# Installation from source ## Consider the Omnibus package installation Since an installation from source is a lot of work and error prone we strongly recommend the fast and reliable [Omnibus package installation](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/) (deb/rpm). One reason the Omnibus package is more reliable is its use of Runit to restart any of the GitLab processes in case one crashes. On heavily used GitLab instances the memory usage of the Sidekiq background worker will grow over time. Omnibus packages solve this by [letting the Sidekiq terminate gracefully](http://doc.gitlab.com/ce/operations/sidekiq_memory_killer.html) if it uses too much memory. After this termination Runit will detect Sidekiq is not running and will start it. Since installations from source don't have Runit, Sidekiq can't be terminated and its memory usage will grow over time. ## Select Version to Install Make sure you view [this installation guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md) from the tag (version) of GitLab you would like to install. In most cases this should be the highest numbered production tag (without rc in it). You can select the tag in the version dropdown in the top left corner of GitLab (below the menu bar). If the highest number stable branch is unclear please check the [GitLab Blog](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/) for installation guide links by version. ## Important Notes This guide is long because it covers many cases and includes all commands you need, this is [one of the few installation scripts that actually works out of the box](https://twitter.com/robinvdvleuten/status/424163226532986880). This installation guide was created for and tested on **Debian/Ubuntu** operating systems. Please read [doc/install/requirements.md](./requirements.md) for hardware and operating system requirements. If you want to install on RHEL/CentOS we recommend using the [Omnibus packages](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/). This is the official installation guide to set up a production server. To set up a **development installation** or for many other installation options please see [the installation section of the readme](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/README.md#installation). The following steps have been known to work. Please **use caution when you deviate** from this guide. Make sure you don't violate any assumptions GitLab makes about its environment. For example many people run into permission problems because they changed the location of directories or run services as the wrong user. If you find a bug/error in this guide please **submit a merge request** following the [contributing guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md). ## Overview The GitLab installation consists of setting up the following components: 1. Packages / Dependencies 1. Ruby 1. Go 1. System Users 1. Database 1. Redis 1. GitLab 1. Nginx ## 1. Packages / Dependencies `sudo` is not installed on Debian by default. Make sure your system is up-to-date and install it. # run as root! apt-get update -y apt-get upgrade -y apt-get install sudo -y **Note:** During this installation some files will need to be edited manually. If you are familiar with vim set it as default editor with the commands below. If you are not familiar with vim please skip this and keep using the default editor. # Install vim and set as default editor sudo apt-get install -y vim sudo update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/vim.basic Install the required packages (needed to compile Ruby and native extensions to Ruby gems): sudo apt-get install -y build-essential zlib1g-dev libyaml-dev libssl-dev libgdbm-dev libreadline-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev curl openssh-server checkinstall libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libicu-dev logrotate python-docutils pkg-config cmake nodejs If you want to use Kerberos for user authentication, then install libkrb5-dev: sudo apt-get install libkrb5-dev **Note:** If you don't know what Kerberos is, you can assume you don't need it. Make sure you have the right version of Git installed # Install Git sudo apt-get install -y git-core # Make sure Git is version 1.7.10 or higher, for example 1.7.12 or 2.0.0 git --version Is the system packaged Git too old? Remove it and compile from source. # Remove packaged Git sudo apt-get remove git-core # Install dependencies sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev libexpat1-dev gettext libz-dev libssl-dev build-essential # Download and compile from source cd /tmp curl -L --progress https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.4.3.tar.gz | tar xz cd git-2.4.3/ ./configure make prefix=/usr/local all # Install into /usr/local/bin sudo make prefix=/usr/local install # When editing config/gitlab.yml (Step 5), change the git -> bin_path to /usr/local/bin/git **Note:** In order to receive mail notifications, make sure to install a mail server. By default, Debian is shipped with exim4 but this [has problems](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/4866#issuecomment-32726573) while Ubuntu does not ship with one. The recommended mail server is postfix and you can install it with: sudo apt-get install -y postfix Then select 'Internet Site' and press enter to confirm the hostname. ## 2. Ruby The use of Ruby version managers such as [RVM](https://rvm.io/), [rbenv](https://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv) or [chruby](https://github.com/postmodern/chruby) with GitLab in production frequently leads to hard to diagnose problems. For example, GitLab Shell is called from OpenSSH and having a version manager can prevent pushing and pulling over SSH. Version managers are not supported and we strongly advise everyone to follow the instructions below to use a system Ruby. Remove the old Ruby 1.8 if present sudo apt-get remove ruby1.8 Download Ruby and compile it: mkdir /tmp/ruby && cd /tmp/ruby curl -O --progress https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/2.1/ruby-2.1.7.tar.gz echo 'e2e195a4a58133e3ad33b955c829bb536fa3c075 ruby-2.1.7.tar.gz' | shasum -c - && tar xzf ruby-2.1.7.tar.gz cd ruby-2.1.7 ./configure --disable-install-rdoc make sudo make install Install the Bundler Gem: sudo gem install bundler --no-ri --no-rdoc ## 3. Go Since GitLab 8.0, Git HTTP requests are handled by gitlab-workhorse (formerly gitlab-git-http-server). This is a small daemon written in Go. To install gitlab-workhorse we need a Go compiler. The instructions below assume you use 64-bit Linux. You can find downloads for other platforms at the [Go download page](https://golang.org/dl). curl -O --progress https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz echo '43afe0c5017e502630b1aea4d44b8a7f059bf60d7f29dfd58db454d4e4e0ae53 go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz' | shasum -c - && \ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz sudo ln -sf /usr/local/go/bin/{go,godoc,gofmt} /usr/local/bin/ rm go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz ## 4. System Users Create a `git` user for GitLab: sudo adduser --disabled-login --gecos 'GitLab' git ## 5. Database We recommend using a PostgreSQL database. For MySQL check [MySQL setup guide](database_mysql.md). *Note*: because we need to make use of extensions you need at least pgsql 9.1. # Install the database packages sudo apt-get install -y postgresql postgresql-client libpq-dev # Login to PostgreSQL sudo -u postgres psql -d template1 # Create a user for GitLab # Do not type the 'template1=#', this is part of the prompt template1=# CREATE USER git CREATEDB; # Create the GitLab production database & grant all privileges on database template1=# CREATE DATABASE gitlabhq_production OWNER git; # Quit the database session template1=# \q # Try connecting to the new database with the new user sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production # Quit the database session gitlabhq_production> \q ## 6. Redis As of this writing, most Debian/Ubuntu distributions ship with Redis 2.2 or 2.4. GitLab requires at least Redis 2.8. Ubuntu users [can use a PPA](https://launchpad.net/~chris-lea/+archive/ubuntu/redis-server) to install a recent version of Redis. The following instructions cover building and installing Redis from scratch: ```sh # Build Redis wget http://download.redis.io/releases/redis-2.8.23.tar.gz tar xzf redis-2.8.23.tar.gz cd redis-2.8.23 make # Install Redis cd utils sudo ./install_server.sh # Configure redis to use sockets sudo cp /etc/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf.orig # Disable Redis listening on TCP by setting 'port' to 0 sed 's/^port .*/port 0/' /etc/redis/redis.conf.orig | sudo tee /etc/redis/redis.conf # Enable Redis socket for default Debian / Ubuntu path echo 'unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock' | sudo tee -a /etc/redis/redis.conf # Grant permission to the socket to all members of the redis group echo 'unixsocketperm 770' | sudo tee -a /etc/redis/redis.conf # Create the directory which contains the socket mkdir /var/run/redis chown redis:redis /var/run/redis chmod 755 /var/run/redis # Persist the directory which contains the socket, if applicable if [ -d /etc/tmpfiles.d ]; then echo 'd /var/run/redis 0755 redis redis 10d -' | sudo tee -a /etc/tmpfiles.d/redis.conf fi # Activate the changes to redis.conf sudo service redis_6379 start # Add git to the redis group sudo usermod -aG redis git ``` ## 7. GitLab # We'll install GitLab into home directory of the user "git" cd /home/git ### Clone the Source # Clone GitLab repository sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git -b 8-4-stable gitlab **Note:** You can change `8-4-stable` to `master` if you want the *bleeding edge* version, but never install master on a production server! ### Configure It # Go to GitLab installation folder cd /home/git/gitlab # Copy the example GitLab config sudo -u git -H cp config/gitlab.yml.example config/gitlab.yml # Update GitLab config file, follow the directions at top of file sudo -u git -H editor config/gitlab.yml # Copy the example secrets file sudo -u git -H cp config/secrets.yml.example config/secrets.yml sudo -u git -H chmod 0600 config/secrets.yml # Make sure GitLab can write to the log/ and tmp/ directories sudo chown -R git log/ sudo chown -R git tmp/ sudo chmod -R u+rwX,go-w log/ sudo chmod -R u+rwX tmp/ # Make sure GitLab can write to the tmp/pids/ and tmp/sockets/ directories sudo chmod -R u+rwX tmp/pids/ sudo chmod -R u+rwX tmp/sockets/ # Make sure GitLab can write to the public/uploads/ directory sudo chmod -R u+rwX public/uploads # Change the permissions of the directory where CI build traces are stored sudo chmod -R u+rwX builds/ # Change the permissions of the directory where CI artifacts are stored sudo chmod -R u+rwX shared/artifacts/ # Copy the example Unicorn config sudo -u git -H cp config/unicorn.rb.example config/unicorn.rb # Find number of cores nproc # Enable cluster mode if you expect to have a high load instance # Set the number of workers to at least the number of cores # Ex. change amount of workers to 3 for 2GB RAM server sudo -u git -H editor config/unicorn.rb # Copy the example Rack attack config sudo -u git -H cp config/initializers/rack_attack.rb.example config/initializers/rack_attack.rb # Configure Git global settings for git user, used when editing via web editor sudo -u git -H git config --global core.autocrlf input # Configure Redis connection settings sudo -u git -H cp config/resque.yml.example config/resque.yml # Change the Redis socket path if you are not using the default Debian / Ubuntu configuration sudo -u git -H editor config/resque.yml **Important Note:** Make sure to edit both `gitlab.yml` and `unicorn.rb` to match your setup. **Note:** If you want to use HTTPS, see [Using HTTPS](#using-https) for the additional steps. ### Configure GitLab DB Settings # PostgreSQL only: sudo -u git cp config/database.yml.postgresql config/database.yml # MySQL only: sudo -u git cp config/database.yml.mysql config/database.yml # MySQL and remote PostgreSQL only: # Update username/password in config/database.yml. # You only need to adapt the production settings (first part). # If you followed the database guide then please do as follows: # Change 'secure password' with the value you have given to $password # You can keep the double quotes around the password sudo -u git -H editor config/database.yml # PostgreSQL and MySQL: # Make config/database.yml readable to git only sudo -u git -H chmod o-rwx config/database.yml ### Install Gems **Note:** As of bundler 1.5.2, you can invoke `bundle install -jN` (where `N` the number of your processor cores) and enjoy the parallel gems installation with measurable difference in completion time (~60% faster). Check the number of your cores with `nproc`. For more information check this [post](https://robots.thoughtbot.com/parallel-gem-installing-using-bundler). First make sure you have bundler >= 1.5.2 (run `bundle -v`) as it addresses some [issues](https://devcenter.heroku.com/changelog-items/411) that were [fixed](https://github.com/bundler/bundler/pull/2817) in 1.5.2. # For PostgreSQL (note, the option says "without ... mysql") sudo -u git -H bundle install --deployment --without development test mysql aws kerberos # Or if you use MySQL (note, the option says "without ... postgres") sudo -u git -H bundle install --deployment --without development test postgres aws kerberos **Note:** If you want to use Kerberos for user authentication, then omit `kerberos` in the `--without` option above. ### Install GitLab Shell GitLab Shell is an SSH access and repository management software developed specially for GitLab. # Run the installation task for gitlab-shell (replace `REDIS_URL` if needed): sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:shell:install REDIS_URL=unix:/var/run/redis/redis.sock RAILS_ENV=production # By default, the gitlab-shell config is generated from your main GitLab config. # You can review (and modify) the gitlab-shell config as follows: sudo -u git -H editor /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml **Note:** If you want to use HTTPS, see [Using HTTPS](#using-https) for the additional steps. **Note:** Make sure your hostname can be resolved on the machine itself by either a proper DNS record or an additional line in /etc/hosts ("127.0.0.1 hostname"). This might be necessary for example if you set up GitLab behind a reverse proxy. If the hostname cannot be resolved, the final installation check will fail with "Check GitLab API access: FAILED. code: 401" and pushing commits will be rejected with "[remote rejected] master -> master (hook declined)". ### Install gitlab-workhorse cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-workhorse.git cd gitlab-workhorse sudo -u git -H git checkout 0.6.2 sudo -u git -H make ### Initialize Database and Activate Advanced Features # Go to GitLab installation folder cd /home/git/gitlab sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:setup RAILS_ENV=production # Type 'yes' to create the database tables. # When done you see 'Administrator account created:' **Note:** You can set the Administrator/root password by supplying it in environmental variable `GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD` as seen below. If you don't set the password (and it is set to the default one) please wait with exposing GitLab to the public internet until the installation is done and you've logged into the server the first time. During the first login you'll be forced to change the default password. sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:setup RAILS_ENV=production GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD=yourpassword ### Secure secrets.yml The `secrets.yml` file stores encryption keys for sessions and secure variables. Backup `secrets.yml` someplace safe, but don't store it in the same place as your database backups. Otherwise your secrets are exposed if one of your backups is compromised. ### Install Init Script Download the init script (will be `/etc/init.d/gitlab`): sudo cp lib/support/init.d/gitlab /etc/init.d/gitlab And if you are installing with a non-default folder or user copy and edit the defaults file: sudo cp lib/support/init.d/gitlab.default.example /etc/default/gitlab If you installed GitLab in another directory or as a user other than the default you should change these settings in `/etc/default/gitlab`. Do not edit `/etc/init.d/gitlab` as it will be changed on upgrade. Make GitLab start on boot: sudo update-rc.d gitlab defaults 21 ### Setup Logrotate sudo cp lib/support/logrotate/gitlab /etc/logrotate.d/gitlab ### Check Application Status Check if GitLab and its environment are configured correctly: sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production ### Compile Assets sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake assets:precompile RAILS_ENV=production ### Start Your GitLab Instance sudo service gitlab start # or sudo /etc/init.d/gitlab restart ## 8. Nginx **Note:** Nginx is the officially supported web server for GitLab. If you cannot or do not want to use Nginx as your web server, have a look at the [GitLab recipes](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-recipes/). ### Installation sudo apt-get install -y nginx ### Site Configuration Copy the example site config: sudo cp lib/support/nginx/gitlab /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/gitlab Make sure to edit the config file to match your setup: # Change YOUR_SERVER_FQDN to the fully-qualified # domain name of your host serving GitLab. # If using Ubuntu default nginx install: # either remove the default_server from the listen line # or else sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default sudo editor /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab **Note:** If you want to use HTTPS, replace the `gitlab` Nginx config with `gitlab-ssl`. See [Using HTTPS](#using-https) for HTTPS configuration details. ### Test Configuration Validate your `gitlab` or `gitlab-ssl` Nginx config file with the following command: sudo nginx -t You should receive `syntax is okay` and `test is successful` messages. If you receive errors check your `gitlab` or `gitlab-ssl` Nginx config file for typos, etc. as indicated in the error message given. ### Restart sudo service nginx restart ## Done! ### Double-check Application Status To make sure you didn't miss anything run a more thorough check with: sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production If all items are green, then congratulations on successfully installing GitLab! NOTE: Supply `SANITIZE=true` environment variable to `gitlab:check` to omit project names from the output of the check command. ### Initial Login Visit YOUR_SERVER in your web browser for your first GitLab login. The setup has created a default admin account for you. You can use it to log in: root 5iveL!fe **Important Note:** On login you'll be prompted to change the password. **Enjoy!** You can use `sudo service gitlab start` and `sudo service gitlab stop` to start and stop GitLab. ## Advanced Setup Tips ### Using HTTPS To use GitLab with HTTPS: 1. In `gitlab.yml`: 1. Set the `port` option in section 1 to `443`. 1. Set the `https` option in section 1 to `true`. 1. In the `config.yml` of gitlab-shell: 1. Set `gitlab_url` option to the HTTPS endpoint of GitLab (e.g. `https://git.example.com`). 1. Set the certificates using either the `ca_file` or `ca_path` option. 1. Use the `gitlab-ssl` Nginx example config instead of the `gitlab` config. 1. Update `YOUR_SERVER_FQDN`. 1. Update `ssl_certificate` and `ssl_certificate_key`. 1. Review the configuration file and consider applying other security and performance enhancing features. Using a self-signed certificate is discouraged but if you must use it follow the normal directions then: 1. Generate a self-signed SSL certificate: ``` mkdir -p /etc/nginx/ssl/ cd /etc/nginx/ssl/ sudo openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -x509 -nodes -days 3560 -out gitlab.crt -keyout gitlab.key sudo chmod o-r gitlab.key ``` 1. In the `config.yml` of gitlab-shell set `self_signed_cert` to `true`. ### Enable Reply by email See the ["Reply by email" documentation](../incoming_email/README.md) for more information on how to set this up. ### LDAP Authentication You can configure LDAP authentication in `config/gitlab.yml`. Please restart GitLab after editing this file. ### Using Custom Omniauth Providers See the [omniauth integration document](../integration/omniauth.md) ### Build your projects GitLab can build your projects. To enable that feature you need GitLab Runners to do that for you. Checkout the [GitLab Runner section](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ci/#gitlab-runner) to install it ### Custom Redis Connection If you'd like Resque to connect to a Redis server on a non-standard port or on a different host, you can configure its connection string via the `config/resque.yml` file. # example production: redis://redis.example.tld:6379 If you want to connect the Redis server via socket, then use the "unix:" URL scheme and the path to the Redis socket file in the `config/resque.yml` file. # example production: unix:/path/to/redis/socket ### Custom SSH Connection If you are running SSH on a non-standard port, you must change the GitLab user's SSH config. # Add to /home/git/.ssh/config host localhost # Give your setup a name (here: override localhost) user git # Your remote git user port 2222 # Your port number hostname 127.0.0.1; # Your server name or IP You also need to change the corresponding options (e.g. `ssh_user`, `ssh_host`, `admin_uri`) in the `config\gitlab.yml` file. ### Additional Markup Styles Apart from the always supported markdown style there are other rich text files that GitLab can display. But you might have to install a dependency to do so. Please see the [github-markup gem readme](https://github.com/gitlabhq/markup#markups) for more information. ## Troubleshooting ### "You appear to have cloned an empty repository." If you see this message when attempting to clone a repository hosted by GitLab, this is likely due to an outdated Nginx or Apache configuration, or a missing or misconfigured gitlab-workhorse instance. Double-check that you've [installed Go](#3-go), [installed gitlab-workhorse](#install-gitlab-workhorse), and correctly [configured Nginx](#site-configuration).