--- reading_time: true stage: Enablement group: Distribution info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments --- # Reference architecture: up to 50,000 users **(PREMIUM SELF)** This page describes GitLab reference architecture for up to 50,000 users. For a full list of reference architectures, see [Available reference architectures](index.md#available-reference-architectures). > - **Supported users (approximate):** 50,000 > - **High Availability:** Yes > - **Test requests per second (RPS) rates:** API: 1000 RPS, Web: 100 RPS, Git (Pull): 100 RPS, Git (Push): 20 RPS | Service | Nodes | Configuration | GCP | AWS | Azure | |-----------------------------------------|-------------|-------------------------|-----------------|--------------|----------| | External load balancing node | 1 | 8 vCPU, 7.2 GB memory | n1-highcpu-8 | `c5.2xlarge` | F8s v2 | | Consul | 3 | 2 vCPU, 1.8 GB memory | n1-highcpu-2 | `c5.large` | F2s v2 | | PostgreSQL | 3 | 16 vCPU, 60 GB memory | n1-standard-16 | `m5.4xlarge` | D16s v3 | | PgBouncer | 3 | 2 vCPU, 1.8 GB memory | n1-highcpu-2 | `c5.large` | F2s v2 | | Internal load balancing node | 1 | 8 vCPU, 7.2 GB memory | n1-highcpu-8 | `c5.2xlarge` | F8s v2 | | Redis - Cache | 3 | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory | n1-standard-4 | `m5.xlarge` | D4s v3 | | Redis - Queues / Shared State | 3 | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory | n1-standard-4 | `m5.xlarge` | D4s v3 | | Redis Sentinel - Cache | 3 | 1 vCPU, 1.7 GB memory | g1-small | `t3.small` | B1MS | | Redis Sentinel - Queues / Shared State | 3 | 1 vCPU, 1.7 GB memory | g1-small | `t3.small` | B1MS | | Gitaly | 2 (minimum) | 64 vCPU, 240 GB memory | n1-standard-64 | `m5.16xlarge` | D64s v3 | | Sidekiq | 4 | 4 vCPU, 15 GB memory | n1-standard-4 | `m5.xlarge` | D4s v3 | | GitLab Rails | 12 | 32 vCPU, 28.8 GB memory | n1-highcpu-32 | `c5.9xlarge` | F32s v2 | | Monitoring node | 1 | 4 vCPU, 3.6 GB memory | n1-highcpu-4 | `c5.xlarge` | F4s v2 | | Object storage | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | | NFS server | 1 | 4 vCPU, 3.6 GB memory | n1-highcpu-4 | `c5.xlarge` | F4s v2 | ```mermaid stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> LoadBalancer LoadBalancer --> ApplicationServer ApplicationServer --> BackgroundJobs ApplicationServer --> Gitaly ApplicationServer --> Redis_Cache ApplicationServer --> Redis_Queues ApplicationServer --> PgBouncer PgBouncer --> Database ApplicationServer --> ObjectStorage BackgroundJobs --> ObjectStorage ApplicationMonitoring -->ApplicationServer ApplicationMonitoring -->PgBouncer ApplicationMonitoring -->Database ApplicationMonitoring -->BackgroundJobs ApplicationServer --> Consul Consul --> Database Consul --> PgBouncer Redis_Cache --> Consul Redis_Queues --> Consul BackgroundJobs --> Consul state Consul { "Consul_1..3" } state Database { "PG_Primary_Node" "PG_Secondary_Node_1..2" } state Redis_Cache { "R_Cache_Primary_Node" "R_Cache_Replica_Node_1..2" "R_Cache_Sentinel_1..3" } state Redis_Queues { "R_Queues_Primary_Node" "R_Queues_Replica_Node_1..2" "R_Queues_Sentinel_1..3" } state Gitaly { "Gitaly_1..2" } state BackgroundJobs { "Sidekiq_1..4" } state ApplicationServer { "GitLab_Rails_1..12" } state LoadBalancer { "LoadBalancer_1" } state ApplicationMonitoring { "Prometheus" "Grafana" } state PgBouncer { "Internal_Load_Balancer" "PgBouncer_1..3" } ``` The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) architectures were built and tested using the [Intel Xeon E5 v3 (Haswell)](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/cpu-platforms) CPU platform. On different hardware you may find that adjustments, either lower or higher, are required for your CPU or node counts. For more information, see our [Sysbench](https://github.com/akopytov/sysbench)-based [CPU benchmark](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/performance/-/wikis/Reference-Architectures/GCP-CPU-Benchmarks). Due to better performance and availability, for data objects (such as LFS, uploads, or artifacts), using an [object storage service](#configure-the-object-storage) is recommended instead of using NFS. Using an object storage service also doesn't require you to provision and maintain a node. ## Setup components To set up GitLab and its components to accommodate up to 50,000 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 Consul](#configure-consul). 1. [Configure PostgreSQL](#configure-postgresql), the database for GitLab. 1. [Configure PgBouncer](#configure-pgbouncer). 1. [Configure the internal load balancing node](#configure-the-internal-load-balancer). 1. [Configure Redis](#configure-redis). 1. [Configure Gitaly](#configure-gitaly), which provides access to the Git repositories. 1. [Configure Sidekiq](#configure-sidekiq). 1. [Configure the main GitLab Rails application](#configure-gitlab-rails) to run Puma/Unicorn, 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 Advanced Search](#configure-advanced-search) (optional) for faster, more advanced code search across your entire GitLab instance. 1. [Configure NFS](#configure-nfs-optional) (optional, and not recommended) to have shared disk storage service as an alternative to Gitaly or object storage. You can skip this step if you're not using GitLab Pages (which requires NFS). The servers start on the same 10.6.0.0/24 private network range, and can connect to each other freely on these addresses. The following list includes descriptions of each server and its assigned IP: - `10.6.0.10`: External Load Balancer - `10.6.0.11`: Consul 1 - `10.6.0.12`: Consul 2 - `10.6.0.13`: Consul 3 - `10.6.0.21`: PostgreSQL primary - `10.6.0.22`: PostgreSQL secondary 1 - `10.6.0.23`: PostgreSQL secondary 2 - `10.6.0.31`: PgBouncer 1 - `10.6.0.32`: PgBouncer 2 - `10.6.0.33`: PgBouncer 3 - `10.6.0.40`: Internal Load Balancer - `10.6.0.51`: Redis - Cache Primary - `10.6.0.52`: Redis - Cache Replica 1 - `10.6.0.53`: Redis - Cache Replica 2 - `10.6.0.71`: Sentinel - Cache 1 - `10.6.0.72`: Sentinel - Cache 2 - `10.6.0.73`: Sentinel - Cache 3 - `10.6.0.61`: Redis - Queues Primary - `10.6.0.62`: Redis - Queues Replica 1 - `10.6.0.63`: Redis - Queues Replica 2 - `10.6.0.81`: Sentinel - Queues 1 - `10.6.0.82`: Sentinel - Queues 2 - `10.6.0.83`: Sentinel - Queues 3 - `10.6.0.91`: Gitaly 1 - `10.6.0.92`: Gitaly 2 - `10.6.0.101`: Sidekiq 1 - `10.6.0.102`: Sidekiq 2 - `10.6.0.103`: Sidekiq 3 - `10.6.0.104`: Sidekiq 4 - `10.6.0.111`: GitLab application 1 - `10.6.0.112`: GitLab application 2 - `10.6.0.113`: GitLab application 3 - `10.6.0.121`: Prometheus ## Configure the external load balancer In an active/active 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 hope 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. ### 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 [NGINX HTTPS documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/nginx.html#enable-https) 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 [NGINX proxied SSL documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/nginx.html#supporting-proxied-ssl) for details. ### Load balancer terminates SSL with backend SSL Configure your load balancer(s) to use the 'HTTP(S)' protocol rather than 'TCP'. The load balancer(s) will be responsible for managing SSL certificates that end users will see. Traffic will also be secure between the load balancer(s) 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 [NGINX HTTPS documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/nginx.html#enable-https) for details on managing SSL certificates and configuring NGINX. ### 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_whitelist.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) 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 |
Back to setup components
## Configure Consul The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.11`: Consul 1 - `10.6.0.12`: Consul 2 - `10.6.0.13`: Consul 3 NOTE: The configuration processes for the other servers in your reference architecture will use the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server to connect with the other servers. To configure Consul: 1. SSH in to the server that will host Consul. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby roles ['consul_role'] ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { server: true, retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' # Disable auto migrations gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. 1. Go through the steps again for all the other Consul nodes, and make sure you set up the correct IPs. A Consul leader is _elected_ when the provisioning of the third Consul server is complete. Viewing the Consul logs `sudo gitlab-ctl tail consul` displays `...[INFO] consul: New leader elected: ...`. You can list the current Consul members (server, client): ```shell sudo /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/consul members ``` You can verify the GitLab services are running: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl status ``` The output should be similar to the following: ```plaintext run: consul: (pid 30074) 76834s; run: log: (pid 29740) 76844s run: logrotate: (pid 30925) 3041s; run: log: (pid 29649) 76861s run: node-exporter: (pid 30093) 76833s; run: log: (pid 29663) 76855s ```
Back to setup components
## 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. For example, AWS offers a managed Relational Database Service (RDS) that runs PostgreSQL. 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. Set up 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 The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.21`: PostgreSQL primary - `10.6.0.22`: PostgreSQL secondary 1 - `10.6.0.23`: PostgreSQL secondary 2 First, make sure to [install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Linux GitLab package **on each node**. Following the steps, install the necessary dependencies from step 1, and add the GitLab package repository from step 2. When installing GitLab in the second step, do not supply the `EXTERNAL_URL` value. #### PostgreSQL nodes 1. SSH in to one of the PostgreSQL nodes. 1. Generate a password hash for the PostgreSQL username/password pair. 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 ``: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab ``` 1. Generate a password hash for the PgBouncer username/password pair. This assumes you will use the default username of `pgbouncer` (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 ``: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 pgbouncer ``` 1. Generate a password hash for the Consul database username/password pair. This assumes you will use the default username of `gitlab-consul` (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 ``: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab-consul ``` 1. On every database node, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` replacing values noted in the `# START user configuration` section: ```ruby # Disable all components except PostgreSQL, Patroni, and Consul roles ['postgres_role'] # PostgreSQL configuration postgresql['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0' # Enable Patroni patroni['enable'] = true # Set `max_wal_senders` to one more than the number of database nodes in the cluster. # This is used to prevent replication from using up all of the # available database connections. patroni['postgresql']['max_wal_senders'] = 4 patroni['postgresql']['max_replication_slots'] = 4 # Incoming recommended value for max connections is 500. See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/issues/5691. patroni['postgresql']['max_connections'] = 500 # Disable automatic database migrations gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false # Configure the Consul agent consul['enable'] = true consul['services'] = %w(postgresql) ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true # START user configuration # Please set the real values as explained in Required Information section # # Replace PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH with a generated md5 value postgresql['pgbouncer_user_password'] = '' # Replace POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH with a generated md5 value postgresql['sql_user_password'] = '' # Replace XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/YY with Network Address postgresql['trust_auth_cidr_addresses'] = %w(10.6.0.0/24) # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on for monitoring node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' postgres_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9187' ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # # END user configuration ``` PostgreSQL, with Patroni managing its failover, will default to use `pg_rewind` by default to handle conflicts. Like most failover handling methods, this has a small chance of leading to data loss. Learn more about the various [Patroni replication methods](../postgresql/replication_and_failover.md#selecting-the-appropriate-patroni-replication-method). 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. Advanced [configuration options](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/database.html) are supported and can be added if needed. #### PostgreSQL post-configuration SSH in to the **primary node**: 1. Open a database prompt: ```shell gitlab-psql -d gitlabhq_production ``` 1. Make sure the `pg_trgm` extension is enabled (it might already be): ```shell CREATE EXTENSION pg_trgm; ``` 1. Exit the database prompt by typing `\q` and Enter. 1. Check the status of the leader and cluster: ```shell gitlab-ctl patroni members ``` The output should be similar to the following: ```plaintext | Cluster | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | Pending restart | |---------------|-----------------------------------|-----------|--------|---------|-----|-----------|-----------------| | postgresql-ha | | 10.6.0.21 | Leader | running | 175 | | * | | postgresql-ha | | 10.6.0.22 | | running | 175 | 0 | * | | postgresql-ha | | 10.6.0.23 | | running | 175 | 0 | * | ``` If the 'State' column for any node doesn't say "running", check the [Troubleshooting section](troubleshooting.md) before proceeding. ## Configure PgBouncer Now that the PostgreSQL servers are all set up, let's configure PgBouncer. The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.31`: PgBouncer 1 - `10.6.0.32`: PgBouncer 2 - `10.6.0.33`: PgBouncer 3 1. On each PgBouncer node, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`, and replace `` and `` with the password hashes you [set up previously](#postgresql-nodes): ```ruby # Disable all components except Pgbouncer and Consul agent roles ['pgbouncer_role'] # Configure PgBouncer pgbouncer['admin_users'] = %w(pgbouncer gitlab-consul) pgbouncer['users'] = { 'gitlab-consul': { password: '' }, 'pgbouncer': { password: '' } } # Incoming recommended value for max db connections is 150. See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/issues/5691. pgbouncer['max_db_connections'] = 150 # Configure Consul agent consul['watchers'] = %w(postgresql) consul['enable'] = true consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13) } # Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. If an error `execute[generate databases.ini]` occurs, this is due to an existing [known issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/issues/4713). It will be resolved when you run a second `reconfigure` after the next step. 1. Create a `.pgpass` file so Consul is able to reload PgBouncer. Enter the PgBouncer password twice when asked: ```shell gitlab-ctl write-pgpass --host 127.0.0.1 --database pgbouncer --user pgbouncer --hostuser gitlab-consul ``` 1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) once again to resolve any potential errors from the previous steps. 1. Ensure each node is talking to the current primary: ```shell gitlab-ctl pgb-console # You will be prompted for PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD ``` 1. Once the console prompt is available, run the following queries: ```shell show databases ; show clients ; ``` The output should be similar to the following: ```plaintext name | host | port | database | force_user | pool_size | reserve_pool | pool_mode | max_connections | current_connections ---------------------+-------------+------+---------------------+------------+-----------+--------------+-----------+-----------------+--------------------- gitlabhq_production | MASTER_HOST | 5432 | gitlabhq_production | | 20 | 0 | | 0 | 0 pgbouncer | | 6432 | pgbouncer | pgbouncer | 2 | 0 | statement | 0 | 0 (2 rows) type | user | database | state | addr | port | local_addr | local_port | connect_time | request_time | ptr | link | remote_pid | tls ------+-----------+---------------------+---------+----------------+-------+------------+------------+---------------------+---------------------+-----------+------+------------+----- C | pgbouncer | pgbouncer | active | 127.0.0.1 | 56846 | 127.0.0.1 | 6432 | 2017-08-21 18:09:59 | 2017-08-21 18:10:48 | 0x22b3880 | | 0 | (2 rows) ``` ### Configure the internal load balancer If you're running more than one PgBouncer node as recommended, then at this time you'll need to set up a TCP internal load balancer to serve each correctly. The following IP will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.40`: Internal Load Balancer Here's how you could do it with [HAProxy](https://www.haproxy.org/): ```plaintext global log /dev/log local0 log localhost local1 notice log stdout format raw local0 defaults log global default-server inter 10s fall 3 rise 2 balance leastconn frontend internal-pgbouncer-tcp-in bind *:6432 mode tcp option tcplog default_backend pgbouncer backend pgbouncer mode tcp option tcp-check server pgbouncer1 10.6.0.21:6432 check server pgbouncer2 10.6.0.22:6432 check server pgbouncer3 10.6.0.23:6432 check ``` Refer to your preferred Load Balancer's documentation for further guidance. ## Configure Redis Using [Redis](https://redis.io/) in scalable environment is possible using a **Primary** x **Replica** topology with a [Redis Sentinel](https://redis.io/topics/sentinel) service to watch and automatically start the failover procedure. Redis requires authentication if used with Sentinel. See [Redis Security](https://redis.io/topics/security) documentation for more information. We recommend using a combination of a Redis password and tight firewall rules to secure your Redis service. You are highly encouraged to read the [Redis Sentinel](https://redis.io/topics/sentinel) documentation before configuring Redis with GitLab to fully understand the topology and architecture. The requirements for a Redis setup are the following: 1. All Redis nodes must be able to talk to each other and accept incoming connections over Redis (`6379`) and Sentinel (`26379`) ports (unless you change the default ones). 1. The server that hosts the GitLab application must be able to access the Redis nodes. 1. Protect the nodes from access from external networks ([Internet](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/uploads/c4cc8cd353604bd80315f9384035ff9e/The_Internet_IT_Crowd.png)), using a firewall. In this section, you'll be guided through configuring two external Redis clusters to be used with GitLab. The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.51`: Redis - Cache Primary - `10.6.0.52`: Redis - Cache Replica 1 - `10.6.0.53`: Redis - Cache Replica 2 - `10.6.0.71`: Sentinel - Cache 1 - `10.6.0.72`: Sentinel - Cache 2 - `10.6.0.73`: Sentinel - Cache 3 - `10.6.0.61`: Redis - Queues Primary - `10.6.0.62`: Redis - Queues Replica 1 - `10.6.0.63`: Redis - Queues Replica 2 - `10.6.0.81`: Sentinel - Queues 1 - `10.6.0.82`: Sentinel - Queues 2 - `10.6.0.83`: Sentinel - Queues 3 ### Providing your own Redis instance Managed Redis from cloud providers (such as AWS ElastiCache) will work. If these services support high availability, be sure it _isn't_ of the Redis Cluster type. Redis version 5.0 or higher is required, which is included with Omnibus GitLab packages starting with GitLab 13.0. Older Redis versions don't support an optional count argument to SPOP, which is required for [Merge Trains](../../ci/merge_request_pipelines/pipelines_for_merged_results/merge_trains/index.md). Note the Redis node's IP address or hostname, port, and password (if required). These will be necessary later when configuring the [GitLab application servers](#configure-gitlab-rails). ### Configure the Redis and Sentinel Cache cluster This is the section where we install and set up the new Redis Cache instances. Both the primary and replica Redis nodes need the same password defined in `redis['password']`. At any time during a failover, the Sentinels can reconfigure a node and change its status from primary to replica (and vice versa). #### Configure the primary Redis Cache node 1. SSH in to the **Primary** Redis server. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby # Specify server role as 'redis_master_role' roles ['redis_master_role'] # IP address pointing to a local IP that the other machines can reach to. # You can also set bind to '0.0.0.0' which listen in all interfaces. # If you really need to bind to an external accessible IP, make # sure you add extra firewall rules to prevent unauthorized access. redis['bind'] = '10.6.0.51' # Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other # machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 # Set up password authentication for Redis (use the same password in all nodes). redis['password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_FIRST_CLUSTER' # Set the Redis Cache instance as an LRU # 90% of available RAM in MB redis['maxmemory'] = '13500mb' redis['maxmemory_policy'] = "allkeys-lru" redis['maxmemory_samples'] = 5 ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' # Prevent database migrations from running on upgrade gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. You can specify multiple roles, like sentinel and Redis, as: `roles ['redis_sentinel_role', 'redis_master_role']`. Read more about [roles](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/roles/). #### Configure the replica Redis Cache nodes 1. SSH in to the **replica** Redis server. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby # Specify server role as 'redis_replica_role' roles ['redis_replica_role'] # IP address pointing to a local IP that the other machines can reach to. # You can also set bind to '0.0.0.0' which listen in all interfaces. # If you really need to bind to an external accessible IP, make # sure you add extra firewall rules to prevent unauthorized access. redis['bind'] = '10.6.0.52' # Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other # machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 # The same password for Redis authentication you set up for the primary node. redis['password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_FIRST_CLUSTER' # The IP of the primary Redis node. redis['master_ip'] = '10.6.0.51' # Port of primary Redis server, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults # to `6379`. #redis['master_port'] = 6379 # Set the Redis Cache instance as an LRU # 90% of available RAM in MB redis['maxmemory'] = '13500mb' redis['maxmemory_policy'] = "allkeys-lru" redis['maxmemory_samples'] = 5 ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' # Prevent database migrations from running on upgrade gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. 1. Go through the steps again for all the other replica nodes, and make sure to set up the IPs correctly. You can specify multiple roles, like sentinel and Redis, as: `roles ['redis_sentinel_role', 'redis_master_role']`. Read more about [roles](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/roles/). These values don't have to be changed again in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` after a failover, as the nodes will be managed by the [Sentinels](#configure-the-sentinel-cache-nodes), and even after a `gitlab-ctl reconfigure`, they will get their configuration restored by the same Sentinels. Advanced [configuration options](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/redis.html) are supported and can be added if needed. #### Configure the Sentinel Cache nodes Now that the Redis servers are all set up, let's configure the Sentinel servers. The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.71`: Sentinel - Cache 1 - `10.6.0.72`: Sentinel - Cache 2 - `10.6.0.73`: Sentinel - Cache 3 NOTE: If you're using an external Redis Sentinel instance, be sure to exclude the `requirepass` parameter from the Sentinel configuration. This parameter causes clients to report `NOAUTH Authentication required.`. [Redis Sentinel 3.2.x doesn't support password authentication](https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/3279). To configure the Sentinel Cache server: 1. SSH in to the server that will host Consul/Sentinel. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby roles ['redis_sentinel_role'] ## Must be the same in every sentinel node redis['master_name'] = 'gitlab-redis-cache' ## The same password for Redis authentication you set up for the primary node. redis['master_password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_FIRST_CLUSTER' ## The IP of the primary Redis node. redis['master_ip'] = '10.6.0.51' ## Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other ## machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 ## Port of primary Redis server, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults ## to `6379`. #redis['master_port'] = 6379 ## Configure Sentinel's IP sentinel['bind'] = '10.6.0.71' ## Port that Sentinel listens on, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults ## to `26379`. #sentinel['port'] = 26379 ## Quorum must reflect the amount of voting sentinels it take to start a failover. ## Value must NOT be greater then the amount of sentinels. ## ## The quorum can be used to tune Sentinel in two ways: ## 1. If a the quorum is set to a value smaller than the majority of Sentinels ## we deploy, we are basically making Sentinel more sensible to primary failures, ## triggering a failover as soon as even just a minority of Sentinels is no longer ## able to talk with the primary. ## 1. If a quorum is set to a value greater than the majority of Sentinels, we are ## making Sentinel able to failover only when there are a very large number (larger ## than majority) of well connected Sentinels which agree about the primary being down.s sentinel['quorum'] = 2 ## Consider unresponsive server down after x amount of ms. #sentinel['down_after_milliseconds'] = 10000 ## Specifies the failover timeout in milliseconds. It is used in many ways: ## ## - The time needed to re-start a failover after a previous failover was ## already tried against the same primary by a given Sentinel, is two ## times the failover timeout. ## ## - The time needed for a replica replicating to a wrong primary according ## to a Sentinel current configuration, to be forced to replicate ## with the right primary, is exactly the failover timeout (counting since ## the moment a Sentinel detected the misconfiguration). ## ## - The time needed to cancel a failover that is already in progress but ## did not produced any configuration change (REPLICAOF NO ONE yet not ## acknowledged by the promoted replica). ## ## - The maximum time a failover in progress waits for all the replica to be ## reconfigured as replicas of the new primary. However even after this time ## the replicas will be reconfigured by the Sentinels anyway, but not with ## the exact parallel-syncs progression as specified. #sentinel['failover_timeout'] = 60000 ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' # Disable auto migrations gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. 1. Go through the steps again for all the other Consul/Sentinel nodes, and make sure you set up the correct IPs. ### Configure the Redis and Sentinel Queues cluster This is the section where we install and set up the new Redis Queues instances. Both the primary and replica Redis nodes need the same password defined in `redis['password']`. At any time during a failover, the Sentinels can reconfigure a node and change its status from primary to replica (and vice versa). #### Configure the primary Redis Queues node 1. SSH in to the **Primary** Redis server. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby # Specify server role as 'redis_master_role' roles ['redis_master_role'] # IP address pointing to a local IP that the other machines can reach to. # You can also set bind to '0.0.0.0' which listen in all interfaces. # If you really need to bind to an external accessible IP, make # sure you add extra firewall rules to prevent unauthorized access. redis['bind'] = '10.6.0.61' # Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other # machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 # Set up password authentication for Redis (use the same password in all nodes). redis['password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_SECOND_CLUSTER' ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' ``` 1. Only the primary GitLab application server should handle migrations. To prevent database migrations from running on upgrade, add the following configuration to your `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` file: ```ruby gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. You can specify multiple roles, like sentinel and Redis, as: `roles ['redis_sentinel_role', 'redis_master_role']`. Read more about [roles](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/roles/). #### Configure the replica Redis Queues nodes 1. SSH in to the **replica** Redis Queue server. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby # Specify server role as 'redis_replica_role' roles ['redis_replica_role'] # IP address pointing to a local IP that the other machines can reach to. # You can also set bind to '0.0.0.0' which listen in all interfaces. # If you really need to bind to an external accessible IP, make # sure you add extra firewall rules to prevent unauthorized access. redis['bind'] = '10.6.0.62' # Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other # machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 # The same password for Redis authentication you set up for the primary node. redis['password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_SECOND_CLUSTER' # The IP of the primary Redis node. redis['master_ip'] = '10.6.0.61' # Port of primary Redis server, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults # to `6379`. #redis['master_port'] = 6379 ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' # Disable auto migrations gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. 1. Go through the steps again for all the other replica nodes, and make sure to set up the IPs correctly. You can specify multiple roles, like sentinel and Redis, as: `roles ['redis_sentinel_role', 'redis_master_role']`. Read more about [roles](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/roles/). These values don't have to be changed again in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` after a failover, as the nodes will be managed by the [Sentinels](#configure-the-sentinel-queues-nodes), and even after a `gitlab-ctl reconfigure`, they will get their configuration restored by the same Sentinels. Advanced [configuration options](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/redis.html) are supported and can be added if needed. #### Configure the Sentinel Queues nodes Now that the Redis servers are all set up, let's configure the Sentinel servers. The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.81`: Sentinel - Queues 1 - `10.6.0.82`: Sentinel - Queues 2 - `10.6.0.83`: Sentinel - Queues 3 NOTE: If you're using an external Redis Sentinel instance, be sure to exclude the `requirepass` parameter from the Sentinel configuration. This parameter causes clients to report `NOAUTH Authentication required.`. [Redis Sentinel 3.2.x doesn't support password authentication](https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/3279). To configure the Sentinel Queues server: 1. SSH in to the server that will host Sentinel. 1. [Download and install](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) the Omnibus GitLab package of your choice. Be sure to both follow _only_ installation steps 1 and 2 on the page, and to select the correct Omnibus GitLab package, with the same version and type (Community or Enterprise editions) as your current install. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby roles ['redis_sentinel_role'] ## Must be the same in every sentinel node redis['master_name'] = 'gitlab-redis-persistent' ## The same password for Redis authentication you set up for the primary node. redis['master_password'] = 'REDIS_PRIMARY_PASSWORD_OF_SECOND_CLUSTER' ## The IP of the primary Redis node. redis['master_ip'] = '10.6.0.61' ## Define a port so Redis can listen for TCP requests which will allow other ## machines to connect to it. redis['port'] = 6379 ## Port of primary Redis server, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults ## to `6379`. #redis['master_port'] = 6379 ## Configure Sentinel's IP sentinel['bind'] = '10.6.0.81' ## Port that Sentinel listens on, uncomment to change to non default. Defaults ## to `26379`. #sentinel['port'] = 26379 ## Quorum must reflect the amount of voting sentinels it take to start a failover. ## Value must NOT be greater then the amount of sentinels. ## ## The quorum can be used to tune Sentinel in two ways: ## 1. If a the quorum is set to a value smaller than the majority of Sentinels ## we deploy, we are basically making Sentinel more sensible to primary failures, ## triggering a failover as soon as even just a minority of Sentinels is no longer ## able to talk with the primary. ## 1. If a quorum is set to a value greater than the majority of Sentinels, we are ## making Sentinel able to failover only when there are a very large number (larger ## than majority) of well connected Sentinels which agree about the primary being down.s sentinel['quorum'] = 2 ## Consider unresponsive server down after x amount of ms. #sentinel['down_after_milliseconds'] = 10000 ## Specifies the failover timeout in milliseconds. It is used in many ways: ## ## - The time needed to re-start a failover after a previous failover was ## already tried against the same primary by a given Sentinel, is two ## times the failover timeout. ## ## - The time needed for a replica replicating to a wrong primary according ## to a Sentinel current configuration, to be forced to replicate ## with the right primary, is exactly the failover timeout (counting since ## the moment a Sentinel detected the misconfiguration). ## ## - The time needed to cancel a failover that is already in progress but ## did not produced any configuration change (REPLICAOF NO ONE yet not ## acknowledged by the promoted replica). ## ## - The maximum time a failover in progress waits for all the replica to be ## reconfigured as replicas of the new primary. However even after this time ## the replicas will be reconfigured by the Sentinels anyway, but not with ## the exact parallel-syncs progression as specified. #sentinel['failover_timeout'] = 60000 ## Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true ## The IPs of the Consul server nodes ## You can also use FQDNs and intermix them with IPs consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13), } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' redis_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9121' # Disable auto migrations gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ``` 1. To prevent database migrations from running on upgrade, run: ```shell sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure ``` Only the primary GitLab application server should handle migrations. 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure Omnibus GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. 1. Go through the steps again for all the other Sentinel nodes, and make sure you set up the correct IPs. ## Configure Gitaly NOTE: [Gitaly Cluster](../gitaly/praefect.md) support for the Reference Architectures is being worked on as a [collaborative effort](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/reference-architectures/-/issues/1) between the Quality Engineering and Gitaly teams. When this component has been verified some Architecture specs will likely change as a result to support the new and improved designed. [Gitaly](../gitaly/index.md) server node requirements are dependent on data, specifically the number of projects and those projects' sizes. It's recommended that a Gitaly server node stores no more than 5 TB of data. Depending on your repository storage requirements, you may require additional Gitaly server nodes. 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. This section describes how to configure two Gitaly servers, with the following IPs and domain names: - `10.6.0.91`: Gitaly 1 (`gitaly1.internal`) - `10.6.0.92`: Gitaly 2 (`gitaly2.internal`) Assumptions about your servers include having the secret token be `gitalysecret`, and that your GitLab installation has three repository storages: - `default` on Gitaly 1 - `storage1` on Gitaly 1 - `storage2` on Gitaly 2 On each 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, 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: ```ruby # /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb # 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' # Avoid running unnecessary services on the Gitaly server postgresql['enable'] = false redis['enable'] = false nginx['enable'] = false puma['enable'] = false unicorn['enable'] = false sidekiq['enable'] = false gitlab_workhorse['enable'] = false grafana['enable'] = false # If you run a separate monitoring node you can disable these services alertmanager['enable'] = false prometheus['enable'] = false # Prevent database connections during 'gitlab-ctl reconfigure' gitlab_rails['rake_cache_clear'] = false 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 web server 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" ``` 1. Append the following to `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` for each respective 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' => '/mnt/gitlab/git-data' }, }) ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and then replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file isn't on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. Save the file, and then [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). ### 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, you can either use the Common Name field for this, or 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. [gRPC does not support using an IP address as Common Name in a certificate](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/2691). 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: ```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). ## Configure Sidekiq Sidekiq requires connection to the [Redis](#configure-redis), [PostgreSQL](#configure-postgresql) and [Gitaly](#configure-gitaly) instances. [Object storage](#configure-the-object-storage) is also required to be configured. - `10.6.0.101`: Sidekiq 1 - `10.6.0.102`: Sidekiq 2 - `10.6.0.103`: Sidekiq 3 - `10.6.0.104`: Sidekiq 4 To configure the Sidekiq nodes, on each one: 1. SSH in to the Sidekiq 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. Open `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` with your editor: ```ruby ######################################## ##### Services Disabled ### ######################################## nginx['enable'] = false grafana['enable'] = false prometheus['enable'] = false alertmanager['enable'] = false gitaly['enable'] = false gitlab_workhorse['enable'] = false nginx['enable'] = false puma['enable'] = false postgres_exporter['enable'] = false postgresql['enable'] = false redis['enable'] = false redis_exporter['enable'] = false gitlab_exporter['enable'] = false ######################################## #### Redis ### ######################################## ## Redis connection details ## First cluster that will host the cache gitlab_rails['redis_cache_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-cache' gitlab_rails['redis_cache_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.71', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.72', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.73', port: 26379}, ] ## Second cluster that will host the queues, shared state, and actioncable gitlab_rails['redis_queues_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_shared_state_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_actioncable_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_queues_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] gitlab_rails['redis_shared_state_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] gitlab_rails['redis_actioncable_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] ####################################### ### Gitaly ### ####################################### git_data_dirs({ 'default' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, 'storage1' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly1.internal:8075' }, 'storage2' => { 'gitaly_address' => 'tcp://gitaly2.internal:8075' }, }) gitlab_rails['gitaly_token'] = 'YOUR_TOKEN' ####################################### ### Postgres ### ####################################### gitlab_rails['db_host'] = '10.6.0.20' # internal load balancer IP gitlab_rails['db_port'] = 6432 gitlab_rails['db_password'] = '' gitlab_rails['db_adapter'] = 'postgresql' gitlab_rails['db_encoding'] = 'unicode' gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ####################################### ### Sidekiq configuration ### ####################################### sidekiq['listen_address'] = "0.0.0.0" sidekiq['cluster'] = true # no need to set this after GitLab 13.0 ####################################### ### Monitoring configuration ### ####################################### consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13) } # Set the network addresses that the exporters will listen on node_exporter['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9100' # Rails Status for prometheus gitlab_rails['monitoring_whitelist'] = ['10.6.0.121/32', '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']['connection'] = { 'provider' => 'Google', 'google_project' => '', 'google_json_key_location' => '' } gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['artifacts']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['external_diffs']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['lfs']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['uploads']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['packages']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['dependency_proxy']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['terraform_state']['bucket'] = "" ``` 1. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. [Reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure) for the changes to take effect. NOTE: You can also run [multiple Sidekiq processes](../operations/extra_sidekiq_processes.md). ## Configure GitLab Rails This section describes how to configure the GitLab application (Rails) component. [Object storage](#configure-the-object-storage) is also required to be configured. The following IPs will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.111`: GitLab application 1 - `10.6.0.112`: GitLab application 2 - `10.6.0.113`: GitLab application 3 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. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. 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 [external 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 sidekiq['enable'] = false ## PostgreSQL connection details # Disable PostgreSQL on the application node postgresql['enable'] = false gitlab_rails['db_host'] = '10.6.0.20' # internal load balancer IP gitlab_rails['db_port'] = 6432 gitlab_rails['db_password'] = '' gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false ## Redis connection details ## First cluster that will host the cache gitlab_rails['redis_cache_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-cache' gitlab_rails['redis_cache_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.71', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.72', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.73', port: 26379}, ] ## Second cluster that will host the queues, shared state, and actionable gitlab_rails['redis_queues_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_shared_state_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_actioncable_instance'] = 'redis://:@gitlab-redis-persistent' gitlab_rails['redis_queues_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] gitlab_rails['redis_shared_state_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] gitlab_rails['redis_actioncable_sentinels'] = [ {host: '10.6.0.81', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.82', port: 26379}, {host: '10.6.0.83', port: 26379}, ] # 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' # Add the monitoring node's IP address to the monitoring whitelist and allow it to # scrape the NGINX metrics gitlab_rails['monitoring_whitelist'] = ['10.6.0.121/32', '127.0.0.0/8'] nginx['status']['options']['allow'] = ['10.6.0.121/32', '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']['connection'] = { 'provider' => 'Google', 'google_project' => '', 'google_json_key_location' => '' } gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['artifacts']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['external_diffs']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['lfs']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['uploads']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['packages']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['dependency_proxy']['bucket'] = "" gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['terraform_state']['bucket'] = "" ``` 1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 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. If you're [using NFS](#configure-nfs-optional): 1. If necessary, install the NFS client utility packages using the following commands: ```shell # Ubuntu/Debian apt-get install nfs-common # CentOS/Red Hat yum install nfs-utils nfs-utils-lib ``` 1. Specify the necessary NFS mounts in `/etc/fstab`. The exact contents of `/etc/fstab` will depend on how you chose to configure your NFS server. See the [NFS documentation](../nfs.md) for examples and the various options. 1. Create the shared directories. These may be different depending on your NFS mount locations. ```shell mkdir -p /var/opt/gitlab/.ssh /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/uploads /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-ci/builds /var/opt/gitlab/git-data ``` 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and use the following configuration: ```ruby ## 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. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure). 1. Confirm the node can connect to Gitaly: ```shell sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:gitaly:check ``` Then, tail the logs to see the requests: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl tail gitaly ``` 1. Optionally, from the Gitaly servers, confirm that Gitaly can perform callbacks to the internal API: ```shell sudo /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/gitaly-hooks check /var/opt/gitlab/gitaly/config.toml ``` 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 [NGINX documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/nginx.html#enable-https). ### 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`](troubleshooting.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). ## 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). The following IP will be used as an example: - `10.6.0.121`: Prometheus To configure the Monitoring node: 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. Copy the `/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json` file from your Consul server, and replace the file of the same name on this server. If that file is not on this server, add the file from your Consul server to this server. 1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents: ```ruby external_url 'http://gitlab.example.com' # Disable all other services gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false alertmanager['enable'] = false gitaly['enable'] = false gitlab_exporter['enable'] = false gitlab_workhorse['enable'] = false nginx['enable'] = true postgres_exporter['enable'] = false postgresql['enable'] = false redis['enable'] = false redis_exporter['enable'] = false sidekiq['enable'] = false puma['enable'] = false unicorn['enable'] = false node_exporter['enable'] = false gitlab_exporter['enable'] = false # Enable Prometheus prometheus['enable'] = true prometheus['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9090' prometheus['monitor_kubernetes'] = false # Enable Login form grafana['disable_login_form'] = false # Enable Grafana grafana['enable'] = true grafana['admin_password'] = '' # Enable service discovery for Prometheus consul['enable'] = true consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] = true consul['configuration'] = { retry_join: %w(10.6.0.11 10.6.0.12 10.6.0.13) } ``` 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]:///-/grafana` ## 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.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Object/Tasks/s3compatibleapi.htm) - [OpenStack Swift](https://docs.openstack.org/swift/latest/s3_compat.html) - [Azure Blob storage](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blobs-introduction) - On-premises hardware and appliances from various storage vendors. - 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). Starting with GitLab 13.2, consolidated object storage configuration is available. It simplifies your GitLab configuration since the connection details are shared across object types. Refer to [Consolidated object storage configuration](../object_storage.md#consolidated-object-storage-configuration) guide for instructions on how to set it up. For configuring object storage in GitLab 13.1 and earlier, or for storage types not supported by consolidated configuration form, refer to the following guides based on what features you intend to use: |Object storage type|Supported by consolidated configuration?| |-------------------|----------------------------------------| | [Backups](../../raketasks/backup_restore.md#uploading-backups-to-a-remote-cloud-storage) | No | | [Job artifacts](../job_artifacts.md#using-object-storage) including archived job logs | Yes | | [LFS objects](../lfs/index.md#storing-lfs-objects-in-remote-object-storage) | Yes | | [Uploads](../uploads.md#using-object-storage) | Yes | | [Container Registry](../packages/container_registry.md#use-object-storage) (optional feature) | No | | [Merge request diffs](../merge_request_diffs.md#using-object-storage) | Yes | | [Mattermost](https://docs.mattermost.com/administration/config-settings.html#file-storage)| No | | [Packages](../packages/index.md#using-object-storage) (optional feature) | Yes | | [Dependency Proxy](../packages/dependency_proxy.md#using-object-storage) (optional feature) | Yes | | [Pseudonymizer](../pseudonymizer.md#configuration) (optional feature) **(ULTIMATE SELF)** | No | | [Autoscale runner caching](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/configuration/autoscale.html#distributed-runners-caching) (optional for improved performance) | No | | [Terraform state files](../terraform_state.md#using-object-storage) | Yes | Using separate buckets for each data type is the recommended approach for GitLab. A limitation of our configuration is that each use of object storage is separately configured. [We have an issue for improving this](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/23345) and easily using one bucket with separate folders is one improvement that this might bring. There is at least one specific issue with using the same bucket: when GitLab is deployed with the Helm chart restore from backup [will not properly function](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/advanced/external-object-storage/#lfs-artifacts-uploads-packages-external-diffs-pseudonymizer) unless separate buckets are used. One risk of using a single bucket would be if your organization decided to migrate GitLab to the Helm deployment in the future. GitLab would run, but the situation with backups might not be realized until the organization had a critical requirement for the backups to work. ## Configure Advanced Search **(PREMIUM SELF)** You can leverage Elasticsearch and [enable Advanced Search](../../integration/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/elasticsearch.md#guidance-on-choosing-optimal-cluster-configuration). ## Configure NFS (optional) [Object storage](#configure-the-object-storage), along with [Gitaly](#configure-gitaly) are recommended over NFS wherever possible for improved performance. If you intend to use GitLab Pages, this currently [requires NFS](troubleshooting.md#gitlab-pages-requires-nfs). See how to [configure NFS](../nfs.md). WARNING: From GitLab 13.0, using NFS for Git repositories is deprecated. From GitLab 14.0, technical support for NFS for Git repositories will no longer be provided. Upgrade to [Gitaly Cluster](../gitaly/praefect.md) as soon as possible. ## Troubleshooting See the [troubleshooting documentation](troubleshooting.md).