Setup GitLab on Ubuntu Server 13.10

This section records steps I went through to setup a GitLab server on Ubuntu Server 13.10.

First of all, get Ubuntu Server running. The installer is pretty straight forward. I chose to install OpenSSH Server when prompted to select packages.

Static IP

The server shall be configured to use a static IP address. Find out what interface is being used with ifconfig. Then edit /etc/network/interfaces. Suppose eth0 is the interface in use:

Change

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 202.11.11.201
    netmask 255.255.0.0
    network 202.11.0.0
    broadcast 202.11.255.255
    gateway 202.11.0.2
    dns-nameservers 202.96.209.5 202.96.209.133

SSH Server

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow remote login over ssh.

Generate a pair of public/private keys on the client machine. Then upload to server for public key authenticaiton.

# on client side
ssh-keygen -t rsa
cd ~/.ssh
sftp [email protected]
put id_rsa.pub
exit
ssh [email protected]

# on server side
cd ~/.ssh
cat ../id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
rm ../id_rsa.pub
exit

# on client side, this time it won't prompt for password
ssh [email protected]

IPTABLES

Remember to allow incoming tcp connections on port 22 in iptables.

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -dport ssh -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -i lo -j ACCEPT

Save the configuration

sudo iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules

Configuration on startup. Edit /etc/network/interfaces

# add lines after the interface settings like
#auot eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
  pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.rules
  post-down iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules

GitLab Installation

Please refer to https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md for updated guide.

I run the following command to make nginx start without errors.

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Commit Size Limit

Edit gitlab/config/gitlab.yml, set git:max_size to preferred size.

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab, set client_max_body_size to preffered size.

Upgrade GitLab

Update gitlab-shell:

cd /home/git/gitlab-shell
sudo -u git -H git fetch
sudo -u git -H git checkout v1.9.6

Update gitlab:

cd /home/git/gitlab; sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:backup:create RAILS_ENV=production; \
  sudo service gitlab stop; sudo -u git -H ruby script/upgrade.rb -y; sudo service gitlab start; \
  sudo service nginx restart; sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

Setup GitLab Server