the new token is set, and all services involved have been restarted, you will [temporarily see](#verify-authentication-monitoring) a mix of: - `status="would be ok"`. - `status="denied"`. After the new token is picked up by all Gitaly clients and Gitaly servers, the **only non-zero rate** should be `enforced="false",status="would be ok"`. ### Disable "auth transitioning" mode To re-enable Gitaly authentication, disable "auth transitioning" mode. Update the configuration on your Gitaly servers as follows: ```ruby # in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb gitaly['auth_transitioning'] = false ``` WARNING: Without completing this step, you have **no Gitaly authentication**. ### Verify authentication is enforced Refresh your [Prometheus query](#verify-authentication-monitoring). You should now see a similar result as you did at the start. For example: ```prometheus {enforced="true",status="ok"} 4424.985419441742 ``` `enforced="true"` means that authentication is being enforced. ## Pack-objects cache **(FREE SELF)** > - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/gl-infra/-/epics/372) in GitLab 13.11. > - It's enabled on GitLab.com. > - It's recommended for production use. [Gitaly](index.md), the service that provides storage for Git repositories, can be configured to cache a short rolling window of Git fetch responses. This can reduce server load when your server receives lots of CI fetch traffic. ### Overview The pack-objects cache wraps `git pack-objects`, an internal part of Git that gets invoked indirectly via the PostUploadPack and SSHUploadPack Gitaly RPCs. Gitaly runs PostUploadPack when a user does a Git fetch via HTTP, or SSHUploadPack when a user does a Git fetch via SSH. When the cache is enabled, anything that uses PostUploadPack or SSHUploadPack can benefit from it. It is orthogonal to: - The transport (HTTP or SSH). - Git protocol version (v0 or v2). - The type of fetch (full clones, incremental fetches, shallow clones, partial clones, and so on). The strength of this cache is its ability to deduplicate concurrent identical fetches. It: - Can benefit GitLab instances where your users run CI/CD pipelines with many concurrent jobs. There should be a noticeable reduction in server CPU utilization. - Does not benefit unique fetches at all. For example, if you run a spot check by cloning a repository to your local computer, you are unlikely to see a benefit from this cache because your fetch is probably unique. The pack-objects cache is a local cache. It: - Stores its metadata in the memory of the Gitaly process it is enabled in. - Stores the actual Git data it is caching in files on local storage. Using local files has the benefit that the operating system may automatically keep parts of the pack-objects cache files in RAM, making it faster. Because the pack-objects cache can lead to a significant increase in disk write IO, it is off by default. ### Configure the cache These are the configuration settings for the pack-objects cache. Each setting is discussed in greater detail below. |Setting|Default|Description| |:---|:---|:---| |`enabled`|`false`|Turns on the cache. When off, Gitaly runs a dedicated `git pack-objects` process for each request. | |`dir`|`/+gitaly/PackObjectsCache`|Local directory where cache files get stored.| |`max_age`|`5m` (5 minutes)|Cache entries older than this get evicted and removed from disk.| In `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`, set: ```ruby gitaly['pack_objects_cache_enabled'] = true ## gitaly['pack_objects_cache_dir'] = '/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/+gitaly/PackObjectsCache' ## gitaly['pack_objects_cache_max_age'] = '5m' ``` #### `enabled` defaults to `false` The cache is disabled by default. This is because in some cases, it can create an [extreme increase](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/production/-/issues/4010#note_534564684) in the number of bytes written to disk. On GitLab.com, we have verified that our repository storage disks can handle this extra workload, but we felt we cannot assume this is true everywhere. #### Cache storage directory `dir` The cache needs a directory to store its files in. This directory should be: - In a file system with enough space. If the cache file system runs out of space, all fetches start failing. - On a disk with enough IO bandwidth. If the cache disk runs out of IO bandwidth, all fetches, and probably the entire server, slows down. By default, the cache storage directory is set to a subdirectory of the first Gitaly storage defined in the configuration file. Multiple Gitaly processes can use the same directory for cache storage. Each Gitaly process uses a unique random string as part of the cache filenames it creates. This means: - They do not collide. - They do not reuse another process's files. While the default directory puts the cache files in the same file system as your repository data, this is not requirement. You can put the cache files on a different file system if that works better for your infrastructure. The amount of IO bandwidth required from the disk depends on: - The size and shape of the repositories on your Gitaly server. - The kind of traffic your users generate. You can use the `gitaly_pack_objects_generated_bytes_total` metric as a pessimistic estimate, pretending your cache hit ratio is 0%. The amount of space required depends on: - The bytes per second that your users pull from the cache. - The size of the `max_age` cache eviction window. If your users pull 100 MB/s and you use a 5 minute window, then on average you have `5*60*100MB = 30GB` of data in your cache directory. This is an expected average, not a guarantee. Peak size may exceed this average. #### Cache eviction window `max_age` The `max_age` configuration setting lets you control the chance of a cache hit and the average amount of storage used by cache files. Entries older than `max_age` get evicted from the in-memory metadata store, and deleted from disk. Eviction does not interfere with ongoing requests, so it is OK for `max_age` to be less than the time it takes to do a fetch over a slow connection. This is because Unix filesystems do not truly delete a file until all processes that are reading the deleted file have closed it. ### Observe the cache The cache can be observed [using metrics](monitoring.md#pack-objects-cache) and in the following logged information: |Message|Fields|Description| |:---|:---|:---| |`generated bytes`|`bytes`, `cache_key`|Logged when an entry was added to the cache| |`served bytes`|`bytes`, `cache_key`|Logged when an entry was read from the cache| In the case of a: - Cache miss, Gitaly logs both a `generated bytes` and a `served bytes` message. - Cache hit, Gitaly logs only a `served bytes` message. Example: ```json { "bytes":26186490, "cache_key":"1b586a2698ca93c2529962e85cda5eea8f0f2b0036592615718898368b462e19", "correlation_id":"01F1MY8JXC3FZN14JBG1H42G9F", "grpc.meta.deadline_type":"none", "grpc.method":"PackObjectsHook", "grpc.request.fullMethod":"/gitaly.HookService/PackObjectsHook", "grpc.request.glProjectPath":"root/gitlab-workhorse", "grpc.request.glRepository":"project-2", "grpc.request.repoPath":"@hashed/d4/73/d4735e3a265e16eee03f59718b9b5d03019c07d8b6c51f90da3a666eec13ab35.git", "grpc.request.repoStorage":"default", "grpc.request.topLevelGroup":"@hashed", "grpc.service":"gitaly.HookService", "grpc.start_time":"2021-03-25T14:57:52.747Z", "level":"info", "msg":"generated bytes", "peer.address":"@", "pid":20961, "span.kind":"server", "system":"grpc", "time":"2021-03-25T14:57:53.543Z" } { "bytes":26186490, "cache_key":"1b586a2698ca93c2529962e85cda5eea8f0f2b0036592615718898368b462e19", "correlation_id":"01F1MY8JXC3FZN14JBG1H42G9F", "grpc.meta.deadline_type":"none", "grpc.method":"PackObjectsHook", "grpc.request.fullMethod":"/gitaly.HookService/PackObjectsHook", "grpc.request.glProjectPath":"root/gitlab-workhorse", "grpc.request.glRepository":"project-2", "grpc.request.repoPath":"@hashed/d4/73/d4735e3a265e16eee03f59718b9b5d03019c07d8b6c51f90da3a666eec13ab35.git", "grpc.request.repoStorage":"default", "grpc.request.topLevelGroup":"@hashed", "grpc.service":"gitaly.HookService", "grpc.start_time":"2021-03-25T14:57:52.747Z", "level":"info", "msg":"served bytes", "peer.address":"@", "pid":20961, "span.kind":"server", "system":"grpc", "time":"2021-03-25T14:57:53.543Z" } ``` ## Repository consistency checks Gitaly runs repository consistency checks: - When triggering a repository check. - When changes are fetched from a mirrored repository. - When users push changes into repository. These consistency checks verify that a repository has all required objects and that these objects are valid objects. They can be categorized as: - Basic checks that assert that a repository doesn't become corrupt. This includes connectivity checks and checks that objects can be parsed. - Security checks that recognize objects that are suitable to exploit past security-related bugs in Git. - Cosmetic checks that verify that all object metadata is valid. Older Git versions and other Git implementations may have produced objects with invalid metadata, but newer versions can interpret these malformed objects. Removing malformed objects that fail the consistency checks requires a rewrite of the repository's history, which often can't be done. Therefore, Gitaly by default disables consistency checks for a range of cosmetic issues that don't negatively impact repository consistency. By default, Gitaly doesn't disable basic or security-related checks so to not distribute objects that can trigger known vulnerabilities in Git clients. This also limits the ability to import repositories containing such objects even if the project doesn't have malicious intent. ### Override repository consistency checks Instance administrators can override consistency checks if they must process repositories that do not pass consistency checks. For Omnibus GitLab installations, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and set the following keys (in this example, to disable the `hasDotgit` consistency check): - In [GitLab 15.3](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/issues/6800) and later: ```ruby gitaly['gitconfig'] = [ { key: "fsck.hasDotgit", value: "ignore" }, { key: "fetch.fsck.hasDotgit", value: "ignore" }, { key: "receive.fsck.hasDotgit", value: "ignore "}, ] ``` - In GitLab 15.2 and earlier (legacy method): ```ruby ignored_git_errors = ["hasDotgit = ignore"] omnibus_gitconfig['system'] = { "fsck" => ignored_git_errors, "fetch.fsck" => ignored_git_errors, "receive.fsck" => ignored_git_errors, } ``` For source installs, edit the Gitaly configuration (`gitaly.toml`) to do the equivalent: ```toml [[git.config]] key = "fsck.hasDotgit" value = "ignore" [[git.config]] key = "fetch.fsck.hasDotgit" value = "ignore" [[git.config]] key = "receive.fsck.hasDotgit" value = "ignore" ``` ## Configure commit signing for GitLab UI commits > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/19185) in GitLab 15.4. By default, Gitaly doesn't sign commits made using GitLab UI. For example, commits made using: - Web editor. - Web IDE. - Merge requests. You can configure Gitaly to sign commits made using GitLab UI. The commits show as unverified and signed by an unknown user. Support for improvements is proposed in issue [19185](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/19185). **For Omnibus GitLab** 1. [Create a GPG key](../../user/project/repository/gpg_signed_commits/index.md#create-a-gpg-key) and export it. For optimal performance, consider using an EdDSA key. ```shell gpg --export-secret-keys > signing_key.gpg ``` 1. On the Gitaly nodes, copy the key into `/etc/gitlab/gitaly/`. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and configure `gitaly['gpg_signing_key_path']`: ```ruby gitaly['gpg_signing_key_path'] = "/etc/gitlab/gitaly/signing_key.gpg" ``` 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). **For installations from source** 1. [Create a GPG key](../../user/project/repository/gpg_signed_commits/index.md#create-a-gpg-key) and export it. For optimal performance, consider using an EdDSA key. ```shell gpg --export-secret-keys > signing_key.gpg ``` 1. On the Gitaly nodes, copy the key into `/etc/gitlab`. 1. Edit `/home/git/gitaly/config.toml` and configure `signing_key`: ```toml [git] signing_key = "/etc/gitlab/gitaly/signing_key.gpg" ``` 1. Save the file and [restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source).