Universal update guide for patch versions for self-compiled installations

Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

Select Version to Install

Make sure you view this update guide from the tag (version) of GitLab you would like to install. In most cases this should be the highest numbered production tag (without rc in it). You can select the tag in the version dropdown list in the upper-left corner of GitLab.

0. Backup

Make a backup just in case things go south. Depending on the installation method, backup commands vary. See the backing up and restoring GitLab documentation.

1. Stop server 

# For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl stop gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab stop

2. Get latest code for the stable branch

In the commands below, replace LATEST_TAG with the latest GitLab tag you want to update to, for example v8.0.3. Use git tag -l 'v*.[0-9]' --sort='v:refname' to see a list of all tags. Make sure to update patch versions only (check your current version with cat VERSION). 

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all
sudo -u git -H git checkout -- Gemfile.lock db/structure.sql locale
sudo -u git -H git checkout LATEST_TAG -b LATEST_TAG

3. Install libraries, migrations, etc 

cd /home/git/gitlab

# If you haven't done so during installation or a previous upgrade already
sudo -u git -H bundle config set --local deployment 'true'
sudo -u git -H bundle config set --local without 'development test kerberos'

# Update gems
sudo -u git -H bundle install

# Optional: clean up old gems
sudo -u git -H bundle clean

# Run database migrations
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

# Clean up assets and cache
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake yarn:install gitlab:assets:clean gitlab:assets:compile cache:clear RAILS_ENV=production NODE_ENV=production NODE_OPTIONS="--max_old_space_size=4096"

4. Update GitLab Workhorse to the corresponding version 

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake "gitlab:workhorse:install[/home/git/gitlab-workhorse]" RAILS_ENV=production

5. Update Gitaly to the corresponding version 

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake "gitlab:gitaly:install[/home/git/gitaly,/home/git/repositories]" RAILS_ENV=production

6. Update GitLab Shell to the corresponding version 

cd /home/git/gitlab-shell

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --tags
sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(</home/git/gitlab/GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION) -b v$(</home/git/gitlab/GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION)
sudo -u git -H make build

7. Update GitLab Pages to the corresponding version (skip if not using pages) 

cd /home/git/gitlab-pages

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --tags
sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(</home/git/gitlab/GITLAB_PAGES_VERSION)
sudo -u git -H make

8. Install/Update gitlab-elasticsearch-indexer

Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

Follow the install instruction.

9. Start application 

# For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl start gitlab.target
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab start
sudo service nginx restart

10. Check application status

Check if GitLab and its environment are configured correctly: 

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production

To make sure you didn’t miss anything run a more thorough check with: 

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

If all items are green, then congratulations upgrade complete!

11. Make sure background migrations are finished

Check the status of background migrations and make sure they are finished.