brucewu16899 / docker-gitlab-ci

Dockerfile to build a GitLab CI container image.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Version
  • Changelog
• Supported Web Browsers
• Contributing
• Issue
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Configuration
  • Data Store
  • Database
    • MySQL
      • Internal MySQL Server
      • External MySQL Server
      • Linking to MySQL Container
    • PostgreSQL (Recommended)
      • External PostgreSQL Server
      • Linking to PostgreSQL Container
  • Redis
    • Internal Redis Server
    • External Redis Server
    • Linking to Redis Container
  • Mail
  • SSL
    • Generation of Self Signed Certificates
    • Strengthening the server security
    • Installation of the Certificates
    • Enabling HTTPS support
    • Configuring HSTS
    • Using HTTPS with a load balancer
    • Establishing trust with your server
    • Installing Trusted SSL Server Certificates
  • Deploy to a subdirectory (relative url root)
  • Putting it all together
  • Available Configuration Parameters
• Maintenance
  • Creating Backups
  • Restoring Backups
  • Automated Backups
  • Shell Access
• Upgrading
• Announcements
• References

Introduction

Dockerfile to build a GitLab CI container image.

Version

Current Version: 7.11.4

The gitlab-ci version should match the gitlab version to avoid any compatibility issues

Supported Web Browsers

• Chrome (Latest stable version)
• Firefox (Latest released version)
• Safari 7+ (Know problem: required fields in html5 do not work)
• Opera (Latest released version)
• IE 10+

Contributing

If you find this image useful here's how you can help:

• Send a Pull Request with your awesome new features and bug fixes
• Help new users with Issues they may encounter
• Send me a tip via Bitcoin or using Gratipay

Issue

Docker is a relatively new project and is active being developed and tested by a thriving community of developers and testers and every release of docker features many enhancements and bugfixes.

Given the nature of the development and release cycle it is very important that you have the latest version of docker installed because any issue that you encounter might have already been fixed with a newer docker release.

For ubuntu users I suggest installing docker using docker's own package repository since the version of docker packaged in the ubuntu repositories are a little dated.

Here is the shortform of the installation of an updated version of docker on ubuntu.

sudo apt-get purge docker.io
curl -s https://get.docker.io/ubuntu/ | sudo sh
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lxc-docker

Fedora and RHEL/CentOS users should try disabling selinux with setenforce 0 and check if resolves the issue. If it does than there is not much that I can help you with. You can either stick with selinux disabled (not recommended by redhat) or switch to using ubuntu.

If using the latest docker version and/or disabling selinux does not fix the issue then please file a issue request on the issues page.

In your issue report please make sure you provide the following information:

• The host ditribution and release version.
• Output of the docker version command
• Output of the docker info command
• The docker run command you used to run the image (mask out the sensitive bits).

Installation

Pull the latest version of the image from the docker index. This is the recommended method of installation as it is easier to update image in the future. These builds are performed by the Docker Trusted Build service.

docker pull sameersbn/gitlab-ci:latest

Starting from GitLab CI version 5.1.0, You can pull a particular version of GitLab CI by specifying the version number. For example,

docker pull sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Alternately you can build the image yourself.

git clone https://github.com/sameersbn/docker-gitlab-ci.git
cd docker-gitlab-ci
docker build --tag="$USER/gitlab-ci" .

Quick Start

Before you can start the GitLab CI image you need to make sure you have a GitLab server running. Checkout the docker-gitlab project for getting a GitLab server up and running.

You need to provide the URL of the GitLab server while running GitLab CI using the GITLAB_URL environment configuration. Since version 5.4.0 you need to provide the GITLAB_APP_ID and GITLAB_APP_SECRET. For example if the location of the GitLab server is http://localhost:10080,

The quickest way to get started is using docker-compose.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sameersbn/docker-gitlab-ci/master/docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up

Alternately, you can manually launch the gitlab-ci container and the supporting postgresql and redis containers by following this three step guide.

Step 1. Launch a postgresql container

docker run --name=postgresql-gitlab-ci -d \
  --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/postgresql:/var/lib/postgresql \
  sameersbn/postgresql:9.4

Step 2. Launch a redis container

docker run --name=redis-gitlab-ci -d \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/redis:/var/lib/redis \
  sameersbn/redis:latest

Step 3. Launch the gitlab-ci container

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -d \
  --link=postgresql-gitlab-ci:postgresql --link=redis-gitlab-ci:redisio \
  --publish=10081:80 \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_PORT=10081' --env='GITLAB_URL=http://localhost:10080' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Point your browser to http://localhost:10081 and login using your GitLab credentials.

You should now have the GitLab CI ready for testing. If you want to use this image in production the please read on.

The rest of the document will use the docker command line. You can quite simply adapt your configuration into a docker-compose.yml file if you wish to do so.

NOTE: You need to install GitLab CI Runner if you want to do anything worth while with the GitLab CI server. Please take a look at docker-gitlab-ci-runner for a base runner image.

Configuration

Data Store

For storage of the application data, you should mount a volume at

• /home/gitlab_ci/data

SELinux users are also required to change the security context of the mount point so that it plays nicely with selinux.

mkdir -p /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci
sudo chcon -Rt svirt_sandbox_file_t /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci

Volumes can be mounted in docker by specifying the '-v' option in the docker run command.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Database

GitLab CI uses a database backend to store its data.

MySQL

Internal MySQL Server

The internal mysql server has been removed from the image. Please use a linked mysql container or specify a connection to a external mysql server.

If you have been using the internal mysql server follow these instructions to migrate to a linked mysql container:

Assuming that your mysql data is available at /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql

docker run --name=mysql-gitlab-ci -d \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql:/var/lib/mysql \
  sameersbn/mysql:latest

This will start a mysql container with your existing mysql data. Now login to the mysql container and create a user for the existing gitlab_ci_production database.

All you need to do now is link this mysql container to the gitlab ci container using the --link=mysql-gitlab-ci:mysql option and provide the DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASS parameters.

Refer to Linking to MySQL Container for more information.

External MySQL Server

The image can be configured to use an external MySQL database instead of starting a MySQL server internally. The database configuration should be specified using environment variables while starting the GitLab CI image.

Before you start the GitLab CI image create user and database for GitLab CI.

CREATE USER 'gitlab_ci'@'%.%.%.%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `gitlab_ci_production` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET `utf8` COLLATE `utf8_unicode_ci`;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `gitlab_ci_production`.* TO 'gitlab_ci'@'%.%.%.%';

We are now ready to start the container.

Assuming that the mysql server host is 192.168.1.100

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  --env='DB_HOST=192.168.1.100' --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab_ci' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Linking to MySQL Container

You can link this image with a mysql container for the database requirements. The alias of the mysql server container should be set to mysql while linking with the gitlab ci image.

If a mysql container is linked, only the DB_TYPE, DB_HOST and DB_PORT settings are automatically retrieved using the linkage. You may still need to set other database connection parameters such as the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASS and so on.

To illustrate linking with a mysql container, we will use the sameersbn/mysql image. When using docker-mysql in production you should mount a volume for the mysql data store. Please refer the README of docker-mysql for details.

First, lets pull the mysql image from the docker index.

docker pull sameersbn/mysql:latest

For data persistence lets create a store for the mysql and start the container.

SELinux users are also required to change the security context of the mount point so that it plays nicely with selinux.

mkdir -p /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql
sudo chcon -Rt svirt_sandbox_file_t /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql

The run command looks like this.

docker run --name=mysql-gitlab-ci -d \
  --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab_ci' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql:/var/lib/mysql \
  sameersbn/mysql:latest

The above command will create a database named gitlab_ci_production and also create a user named gitlab_ci with the password password with full/remote access to the gitlab_ci_production database.

We are now ready to start the GitLab CI application.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm --link=mysql-gitlab-ci:mysql \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Here the image will also automatically fetch the DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASS variables from the mysql container as they are specified in the docker run command for the mysql container. This is made possible using the magic of docker links and works with the following images:

• mysql
• sameersbn/mysql
• centurylink/mysql
• orchardup/mysql

PostgreSQL

External PostgreSQL Server

The image also supports using an external PostgreSQL Server. This is also controlled via environment variables.

CREATE ROLE gitlab_ci with LOGIN CREATEDB PASSWORD 'password';
CREATE DATABASE gitlab_ci_production;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE gitlab_ci_production to gitlab_ci;

We are now ready to start the container.

Assuming that the PostgreSQL server host is 192.168.1.100

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  --env='DB_TYPE=postgres' --env='DB_HOST=192.168.1.100' \
  --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab_ci' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Linking to PostgreSQL Container

You can link this image with a postgresql container for the database requirements. The alias of the postgresql server container should be set to postgresql while linking with the gitlab ci image.

If a postgresql container is linked, only the DB_TYPE, DB_HOST and DB_PORT settings are automatically retrieved using the linkage. You may still need to set other database connection parameters such as the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASS and so on.

To illustrate linking with a postgresql container, we will use the sameersbn/postgresql image. When using postgresql image in production you should mount a volume for the postgresql data store. Please refer the README of docker-postgresql for details.

First, lets pull the postgresql image from the docker index.

docker pull sameersbn/postgresql:9.4

For data persistence lets create a store for the postgresql and start the container.

SELinux users are also required to change the security context of the mount point so that it plays nicely with selinux.

mkdir -p /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/postgresql
sudo chcon -Rt svirt_sandbox_file_t /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/postgresql

The run command looks like this.

docker run --name=postgresql-gitlab-ci -d \
  --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab_ci' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/postgresql:/var/lib/postgresql \
  sameersbn/postgresql:9.4

The above command will create a database named gitlab_ci_production and also create a user named gitlab_ci with the password password with access to the gitlab_ci_production database.

We are now ready to start the GitLab CI application.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm --link=postgresql-gitlab-ci:postgresql \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Here the image will also automatically fetch the DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASS variables from the postgresql container as they are specified in the docker run command for the postgresql container. This is made possible using the magic of docker links and works with the following images:

• postgres
• sameersbn/postgresql
• orchardup/postgresql
• paintedfox/postgresql

Redis

GitLab CI uses the redis server for its key-value data store. The redis server connection details can be specified using environment variables.

Internal Redis Server

The internal redis server has been removed from the image. Please use a linked redis container or specify a external redis connection.

External Redis Server

The image can be configured to use an external redis server instead of starting a redis server internally. The configuration should be specified using environment variables while starting the GitLab CI image.

Assuming that the redis server host is 192.168.1.100

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='REDIS_HOST=192.168.1.100' --env='REDIS_PORT=6379' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Linking to Redis Container

You can link this image with a redis container to satisfy GitLab CI's redis requirement. The alias of the redis server container should be set to redisio while linking with the GitLab image.

To illustrate linking with a redis container, we will use the sameersbn/redis image. Please refer the README of docker-redis for details.

First, lets pull the redis image from the docker index.

docker pull sameersbn/redis:latest

Lets start the redis container

docker run --name=redis-gitlab-ci -d sameersbn/redis:latest

We are now ready to start the GitLab CI application.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm --link=redis-gitlab-ci:redisio \
  sameersbn/gitlab:latest

Mail

The mail configuration should be specified using environment variables while starting the GitLab CI image. The configuration defaults to using gmail to send emails and requires the specification of a valid username and password to login to the gmail servers.

Please refer the Available Configuration Parameters section for the list of SMTP parameters that can be specified.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='[email protected]' --env='SMTP_PASS=PASSWORD' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Please look up the Available Configuration Parameters section for all available SMTP configuration options.

SSL

Access to the gitlab ci application can be secured using SSL so as to prevent unauthorized access to the data in your repositories. While a CA certified SSL certificate allows for verification of trust via the CA, a self signed certificates can also provide an equal level of trust verification as long as each client takes some additional steps to verify the identity of your website. I will provide instructions on achieving this towards the end of this section.

To secure your application via SSL you basically need two things:

• Private key (.key)
• SSL certificate (.crt)

When using CA certified certificates, these files are provided to you by the CA. When using self-signed certificates you need to generate these files yourself. Skip the following section if you are armed with CA certified SSL certificates.

Jump to the Using HTTPS with a load balancer section if you are using a load balancer such as hipache, haproxy or nginx.

Generation of Self Signed Certificates

Generation of self-signed SSL certificates involves a simple 3 step procedure.

STEP 1: Create the server private key

openssl genrsa -out gitlab_ci.key 2048

STEP 2: Create the certificate signing request (CSR)

openssl req -new -key gitlab_ci.key -out gitlab_ci.csr

STEP 3: Sign the certificate using the private key and CSR

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in gitlab_ci.csr -signkey gitlab_ci.key -out gitlab_ci.crt

Congratulations! you have now generated an SSL certificate thats valid for 365 days.

Strengthening the server security

This section provides you with instructions to strengthen your server security. To achieve this we need to generate stronger DHE parameters.

openssl dhparam -out dhparam.pem 2048

Installation of the SSL Certificates

Out of the four files generated above, we need to install the gitlab_ci.key, gitlab_ci.crt and dhparam.pem files at the gitlab ci server. The CSR file is not needed, but do make sure you safely backup the file (in case you ever need it again).

The default path that the gitlab ci application is configured to look for the SSL certificates is at /home/gitlab_ci/data/certs, this can however be changed using the SSL_KEY_PATH, SSL_CERTIFICATE_PATH and SSL_DHPARAM_PATH configuration options.

If you remember from above, the /home/gitlab_ci/data path is the path of the data store, which means that we have to create a folder named certs inside /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci and copy the files into it and as a measure of security we will update the permission on the gitlab_ci.key file to only be readable by the owner.

mkdir -p /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci/certs
cp gitlab_ci.key /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci/certs/
cp gitlab_ci.crt /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci/certs/
cp dhparam.pem /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci/certs/
chmod 400 /srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci/certs/gitlab_ci.key

Great! we are now just one step away from having our application secured.

Enabling HTTPS support

HTTPS support can be enabled by setting the GITLAB_CI_HTTPS option to true.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HTTPS=true' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

In this configuration, any requests made over the plain http protocol will automatically be redirected to use the https protocol. However, this is not optimal when using a load balancer.

Configuring HSTS

HSTS if supported by the browsers makes sure that your users will only reach your sever via HTTPS. When the user comes for the first time it sees a header from the server which states for how long from now this site should only be reachable via HTTPS - that's the HSTS max-age value.

With GITLAB_CI_HTTPS_HSTS_MAXAGE you can configure that value. The default value is 31536000 seconds. If you want to disable a already sent HSTS MAXAGE value, set it to 0.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HTTPS=true' \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HTTPS_HSTS_MAXAGE=2592000'
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

If you want to completely disable HSTS set GITLAB_CI_HTTPS_HSTS_ENABLED to false.

Using HTTPS with a load balancer

Load balancers like nginx/haproxy/hipache talk to backend applications over plain http and as such the installation of ssl keys and certificates are not required and should NOT be installed in the container. The SSL configuration has to instead be done at the load balancer. Hoewever, when using a load balancer you MUST set GITLAB_CI_HTTPS to true.

With this in place, you should configure the load balancer to support handling of https requests. But that is out of the scope of this document. Please refer to Using SSL/HTTPS with HAProxy for information on the subject.

When using a load balancer, you probably want to make sure the load balancer performs the automatic http to https redirection. Information on this can also be found in the link above.

In summation, when using a load balancer, the docker command would look for the most part something like this:

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HTTPS=true' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Establishing trust with your server

This section deals will self-signed ssl certificates. If you are using CA certified certificates, your done.

This section is more of a client side configuration so as to add a level of confidence at the client to be 100 percent sure they are communicating with whom they think they.

This is simply done by adding the servers certificate into their list of trusted ceritficates. On ubuntu, this is done by copying the gitlab_ci.crt file to /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ and executing update-ca-certificates.

Again, this is a client side configuration which means that everyone who is going to communicate with the server should perform this configuration on their machine. In short, distribute the gitlab_ci.crt file among your developers and ask them to add it to their list of trusted ssl certificates.

You can do the same at the web browser. Instructions for installing the root certificate for firefox can be found here. You will find similar options chrome, just make sure you install the certificate under the authorities tab of the certificate manager dialog.

There you have it, thats all there is to it.

Installing Trusted SSL Server Certificates

If your GitLab server is using self-signed SSL certificates then you should make sure the GitLab server certificate is trusted on the GitLab CI server for them to be able to talk to each other.

The default path image is configured to look for the trusted SSL certificates is at /home/gitlab_ci/data/certs/ca.crt, this can however be changed using the CA_CERTIFICATES_PATH configuration option.

Copy the ca.crt file into the certs directory on the datastore. The ca.crt file should contain the root certificates of all the servers you want to trust. With respect to GitLab, this will be the contents of the gitlab.crt file as described in the README of the docker-gitlab container.

By default, our own server certificate gitlab_ci.crt is added to the trusted certificates list.

Deploy to a subdirectory (relative url root)

By default GitLab CI expects that your application is running at the root (eg. /). This section explains how to run your application inside a directory.

Let's assume we want to deploy our application to '/ci'. GitLab CI needs to know this directory to generate the appropriate routes. This can be specified using the GITLAB_CI_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT configuration option like so:

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT=/ci' \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

GitLab CI will now be accessible at the /ci path, e.g. http://www.example.com/ci.

Note: The GITLAB_CI_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT parameter should always begin with a slash and SHOULD NOT have any trailing slashes.

Putting it all together

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -d -h gitlab-ci.local.host \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/mysql:/var/lib/mysql \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HOST=gitlab-ci.local.host' \
  --env='[email protected]' \
  --env='[email protected]' \
  --env='[email protected]' --env='SMTP_PASS=PASSWORD' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

If you are using an external mysql database

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -d -h gitlab-ci.local.host \
  --volume=/srv/docker/gitlab-ci/gitlab-ci:/home/gitlab_ci/data \
  --env='DB_HOST=192.168.1.100' --env='DB_NAME=gitlab_ci_production' \
  --env='DB_USER=gitlab_ci' --env='DB_PASS=password' \
  --env='GITLAB_URL=http://172.17.0.2' \
  --env='GITLAB_APP_ID=xxx' --env='GITLAB_APP_SECRET=yyy' \
  --env='GITLAB_CI_HOST=gitlab-ci.local.host' \
  --env='[email protected]' \
  --env='[email protected]' \
  --env='[email protected]' --env='SMTP_PASS=PASSWORD' \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

Available Configuration Parameters

Please refer the docker run command options for the --env-file flag where you can specify all required environment variables in a single file. This will save you from writing a potentially long docker run command. Alternately you can use docker-compose.

Below is the complete list of available options that can be used to customize your GitLab CI installation.

• GITLAB_URL: Url of the GitLab server to allow connections from. No defaults. Automatically configured when a GitLab server is linked using docker links feature.
• GITLAB_APP_ID: Application ID used to connect to the gitlab server.
• GITLAB_APP_SECRET: Secret key used to connect to the gitlab server.
• GITLAB_CI_HOST: The hostname of the GitLab CI server. Defaults to localhost.
• GITLAB_CI_PORT: The port number of the GitLab CI server. Defaults to 80 for plain http and 443 when https is enabled.
• GITLAB_CI_TIMEZONE: Configure the timezone for the GitLab CI application. Defaults to UTC.
• GITLAB_CI_EMAIL: The email address for the GitLab CI server. Defaults to gitlab@localhost.
• GITLAB_CI_SUPPORT: The support email address for the GitLab CI server. Defaults to support@localhost.
• GITLAB_CI_NOTIFY_ON_BROKEN_BUILDS: Enable or disable broken build notification emails. Defaults to true
• GITLAB_CI_NOTIFY_PUSHER: Add pusher to recipients list of broken build notification emails. Defaults to false
• GITLAB_CI_HTTPS: Set to true to enable https support, disabled by default.
• GITLAB_CI_HTTPS_HSTS_ENABLED: Advanced configuration option for turning off the HSTS configuration. Applicable only when SSL is in use. Defaults to true. See #138 for use case scenario.
• GITLAB_CI_HTTPS_HSTS_MAXAGE: Advanced configuration option for setting the HSTS max-age in the gitlab-ci nginx vHost configuration. Applicable only when SSL is in use. Defaults to 31536000.
• GITLAB_CI_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT: The sub URI of the GitLab CI server, e.g. /ci. No default.
• GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_DIR: The backup folder in the container. Defaults to /home/gitlab_ci/data/backups
• GITLAB_CI_BACKUPS: Setup cron job to automatic backups. Possible values disable, daily, weekly or monthly. Disabled by default
• GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_EXPIRY: Configure how long (in seconds) to keep backups before they are deleted. By default when automated backups are disabled backups are kept forever (0 seconds), else the backups expire in 7 days (604800 seconds).
• GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_TIME: Set a time for the automatic backups in HH:MM format. Defaults to 04:00.
• SSL_CERTIFICATE_PATH: Location of the ssl certificate. Defaults to /home/gitlab_ci/data/certs/gitlab.crt
• SSL_KEY_PATH: Location of the ssl private key. Defaults to /home/gitlab_ci/data/certs/gitlab.key
• SSL_DHPARAM_PATH: Location of the dhparam file. Defaults to /home/gitlab_ci/data/certs/dhparam.pem
• SSL_VERIFY_CLIENT: Enable verification of client certificates using the CA_CERTIFICATES_PATH file. Defaults to false
• NGINX_WORKERS: The number of nginx workers to start. Defaults to 1.
• NGINX_MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE: Maximum acceptable upload size. Defaults to 20m.
• NGINX_X_FORWARDED_PROTO: Advanced configuration option for the proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto setting in the gitlab-ci nginx vHost configuration. Defaults to https when GITLAB_CI_HTTPS is true, else defaults to $scheme.
• REDIS_HOST: The hostname of the redis server. Defaults to localhost
• REDIS_PORT: The connection port of the redis server. Defaults to 6379.
• UNICORN_WORKERS: The number of unicorn workers to start. Defaults to 2.
• UNICORN_TIMEOUT: Sets the timeout of unicorn worker processes. Defaults to 60 seconds.
• SIDEKIQ_CONCURRENCY: The number of concurrent sidekiq jobs to run. Defaults to 25
• DB_TYPE: The database type. Possible values: mysql, postgres. Defaults to mysql.
• DB_HOST: The database server hostname. Defaults to localhost.
• DB_PORT: The database server port. Defaults to 3306 for mysql and 5432 for postgresql.
• DB_NAME: The database database name. Defaults to gitlab_ci_production
• DB_USER: The database database user. Defaults to root
• DB_PASS: The database database password. Defaults to no password
• DB_POOL: The database database connection pool count. Defaults to 10.
• SMTP_ENABLED: Enable mail delivery via SMTP. Defaults to true if SMTP_USER is defined, else defaults to false.
• SMTP_DOMAIN: SMTP domain. Defaults to www.gmail.com
• SMTP_HOST: SMTP server host. Defaults to smtp.gmail.com
• SMTP_PORT: SMTP server port. Defaults to 587.
• SMTP_USER: SMTP username.
• SMTP_PASS: SMTP password.
• SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE: SMTP openssl verification mode. Accepted values are none, peer, client_once and fail_if_no_peer_cert. SSL certificate verification is performed by default.
• SMTP_STARTTLS: Enable STARTTLS. Defaults to true.
• SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: Specify the SMTP authentication method. Defaults to login if SMTP_USER is set.

Maintenance

Creating Backups

Since release 7.11.0, Gitlab CI defines a rake task to take a backup of your gitlab ci installation. The resulting backup primarily consists of the sql database.

Before taking a backup make sure the container is stopped and removed to avoid container name conflicts.

docker stop gitlab-ci && docker rm gitlab-ci

Execute the rake task to create a backup.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm [OPTIONS] \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4 app:rake backup:create

A backup will be created in the backups folder of the Data Store. You can change the location of the backups using the GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_DIR configuration parameter.

P.S. Backups can also be generated on a running instance using docker exec as described in the Rake Tasks section. However, to avoid undesired side-effects, I advice against running backup and restore operations on a running instance.

Restoring Backups

Since release 7.11.0, Gitlab CI also defines a rake task to restore a backup.

Before performing a restore make sure the container is stopped and removed to avoid container name conflicts.

docker stop gitlab-ci && docker rm gitlab-ci

Execute the rake task to restore a backup. Make sure you run the container in interactive mode -it.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm [OPTIONS] \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4 app:rake backup:restore

The list of all available backups will be displayed in reverse chronological order. Select the backup you want to restore and continue.

To avoid user interaction in the restore operation, specify the timestamp of the backup using the BACKUP argument to the rake task.

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -it --rm [OPTIONS] \
  sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4 app:rake backup:restore BACKUP=1417624827

Automated Backups

The image can be configured to automatically take backups daily, weekly or monthly using the GITLAB_CI_BACKUPS configuration option.

Daily backups are created at GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_TIME which defaults to 04:00 everyday. Weekly backups are created every Sunday at the same time as the daily backups. Monthly backups are created on the 1st of every month at the same time as the daily backups.

By default, when automated backups are enabled, backups are held for a period of 7 days. While when automated backups are disabled, the backups are held for an infinite period of time. This can behavior can be configured via the GITLAB_CI_BACKUP_EXPIRY option.

Shell Access

For debugging and maintenance purposes you may want access the containers shell. If you are using docker version 1.3.0 or higher you can access a running containers shell using docker exec command.

docker exec -it gitlab-ci bash

If you are using an older version of docker, you can use the nsenter linux tool (part of the util-linux package) to access the container shell.

Some linux distros (e.g. ubuntu) use older versions of the util-linux which do not include the nsenter tool. To get around this @jpetazzo has created a nice docker image that allows you to install the nsenter utility and a helper script named docker-enter on these distros.

To install nsenter execute the following command on your host,

docker run --rm --volume=/usr/local/bin:/target jpetazzo/nsenter

Now you can access the container shell using the command

sudo docker-enter gitlab-ci

For more information refer https://github.com/jpetazzo/nsenter

Upgrading

To upgrade to newer GitLab CI releases, simply follow this 3 step upgrade procedure.

• Step 1: Update the docker image.

docker pull sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

• Step 2: Stop and remove the currently running image

docker stop gitlab-ci
docker rm gitlab-ci

• Step 3: Start the image

docker run --name=gitlab-ci -d [OPTIONS] sameersbn/gitlab-ci:7.11.4

References

• https://www.gitlab.com/gitlab-ci/
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ci/blob/master/README.md