# GitLab Pages administration for source installations >**Note:** Before attempting to enable GitLab Pages, first make sure you have [installed GitLab](../../install/installation.md) successfully. This is the documentation for configuring a GitLab Pages when you have installed GitLab from source and not using the Omnibus packages. You are encouraged to read the [Omnibus documentation](index.md) as it provides some invaluable information to the configuration of GitLab Pages. Please proceed to read it before going forward with this guide. We also highly recommend that you use the Omnibus GitLab packages, as we optimize them specifically for GitLab, and we will take care of upgrading GitLab Pages to the latest supported version. ## Overview GitLab Pages makes use of the [GitLab Pages daemon], a simple HTTP server written in Go that can listen on an external IP address and provide support for custom domains and custom certificates. It supports dynamic certificates through SNI and exposes pages using HTTP2 by default. You are encouraged to read its [README][pages-readme] to fully understand how it works. In the case of [custom domains](#custom-domains) (but not [wildcard domains](#wildcard-domains)), the Pages daemon needs to listen on ports `80` and/or `443`. For that reason, there is some flexibility in the way which you can set it up: 1. Run the Pages daemon in the same server as GitLab, listening on a secondary IP. 1. Run the Pages daemon in a separate server. In that case, the [Pages path](#change-storage-path) must also be present in the server that the Pages daemon is installed, so you will have to share it via network. 1. Run the Pages daemon in the same server as GitLab, listening on the same IP but on different ports. In that case, you will have to proxy the traffic with a loadbalancer. If you choose that route note that you should use TCP load balancing for HTTPS. If you use TLS-termination (HTTPS-load balancing) the pages will not be able to be served with user provided certificates. For HTTP it's OK to use HTTP or TCP load balancing. In this document, we will proceed assuming the first option. If you are not supporting custom domains a secondary IP is not needed. ## Prerequisites Before proceeding with the Pages configuration, make sure that: 1. You have a separate domain under which GitLab Pages will be served. In this document we assume that to be `example.io`. 1. You have configured a **wildcard DNS record** for that domain. 1. You have installed the `zip` and `unzip` packages in the same server that GitLab is installed since they are needed to compress/uncompress the Pages artifacts. 1. (Optional) You have a **wildcard certificate** for the Pages domain if you decide to serve Pages (`*.example.io`) under HTTPS. 1. (Optional but recommended) You have configured and enabled the [Shared Runners][] so that your users don't have to bring their own. ### DNS configuration GitLab Pages expect to run on their own virtual host. In your DNS server/provider you need to add a [wildcard DNS A record][wiki-wildcard-dns] pointing to the host that GitLab runs. For example, an entry would look like this: ``` *.example.io. 1800 IN A 192.0.2.1 ``` where `example.io` is the domain under which GitLab Pages will be served and `192.0.2.1` is the IP address of your GitLab instance. > **Note:** You should not use the GitLab domain to serve user pages. For more information see the [security section](#security). [wiki-wildcard-dns]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_DNS_record ## Configuration Depending on your needs, you can set up GitLab Pages in 4 different ways. The following options are listed from the easiest setup to the most advanced one. The absolute minimum requirement is to set up the wildcard DNS since that is needed in all configurations. ### Wildcard domains **Requirements:** - [Wildcard DNS setup](#dns-configuration) URL scheme: `http://page.example.io` This is the minimum setup that you can use Pages with. It is the base for all other setups as described below. Nginx will proxy all requests to the daemon. The Pages daemon doesn't listen to the outside world. 1. Install the Pages daemon: ``` cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages.git cd gitlab-pages sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(**Note:** The following information applies only for installations from source. Be extra careful when setting up the domain name in the NGINX config. You must not remove the backslashes. If your GitLab pages domain is `example.io`, replace: ```bash server_name ~^.*\.YOUR_GITLAB_PAGES\.DOMAIN$; ``` with: ``` server_name ~^.*\.example\.io$; ``` If you are using a subdomain, make sure to escape all dots (`.`) except from the first one with a backslash (\). For example `pages.example.io` would be: ``` server_name ~^.*\.pages\.example\.io$; ``` ## Access control > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/33422) in GitLab 11.5. GitLab Pages access control can be configured per-project, and allows access to a Pages site to be controlled based on a user's membership to that project. Access control works by registering the Pages daemon as an OAuth application with GitLab. Whenever a request to access a private Pages site is made by an unauthenticated user, the Pages daemon redirects the user to GitLab. If authentication is successful, the user is redirected back to Pages with a token, which is persisted in a cookie. The cookies are signed with a secret key, so tampering can be detected. Each request to view a resource in a private site is authenticated by Pages using that token. For each request it receives, it makes a request to the GitLab API to check that the user is authorized to read that site. Pages access control is disabled by default. To enable it: 1. Modify your `config/gitlab.yml` file: ```yaml pages: access_control: true ``` 1. [Restart GitLab][restart]. 1. Create a new [system OAuth application](../../integration/oauth_provider.md#adding-an-application-through-the-profile). This should be called `GitLab Pages` and have a `Redirect URL` of `https://projects.example.io/auth`. It does not need to be a "trusted" application, but it does need the "api" scope. 1. Start the Pages daemon with the following additional arguments: ```shell -auth-client-secret \ -auth-redirect-uri http://projects.example.io/auth \ -auth-secret <40 random hex characters> \ -auth-server ``` 1. Users can now configure it in their [projects' settings](../../user/project/pages/introduction.md#gitlab-pages-access-control-core-only). ## Change storage path Follow the steps below to change the default path where GitLab Pages' contents are stored. 1. Pages are stored by default in `/home/git/gitlab/shared/pages`. If you wish to store them in another location you must set it up in `gitlab.yml` under the `pages` section: ```yaml pages: enabled: true # The location where pages are stored (default: shared/pages). path: /mnt/storage/pages ``` 1. [Restart GitLab][restart] ## Set maximum Pages size The maximum size of the unpacked archive per project can be configured in the Admin area under the Application settings in the **Maximum size of pages (MB)**. The default is 100MB. ## Backup Pages are part of the [regular backup][backup] so there is nothing to configure. ## Security You should strongly consider running GitLab pages under a different hostname than GitLab to prevent XSS attacks. [backup]: ../../raketasks/backup_restore.md [ee-80]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/merge_requests/80 [ee-173]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/merge_requests/173 [gitlab pages daemon]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages [NGINX configs]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/tree/8-5-stable-ee/lib/support/nginx [pages-readme]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages/blob/master/README.md [pages-userguide]: ../../user/project/pages/index.md [reconfigure]: ../restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure [restart]: ../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source [gitlab-pages]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages/tree/v0.4.0 [gl-example]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/lib/support/init.d/gitlab.default.example [shared runners]: ../../ci/runners/README.md