Elastic Compute Service:Deploy a GitLab code hosting platform

• If an ECS instance runs Alibaba Cloud Linux 3, you can use an installation package to install only JiHu GitLab on the instance. To install GitLab Community Edition in Alibaba Cloud Linux 3, use a Docker image.

• For information about the operating systems supported by JiHu GitLab, see Supported operating systems.

1. Connect to the ECS instance on which you want to install GitLab.

   For more information, see Use Workbench to connect to a Linux instance over SSH.

2. Install Docker. For more information, see Install Docker.

3. Create a directory to store GitLab data, including GitLab configurations, logs, and data files.

   sudo mkdir -p /srv/gitlab 

4. Configure the $GITLAB_HOME environment variable.

   export GITLAB_HOME=/srv/gitlab

5. Install the GitLab container image.

   GitLab Community Edition

   sudo docker run --detach \
     --hostname gitlab.example.com \
     --publish 443:443 --publish 80:80 --publish 2222:22 \
     --name gitlab \
     --restart always \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/config:/etc/gitlab \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/logs:/var/log/gitlab \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/data:/var/opt/gitlab \
     --shm-size 256m \
     gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest

   Container parameter	Host parameter description
   hostname	The hostname. We recommend that you specify the public IP address of the ECS instance for this parameter.
   publish 443:443	Maps port 443 of the host to port 443 of the container to allow HTTPS access. If an error message appears indicating that the host port is already used, replace port 443 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8443 in publish 8443:443. Note If you replace port 443 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8443, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port. For more information, see Add a security group rule.
   publish 80:80	Maps port 80 of the host to port 80 of the container to allow HTTP access. If an error message appears indicating that the host port is already used, replace port 80 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8080 in publish 8080:80. Note If you replace port 80 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8080, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port. For more information, see Add a security group rule.
   publish 2222:22	Maps port 2222 of the host to port 22 of the container to allow SSH. When you perform Git operations to clone, push, and pull code, you must use SSH. Note The default port of SSH on an ECS instance is port 22. After you replace the default SSH port with a non-standard port, such as port 2222, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port and change the SSH port number in the gitlab.rb file.

   The following table describes the path mappings between the ECS instance and the container.

   ECS instance path	Container path	Description
   $GITLAB_HOME/data	/var/opt/gitlab	Store application data.
   $GITLAB_HOME/logs	/var/log/gitlab	Store GitLab log files.
   $GITLAB_HOME/config	/etc/gitlab	Store GitLab configuration files.

   JiHu GitLab

   sudo docker run --detach \
     --hostname gitlab.example.com \
     --publish 443:443 --publish 80:80 --publish 2222:22 \
     --name gitlab \
     --restart always \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/config:/etc/gitlab \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/logs:/var/log/gitlab \
     --volume $GITLAB_HOME/data:/var/opt/gitlab \
     --shm-size 256m \
     registry.gitlab.cn/omnibus/gitlab-jh:latest

   Container parameter	Host parameter description
   hostname	The hostname. We recommend that you specify the public IP address of the ECS instance for this parameter.
   publish 443:443	Maps port 443 of the host to port 443 of the container to allow HTTPS access. If an error message appears indicating that the host port is already used, replace port 443 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8443 in publish 8443:443. Note If you replace port 443 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8443, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port. For more information, see Add a security group rule.
   publish 80:80	Maps port 80 of the host to port 80 of the container to allow HTTP access. If an error message appears indicating that the host port is already used, replace port 80 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8080 in publish 8080:80. Note If you replace port 80 of the host with a non-standard port, such as port 8080, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port. For more information, see Add a security group rule.
   publish 2222:22	Maps port 2222 of the host to port 22 of the container to allow SSH. When you perform Git operations to clone, push, and pull code, you must use SSH. Note The default port of SSH on an ECS instance is port 22. After you replace the default SSH port with a non-standard port, such as port 2222, you must add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance to open the non-standard port and change the SSH port number in the gitlab.rb file.

   The following table describes the path mappings between the ECS instance and the container.

   ECS instance path	Container path	Description
   $GITLAB_HOME/data	/var/opt/gitlab	Store application data.
   $GITLAB_HOME/logs	/var/log/gitlab	Store GitLab log files.
   $GITLAB_HOME/config	/etc/gitlab	Store GitLab configuration files.

6. View the status of the container.

   sudo docker ps -a

   If the container is in the healthy state, the GitLab container is started.

   

GitLab requires an email transfer agent to send email notifications, such as notifications about project updates and password resets. In most cases, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service uses port 25 of the ECS instance to send emails. By default, port 25 is blocked on the ECS instance to ensure security. To send emails, we recommend that you use the SSL encryption port (port 465 in most cases). For information about common ports, see Common ports. To configure SMTP, perform the following steps:

1. Configure an external SMTP server.

2. Verify the SMTP configuration.

   1. Run the gitlab-rails console command to log on to the Rails console.

   2. Run the following command to send a test email:

      Notify.test_email('destination_email@address.com', 'Message Subject', 'Message Body').deliver_now

   3. Check whether the test email is received in the destination mailbox, or run the sudo tail -f /var/log/mail.log command on the ECS instance to view email logs.

• After you install GitLab on the ECS instance, the data of each project repository is stored in the /var/opt/gitlab/git-data directory of the instance and the repositories are stored in the repositories subfolder.

• You can use one of the following backup methods:

  • If you want to save only data in project repositories, create snapshots for the disks attached to the ECS instance. For more information, see Create a snapshot and the Use a snapshot to back up and restore data section of the "ECS disaster recovery solutions" topic.

  • If you want to back up full data, including project repository data, GitLab configurations, and installed software, create an image from the ECS instance. For more information, see Create a custom image from an instance and the Use an image to back up and restore data section of the "ECS disaster recovery solutions" topic.

  • If you want to deploy the GitLab server on multiple ECS instances, perform the following steps:

    1. Create a File Storage NAS (NAS) file system to store GitLab data.

    2. Mount the NAS file system on multiple ECS instances at a time for the instances to share GitLab data.

    3. Specify the mount path of the NAS file system as the data storage path of project repositories. For more information, see Store Git data in an alternative directory.

If you allow users to access the GitLab website by using the public IP address of the ECS instance, the security of the instance is compromised. If you have a domain name or want to register a domain name for the GitLab website, perform the following steps:

1. Register a domain name.

   For more information, see Register a domain name on Alibaba Cloud.

2. Apply for an Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing for the domain name.

   If the website of your domain name is hosted on an ECS instance that is located in a Chinese mainland region, apply for an ICP filing.

3. Resolve the registered domain name. After you configure domain name resolution settings, external users can visit the GitLab website by using the domain name.

   Domain name resolution is a prerequisite if you want to use the domain name to access the GitLab website. For more information, see Get started with Alibaba Cloud DNS.

4. Enable HTTPS-encrypted access. Use free services such as Let's Encrypt for free automatic HTTPS or paid services such as SSL Certificates Service.

5. Add a security group rule. Add an inbound rule to a security group of the ECS instance. For security purposes, we recommend that you allow only authorized IP addresses to access specific ports.

   • Package installation: port 443 (HTTPS)

   • Docker image installation: the host HTTPS port specified in the docker run command

6. Modify the external_url parameter in the gitlab.rb file. The following figure shows the configuration result.

   • Package installation: Configure the external URL for GitLab.

   • Docker image installation: Edit the configuration file.

     

• If you use an instance type that has less than 4 vCPUs and 8 GiB of memory to install GitLab, the installation process may remain in the Installing state for an extended period of time or even fail. In this case, upgrade the instance type before you install GitLab. For information about how to upgrade the instance type, see Overview of instance configuration changes.

• If you cannot connect to the ECS instance over SSH, you can connect to the instance by using Virtual Network Computing (VNC), configure swap space, and then optimize Sidekiq. For more information, see Running GitLab in a memory-constrained environment.

• Monitor the vCPU utilization, network traffic, and disk I/O operations on the ECS instance. For more information, see View the monitoring information of an ECS instance.

By default, an ECS instance uses port 22 for SSH. If you use a Docker image to install GitLab, you must replace port 22 of the host with a different port and modify the gitlab_rails['gitlab_shell_ssh_port'] parameter. Perform the following steps:

1. Specify a non-standard port, such as port 2222, when you start Docker. Example: publish 2222:22.

2. Modify the GitLab configuration file.

   1. Run the sudo docker exec -it gitlab /bin/bash command to start a session.

   2. Edit the /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb file.

   3. Set the gitlab_rails['gitlab_shell_ssh_port'] parameter to 2222.

   4. Run the gitlab-ctl reconfigure command to reconfigure GitLab.

3. Open the project page and verify the configurations.