Terraform state administration

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

GitLab can be used as a backend for Terraform state files. The files are encrypted before being stored. This feature is enabled by default.

The storage location of these files defaults to:

  • /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/terraform_state for Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/shared/terraform_state for self-compiled installations.

These locations can be configured using the options described below.

Use external object storage configuration for GitLab Helm chart installations.

Disabling Terraform state

You can disable Terraform state across the entire instance. You might want to disable Terraform to reduce disk space, or because your instance doesn’t use Terraform.

When Terraform state administration is disabled:

  • On the left sidebar, you cannot select Operate > Terraform states.

  • Any CI/CD jobs that access the Terraform state fail with this error: 

    Error refreshing state: HTTP remote state endpoint invalid auth

To disable Terraform administration, follow the steps below according to your installation.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be an administrator.

For Linux package installations:

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line: 

    gitlab_rails['terraform_state_enabled'] = false

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

For self-compiled installations:

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    terraform_state:
  enabled: false

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using local storage

The default configuration uses local storage. To change the location where Terraform state files are stored locally, follow the steps below.

For Linux package installations:

  1. To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/terraform_state, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line: 

    gitlab_rails['terraform_state_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/terraform_state"

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

For self-compiled installations:

  1. To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/terraform_state, edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    terraform_state:
  enabled: true
  storage_path: /mnt/storage/terraform_state

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using object storage

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

Instead of storing Terraform state files on disk, we recommend the use of one of the supported object storage options. This configuration relies on valid credentials to be configured already.

Read more about using object storage with GitLab.

Object storage settings

The following settings are:

  • Prefixed by terraform_state_object_store_ on Linux package installations.
  • Nested under terraform_state: and then object_store: on self-compiled installations.
Setting Description Default
enabled Enable/disable object storage false
remote_directory The bucket name where Terraform state files are stored  
connection Various connection options described below  

Migrate to object storage

caution
It’s not possible to migrate Terraform state files from object storage back to local storage, so proceed with caution. An issue exists to change this behavior.

To migrate Terraform state files to object storage:

  • For Linux package installations: 

    gitlab-rake gitlab:terraform_states:migrate

  • For self-compiled installations: 

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

You can optionally track progress and verify that all Terraform state files migrated successfully using the PostgreSQL console:

  • sudo gitlab-rails dbconsole --database main for Linux package installations.
  • sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production for self-compiled installations.

Verify objectstg below (where file_store=2) has count of all states: 

gitlabhq_production=# SELECT count(*) AS total, sum(case when file_store = '1' then 1 else 0 end) AS filesystem, sum(case when file_store = '2' then 1 else 0 end) AS objectstg FROM terraform_state_versions;

total | filesystem | objectstg
------+------------+-----------
   15 |          0 |      15

Verify that there are no files on disk in the terraform_state folder: 

sudo find /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/terraform_state -type f | grep -v tmp | wc -l

S3-compatible connection settings

You should use the consolidated object storage settings. This section describes the earlier configuration format.

See the available connection settings for different providers.

Linux package (Omnibus)

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines; replacing with the values you want: 

    gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_remote_directory'] = "terraform"
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'aws_access_key_id' => 'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
  'aws_secret_access_key' => 'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'
}
    note
    If you are using AWS IAM profiles, be sure to omit the AWS access key and secret access key/value pairs.
    gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'use_iam_profile' => true
}
  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local states to the object storage
Self-compiled (source)

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    terraform_state:
  enabled: true
  object_store:
    enabled: true
    remote_directory: "terraform" # The bucket name
    connection:
      provider: AWS # Only AWS supported at the moment
      aws_access_key_id: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
      aws_secret_access_key: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
      region: eu-central-1
  2. Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local states to the object storage

Find a Terraform state file path

Terraform state files are stored in the hashed directory path of the relevant project.

The format of the path is /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/terraform_state/<path>/<to>/<projectHashDirectory>/<UUID>/0.tfstate, where UUID is randomly defined.

To find a state file path:

  1. Add get-terraform-path to your shell: 

    get-terraform-path() {
    PROJECT_HASH=$(echo -n $1 | openssl dgst -sha256 | sed 's/^.* //')
    echo "${PROJECT_HASH:0:2}/${PROJECT_HASH:2:2}/${PROJECT_HASH}"
}

  2. Run get-terraform-path <project_id>. 

    $ get-terraform-path 650
20/99/2099a9b5f777e242d1f9e19d27e232cc71e2fa7964fc988a319fce5671ca7f73

The relative path is displayed.