--- stage: Enablement group: Database 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 --- # Configure GitLab using an external PostgreSQL service **(FREE SELF)** 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. Alternatively, you may opt to manage your own PostgreSQL instance or cluster separate from the Omnibus GitLab package. If you use a cloud-managed service, or provide your own PostgreSQL instance: 1. Set up PostgreSQL according to the [database requirements document](../../install/requirements.md#database). 1. Set up a `gitlab` user with a password of your choice, create the `gitlabhq_production` database, and make the user an owner of the database. You can see an example of this setup in the [installation from source documentation](../../install/installation.md#6-database). 1. If you are using a cloud-managed service, you may need to grant additional roles to your `gitlab` user: - Amazon RDS requires the [`rds_superuser`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Appendix.PostgreSQL.CommonDBATasks.html#Appendix.PostgreSQL.CommonDBATasks.Roles) role. - Azure Database for PostgreSQL requires the [`azure_pg_admin`](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/postgresql/howto-create-users#how-to-create-additional-admin-users-in-azure-database-for-postgresql) role. - Google Cloud SQL requires the [`cloudsqlsuperuser`](https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/users#default-users) role. This is for the installation of extensions during installation and upgrades. As an alternative, [ensure the extensions are installed manually, and read about the problems that may arise during future GitLab upgrades](../../install/postgresql_extensions.md). 1. Configure the GitLab application servers with the appropriate connection details for your external PostgreSQL service in your `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` file: ```ruby # Disable the bundled Omnibus provided PostgreSQL postgresql['enable'] = false # PostgreSQL connection details gitlab_rails['db_adapter'] = 'postgresql' gitlab_rails['db_encoding'] = 'unicode' gitlab_rails['db_host'] = '10.1.0.5' # IP/hostname of database server gitlab_rails['db_password'] = 'DB password' ``` For more information on GitLab multi-node setups, refer to the [reference architectures](../reference_architectures/index.md). 1. Reconfigure for the changes to take effect: ```shell sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure ```