Uploads administration

Notes: Uploads represent all user data that may be sent to GitLab as a single file. As an example, avatars and notes' attachments are uploads. Uploads are integral to GitLab functionality, and therefore cannot be disabled.

Using local storage

Notes: This is the default configuration

To change the location where the uploads are stored locally, follow the steps below.

In Omnibus installations:

Notes: For historical reasons, uploads are stored into a base directory, which by default is uploads/-/system. It is strongly discouraged to change this configuration option on an existing GitLab installation.

The uploads are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/uploads.

To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/uploads, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line:
```
gitlab_rails['uploads_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/"
gitlab_rails['uploads_base_dir'] = "uploads"
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

In installations from source:

The uploads are stored by default in /home/git/gitlab/public/uploads/-/system.

To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/uploads, edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines:
```
uploads:
  storage_path: /mnt/storage
  base_dir: uploads
```
Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using object storage [CORE ONLY]

Notes:

Introduced in GitLab Premium 10.5.

Introduced in GitLab Core 10.7.

Since version 11.1, we support direct_upload to S3.

If you don't want to use the local disk where GitLab is installed to store the uploads, you can use an object storage provider like AWS S3 instead. This configuration relies on valid AWS credentials to be configured already.

Object Storage Settings

For source installations the following settings are nested under uploads: and then object_store:. On omnibus installs they are prefixed by uploads_object_store_.

Setting	Description	Default
`enabled`	Enable/disable object storage	`false`
`remote_directory`	The bucket name where Uploads will be stored
`direct_upload`	Set to true to enable direct upload of Uploads without the need of local shared storage. Option may be removed once we decide to support only single storage for all files.	`false`
`background_upload`	Set to false to disable automatic upload. Option may be removed once upload is direct to S3	`true`
`proxy_download`	Set to true to enable proxying all files served. Option allows to reduce egress traffic as this allows clients to download directly from remote storage instead of proxying all data	`false`
`connection`	Various connection options described below

S3 compatible connection settings

The connection settings match those provided by Fog, and are as follows:

Setting	Description	Default
`provider`	Always `AWS` for compatible hosts	AWS
`aws_access_key_id`	AWS credentials, or compatible
`aws_secret_access_key`	AWS credentials, or compatible
`aws_signature_version`	AWS signature version to use. 2 or 4 are valid options. Digital Ocean Spaces and other providers may need 2.	4
`region`	AWS region	us-east-1
`host`	S3 compatible host for when not using AWS, e.g. `localhost` or `storage.example.com`	s3.amazonaws.com
`endpoint`	Can be used when configuring an S3 compatible service such as Minio, by entering a URL such as `http://127.0.0.1:9000`	(optional)
`path_style`	Set to true to use `host/bucket_name/object` style paths instead of `bucket_name.host/object`. Leave as false for AWS S3	false
`use_iam_profile`	Set to true to use IAM profile instead of access keys	false

In Omnibus installations:

The uploads are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/public/uploads/-/system.

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines by replacing with the values you want:

gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_remote_directory'] = "uploads"
gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'aws_access_key_id' => 'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
  'aws_secret_access_key' => 'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'
}

Note: If you are using AWS IAM profiles, be sure to omit the AWS access key and secret access key/value pairs.

gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'use_iam_profile' => true
}

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
Migrate any existing local uploads to the object storage using gitlab:uploads:migrate rake task.