Deploy GitLab

Installation package

For users in the Chinese mainland, JiHu GitLab is recommended for faster download and access speeds. Choose GitLab Community Edition when you need to collaborate with teams outside of China or require full consistency with the GitLab Community Edition codebase and documentation.

ECS extension

An ECS extension is a plug-in that extends the functionality of ECS instances. It installs JiHu GitLab by default on Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 and GitLab Community Edition on other supported systems.

1. Log on to the ECS console and go to the Extensions tab of the target instance.

2. Find the GitLab extension in the list and complete the installation. For detailed steps, see OOS extension. The supported OS versions are subject to what is displayed in the console.

   Supported OS versions currently include Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, CentOS 7.9, CentOS 7.8, CentOS 7.7, and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2. Note that Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2 uses JiHu GitLab. To install the extension, go to the Server Management > Extensions page from the left-side navigation pane. Click GitLab to view its details, and then click Install Extension.

3. After the extension status changes to successful, remotely connect to the ECS instance and run the following command to check the GitLab service status.

   sudo gitlab-ctl status

   A run status for processes such as puma, sidekiq, nginx, postgresql, and redis indicates that GitLab has started successfully.

Docker image

1. Connect to a Linux instance by using Workbench.

2. Install Docker.

   Docker Compose is not required.

3. Create mount directories on the host. These directories persist GitLab configuration files, logs, and data outside the container.

   sudo mkdir -p /srv/gitlab 

4. Set the environment variable $GITLAB_HOME.

   export GITLAB_HOME=/srv/gitlab

5. Run the following command to start the GitLab container.

   Important

   Pulling images from Docker Hub can be slow or fail due to network issues. You can use the official image accelerator provided by Alibaba Cloud Container Registry (ACR) to speed up downloads. For instructions, see Accelerate the download of official images.

   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

   Parameter	Description
   hostname	The hostname for the container. Set this to the public IP address of your ECS instance.
   publish 443:443	Map port 443 of the host to port 443 of the container for HTTPS access. If the host port is already in use, replace it with a non-standard port, such as publish 8443:443. Note If you switch to a non-standard port, you must add an inbound security group rule to allow traffic on that port (for example, 8443). For more information, see Add a security group rule. Security group rules are stateful, so you only need to configure an inbound rule. The system automatically allows the corresponding outbound response traffic.
   publish 80:80	Map port 80 on the host to port 80 in the container for HTTP access. If the host port is already in use, replace it with a non-standard port, such as publish 8080:80. Note If you switch to a non-standard port, you must add an inbound security group rule to allow traffic on that port (for example, 8080). For more information, see Add a security group rule. Security group rules are stateful, so you only need to configure an inbound rule. The system automatically allows the corresponding outbound response traffic.
   publish 2222:22	Maps host port 2222 to container port 22 for SSH-based Git clone, push, and pull operations. Note The SSH service starts by default on an ECS instance and uses port 22. If you switch to a non-standard port like 2222, you must first add an inbound rule to the security group to allow traffic on that port, and then modify the SSH port number in the gitlab.rb file.

   The following table shows the mapping between host paths and container paths.

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

   Parameter	Description
   hostname	The hostname for the container. Set this to the public IP address of your ECS instance.
   publish 443:443	Map port 443 of the host to port 443 of the container for HTTPS access. If the host port is already in use, replace it with a non-standard port, such as publish 8443:443. Note If you switch to a non-standard port, you must add an inbound security group rule to allow traffic on that port (for example, 8443). For more information, see Add a security group rule. Security group rules are stateful, so you only need to configure an inbound rule. The system automatically allows the corresponding outbound response traffic.
   publish 80:80	Map port 80 on the host to port 80 in the container for HTTP access. If the host port is already in use, replace it with a non-standard port, such as publish 8080:80. Note If you switch to a non-standard port, you must add an inbound security group rule to allow traffic on that port (for example, 8080). For more information, see Add a security group rule. Security group rules are stateful, so you only need to configure an inbound rule. The system automatically allows the corresponding outbound response traffic.
   publish 2222:22	Maps host port 2222 to container port 22 for SSH-based Git clone, push, and pull operations. Note The SSH service starts by default on an ECS instance and uses port 22. If you switch to a non-standard port like 2222, you must first add an inbound rule to the security group to allow traffic on that port, and then modify the SSH port number in the gitlab.rb file.

   The following table shows the mapping between host paths and container paths.

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

6. Check the container status.

   sudo docker ps -a

   A (healthy) status in the STATUS column indicates that the GitLab container is running normally.

   [ecs-user@iZ2zeee22a96g       ~]$ sudo docker ps -a
   CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                     COMMAND             CREATED      STATUS                PORTS                                                                                                         NAMES
   75b3bc5de483   gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest   "/assets/wrapper"   2 hours ago  Up 2 hours (healthy)  0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, :::443->443/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5000->22/tcp, :::5000->22/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp, :::8080->80/tcp   gitlab

   For a more thorough check, inspect the GitLab processes inside the container:

   sudo docker exec gitlab gitlab-ctl status

   Processes such as puma, sidekiq, nginx, postgresql, and redis should all be in the run state, indicating that GitLab inside the container is running.