GitLab is an open source GIT repository manager based on Rails and developed by GitLab Inc. It is a web-based GIT repository manager that allows your team to work on code, track bugs and feature requests and to test and deploy applications. GitLab provides features like a wiki, issue tracking, code reviews, activity feeds and merge management. It is capable of hosting multiple projects.
GitLab is available in four editions:
- Gitlab CE (Community Edition) – self-hosted, free and support from the Community forum.
- Gitlab EE (Enterprise Edition) – self-hosted, paid app, comes with additional features.
- GitLab.com – SaaS, free.
- GitLab.io – Private GitLab instance managed by GitLab Inc.
In this tutorial, I will show you step-by-step how to install GitLab CE (Community Edition) on your own Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus server. In this tutorial, I will be using the ‘omnibus’ package provided by GitLab for easy installation.
What we will do:
- Install Packages
- Install GitLab
- Configure GitLab URL
- Generate SSL Let’s encrypt and DHPARAM Certificate
- Enable Nginx HTTPS for GitLab
- Configure UFW Firewall
- Perform the GitLab Installation
- Testing
Prerequisites
- Ubuntu 16.04 Server – 64bit
- Min RAM 2GB
- Root Privileges
Step 1 – Install required Ubuntu Packages
The first step is to install the packages needed for the GitLab installation. Please log in to the server as root user and upddate the Ubuntu repository.
ssh root@GitLabServer apt-get update
Now install the packages including curl for downloading the GitLab repository, ca-certificates, and postfix for the SMTP configuration. Install all packages with the apt command below.
sudo apt install curl openssh-server ca-certificates postfix
During postfix installation, you will be prompted about the configuration, select ‘Internet Site’. and then enter the server domain name that shall be used for sending an email.
