LDAP synchronization

Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

If you have configured LDAP to work with GitLab, GitLab can automatically synchronize users and groups.

LDAP synchronization updates user and group information for existing GitLab users that have an LDAP identity assigned. It does not create new GitLab users through LDAP.

You can change when synchronization occurs.

LDAP servers with rate limits

Some LDAP servers have rate limits configured.

GitLab queries the LDAP server once for every:

In some cases, more queries to the LDAP server may be triggered. For example, when a group sync query returns a memberuid attribute.

If the LDAP server has a rate limit configured and that limit is reached during the:

  • User sync process, the LDAP server responds with an error code and GitLab blocks that user.
  • Group sync process, the LDAP server responds with an error code and GitLab removes that user’s group memberships.

You must consider your LDAP server’s rate limits when configuring LDAP synchronization to prevent unwanted user blocks and group membership removals.

User sync

History
  • Preventing LDAP user’s profile name synchronization introduced in GitLab 15.11.

Once per day, GitLab runs a worker to check and update GitLab users against LDAP.

The process executes the following access checks:

  • Ensure the user is still present in LDAP.
  • If the LDAP server is Active Directory, ensure the user is active (not blocked/disabled state). This check is performed only if active_directory: true is set in the LDAP configuration.

In Active Directory, a user is marked as disabled/blocked if the user account control attribute (userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803) has bit 2 set.

For more information, see Bitmask Searches in LDAP.

The process also updates the following user information:

note
If your LDAP server has a rate limit, that limit might be reached during the user sync process. Check the rate limit documentation for more information.

Synchronize LDAP user’s profile name

By default, GitLab synchronizes the LDAP user’s profile name field.

To prevent this synchronization, you can set sync_name to false.

Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
  'main' => {
    'sync_name' => false,
    }
}

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    ldap:
      servers:
        main:
          sync_name: false

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
          'main' => {
            'sync_name' => false,
            }
        }

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ldap:
    servers:
      main:
        sync_name: false

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

Blocked users

A user is blocked if either the:

  • Access check fails and that user is set to an ldap_blocked state in GitLab.
  • LDAP server is not available when that user signs in.

If a user is blocked, that user cannot sign in or push or pull code.

A blocked user is unblocked when they sign in with LDAP if all of the following are true:

  • All the access check conditions are true.
  • The LDAP server is available when the user signs in.

All users are blocked if the LDAP server is unavailable when an LDAP user synchronization is run.

note
If all users are blocked due to the LDAP server not being available when an LDAP user synchronization is run, a subsequent LDAP user synchronization does not automatically unblock those users.

Group sync

If your LDAP supports the memberof property, when the user signs in for the first time GitLab triggers a sync for groups the user should be a member of. That way they don’t have to wait for the hourly sync to be granted access to their groups and projects.

A group sync process runs every hour on the hour, and group_base must be set in LDAP configuration for LDAP synchronizations based on group CN to work. This allows GitLab group membership to be automatically updated based on LDAP group members.

The group_base configuration should be a base LDAP ‘container’, such as an ‘organization’ or ‘organizational unit’, that contains LDAP groups that should be available to GitLab. For example, group_base could be ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com. In the configuration file, it looks like the following.

note
If your LDAP server has a rate limit, that limit might be reached during the group sync process. Check the rate limit documentation for more information.
Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
  'main' => {
    'group_base' => 'ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com',
    }
}

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    ldap:
      servers:
        main:
          group_base: ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
          'main' => {
            'group_base' => 'ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com',
            }
        }

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ldap:
    servers:
      main:
        group_base: ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

To take advantage of group sync, group Owners or users with the Maintainer role must create one or more LDAP group links.

note
If you frequently experience connection issues between your LDAP server and GitLab instance, try reducing the frequency with which GitLab performs an LDAP group sync by setting the group sync worker interval to be greater than the 1 hour default.

For information on adding group links by using CNs and filters, refer to the GitLab groups documentation.

Administrator sync

As an extension of group sync, you can automatically manage your global GitLab administrators. Specify a group CN for admin_group and all members of the LDAP group are given administrator privileges. The configuration looks like the following.

note
Administrators are not synced unless group_base is also specified alongside admin_group. Also, only specify the CN of the admin_group, as opposed to the full DN. Additionally, if an LDAP user has an admin role, but is not a member of the admin_group group, GitLab revokes their admin role when syncing.
Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
  'main' => {
    'group_base' => 'ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com',
    'admin_group' => 'my_admin_group',
    }
}

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    ldap:
      servers:
        main:
          group_base: ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com
          admin_group: my_admin_group

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
          'main' => {
            'group_base' => 'ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com',
            'admin_group' => 'my_admin_group',
            }
        }

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ldap:
    servers:
      main:
        group_base: ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com
        admin_group: my_admin_group

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

Global group memberships lock

GitLab administrators can prevent group members from inviting new members to subgroups that have their membership synchronized with LDAP.

Global group membership lock only applies to subgroups of the top-level group where LDAP synchronization is configured. No user can modify the membership of a top-level group configured for LDAP synchronization.

When global group memberships lock is enabled:

  • Only an administrator can manage memberships of any group including access levels.
  • Users are not allowed to share a project with other groups or invite members to a project created in a group.

To enable global group memberships lock:

  1. Configure LDAP.
  2. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
  3. Select Settings > General.
  4. Expand Visibility and access controls.
  5. Ensure the Lock memberships to LDAP synchronization checkbox is selected.

Change LDAP group synchronization settings management

By default, group members with the Owner role can manage LDAP group synchronization settings.

GitLab administrators can remove this permission from group Owners:

  1. Configure LDAP.
  2. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
  3. Select Settings > General.
  4. Expand Visibility and access controls.
  5. Ensure the Allow group owners to manage LDAP-related settings checkbox is not checked.

When Allow group owners to manage LDAP-related settings is disabled:

  • Group Owners cannot change LDAP synchronization settings for either top-level groups and subgroups.
  • Instance administrators can manage LDAP group synchronization settings on all groups on an instance.

External groups

Using the external_groups setting allows you to mark all users belonging to these groups as external users. Group membership is checked periodically through the LdapGroupSync background task.

Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
  'main' => {
    'external_groups' => ['interns', 'contractors'],
    }
}

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    ldap:
      servers:
        main:
          external_groups: ['interns', 'contractors']

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_servers'] = {
          'main' => {
            'external_groups' => ['interns', 'contractors'],
          }
        }

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ldap:
    servers:
      main:
        external_groups: ['interns', 'contractors']

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

Group sync technical details

This section outlines what LDAP queries are executed and what behavior you can expect from group sync.

Group member access are downgraded from a higher level if their LDAP group membership changes. For example, if a user the Owner role in a group and the next group sync reveals they should only have the Developer role, their access is adjusted accordingly. The only exception is if the user is the last owner in a group. Groups need at least one owner to fulfill administrative duties.

Supported LDAP group types/attributes

GitLab supports LDAP groups that use member attributes:

  • member
  • submember
  • uniquemember
  • memberof
  • memberuid

This means group sync supports (at least) LDAP groups with the following object classes:

  • groupOfNames
  • posixGroup
  • groupOfUniqueNames

Other object classes should work if members are defined as one of the mentioned attributes.

Active Directory supports nested groups. Group sync recursively resolves membership if active_directory: true is set in the configuration file.

Nested group memberships

Nested group memberships are resolved only if the nested group is found in the configured group_base. For example, if GitLab sees a nested group with DN cn=nested_group,ou=special_groups,dc=example,dc=com but the configured group_base is ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com, cn=nested_group is ignored.

Queries

  • Each LDAP group is queried a maximum of one time with base group_base and filter (cn=<cn_from_group_link>).
  • If the LDAP group has the memberuid attribute, GitLab executes another LDAP query per member to obtain each user’s full DN. These queries are executed with base base, scope ‘base object’, and a filter depending on whether user_filter is set. Filter may be (uid=<uid_from_group>) or a joining of user_filter.

Benchmarks

Group sync was written to be as performant as possible. Data is cached, database queries are optimized, and LDAP queries are minimized. The last benchmark run revealed the following metrics:

For 20,000 LDAP users, 11,000 LDAP groups, and 1,000 GitLab groups with 10 LDAP group links each:

  • Initial sync (no existing members assigned in GitLab) took 1.8 hours
  • Subsequent syncs (checking membership, no writes) took 15 minutes

These metrics are meant to provide a baseline and performance may vary based on any number of factors. This benchmark was extreme and most instances don’t have near this many users or groups. Disk speed, database performance, network and LDAP server response time affects these metrics.

Adjust LDAP user sync schedule

By default, GitLab runs a worker once per day at 01:30 a.m. server time to check and update GitLab users against LDAP.

caution
Do not run the sync process too frequently as this could lead to multiple syncs running concurrently. Most installations do not need to modify the sync schedule. For more information, see the LDAP Security documentation.

You can manually configure LDAP user sync times by setting the following configuration values, in cron format. If needed, you can use a crontab generator. The example below shows how to set LDAP user sync to run once every 12 hours at the top of the hour.

Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_sync_worker_cron'] = "0 */12 * * *"

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    cron_jobs:
      ldap_sync_worker:
        cron: "0 */12 * * *"

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_sync_worker_cron'] = "0 */12 * * *"

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ee_cron_jobs:
    ldap_sync_worker:
      cron: "0 */12 * * *"

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

Adjust LDAP group sync schedule

By default, GitLab runs a group sync process every hour, on the hour. The values shown are in cron format. If needed, you can use a Crontab Generator.

caution
Do not start the sync process too frequently as this could lead to multiple syncs running concurrently. Most installations do not need to modify the sync schedule.

You can manually configure LDAP group sync times by setting the following configuration values. The example below shows how to set group sync to run once every two hours at the top of the hour.

Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb: 

    gitlab_rails['ldap_group_sync_worker_cron'] = "0 */2 * * *"

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab: 

    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Helm chart (Kubernetes)

  1. Export the Helm values: 

    helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

  2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml: 

    global:
  appConfig:
    cron_jobs:
      ldap_group_sync_worker:
        cron: "*/30 * * * *"

  3. Save the file and apply the new values: 

    helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
Docker

  1. Edit docker-compose.yml: 

    version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['ldap_group_sync_worker_cron'] = "0 */2 * * *"

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    docker compose up -d
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml: 

    production: &base
  ee_cron_jobs:
    ldap_group_sync_worker:
      cron: "*/30 * * * *"

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab: 

    # For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

Troubleshooting

See our administrator guide to troubleshooting LDAP.