• Guidelines for all versions
  • 1. Backup
  • 2. Stop server
  • 3. Update Ruby
  • 4. Update Node
  • 5. Update Go
  • 6. Update git
  • 7. Get latest code
  • 8. Update gitlab-shell
  • 9. Update gitlab-workhorse
  • 10. Update Gitaly
    • Compile Gitaly
  • 11. Update gitlab-pages
    • Only needed if you use GitLab Pages
  • 12. Update configuration files
    • New configuration options for gitlab.yml
    • Nginx configuration
    • SMTP configuration
    • Init script
  • 13. Install libs, migrations, etc
  • 14. Start application
  • 15. Check application status
• Version specific upgrading instructions
• Things went south? Revert to previous version
  • 1. Revert the code to the previous version
  • 2. Restore from the backup

Upgrading Community Edition and Enterprise Edition from source

Make sure you view this update guide from the branch (version) of GitLab you would like to install (e.g., 11.8. You can select the version in the version dropdown at the top left corner of GitLab (below the menu bar).

In all examples, replace BRANCH with the branch for the version you uprading to (e.g. 11-8-stable for 11.8), and replace PREVIOUS_BRANCH with the branch for the version you are upgrading from (e.g. 11-7-stable for 11.7).

If the highest number stable branch is unclear please check the GitLab Blog for installation guide links by version.

If you are changing from GitLab Community Edition to GitLab Enterprise Edition, see the Upgrading from CE to EE documentation.

Guidelines for all versions

This section contains all the steps necessary to upgrade Community Edition or Enterprise Edition, regardless of the version you are upgrading to. Version specific guidelines (should there be any) are covered separately.

1. Backup

cd /home/git/gitlab

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

2. Stop server

sudo service gitlab stop

3. Update Ruby

You can check which version you are running with ruby -v.

Download Ruby and compile it:

mkdir /tmp/ruby && cd /tmp/ruby
curl --remote-name --progress https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/2.6/ruby-2.6.3.tar.gz
echo '2347ed6ca5490a104ebd5684d2b9b5eefa6cd33c  ruby-2.6.3.tar.gz' | shasum -c - && tar xzf ruby-2.6.3.tar.gz
cd ruby-2.6.3

./configure --disable-install-rdoc
make
sudo make install

Install Bundler:

sudo gem install bundler --no-document --version '< 2'

4. Update Node

GitLab utilizes webpack to compile frontend assets. This requires a minimum version of node v8.10.0.

You can check which version you are running with node -v. If you are running a version older than v8.10.0 you will need to update to a newer version. You can find instructions to install from community maintained packages or compile from source at the nodejs.org website.

https://nodejs.org/en/download/

GitLab also requires the use of yarn >= v1.10.0 to manage JavaScript dependencies.

curl --silent --show-error https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install yarn

More information can be found on the yarn website.

5. Update Go

You can check which version you are running with go version.

Download and install Go:

# Remove former Go installation folder
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go

curl --remote-name --progress https://dl.google.com/go/go1.11.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz
echo 'aefaa228b68641e266d1f23f1d95dba33f17552ba132878b65bb798ffa37e6d0  go1.11.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz' | shasum -a256 -c - && \
  sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.11.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/go/bin/{go,godoc,gofmt} /usr/local/bin/
rm go1.11.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz

6. Update git

# Make sure Git is version 2.21.0 or higher
git --version

# Remove packaged Git
sudo apt-get remove git-core

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev libexpat1-dev gettext libz-dev libssl-dev build-essential

# Download and compile pcre2 from source
curl --silent --show-error --location https://ftp.pcre.org/pub/pcre/pcre2-10.33.tar.gz --output pcre2.tar.gz
tar -xzf pcre2.tar.gz
cd pcre2-10.33
chmod +x configure
./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-jit
make
make install

# Download and compile from source
cd /tmp
curl --remote-name --location --progress https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.21.0.tar.gz
echo '85eca51c7404da75e353eba587f87fea9481ba41e162206a6f70ad8118147bee  git-2.21.0.tar.gz' | shasum -a256 -c - && tar -xzf git-2.21.0.tar.gz
cd git-2.21.0/
./configure --with-libpcre
make prefix=/usr/local all

# Install into /usr/local/bin
sudo make prefix=/usr/local install

# You should edit config/gitlab.yml, change the git -> bin_path to /usr/local/bin/git

7. Get latest code

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --prune
sudo -u git -H git checkout -- db/schema.rb # local changes will be restored automatically
sudo -u git -H git checkout -- locale

For GitLab Community Edition:

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H git checkout BRANCH

OR

For GitLab Enterprise Edition:

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H git checkout BRANCH-ee

8. Update gitlab-shell

cd /home/git/gitlab-shell

sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --tags --prune
sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(</home/git/gitlab/GITLAB_SHELL_VERSION)
sudo -u git -H bin/compile

9. Update gitlab-workhorse

Install and compile gitlab-workhorse. GitLab-Workhorse uses GNU Make. If you are not using Linux you may have to run gmake instead of make below.

cd /home/git/gitlab-workhorse

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

10. Update Gitaly

Compile Gitaly

cd /home/git/gitaly
sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --tags --prune
sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(</home/git/gitlab/GITALY_SERVER_VERSION)
sudo -u git -H make

11. Update gitlab-pages

Only needed if you use GitLab Pages

Install and compile gitlab-pages. GitLab-Pages uses GNU Make. If you are not using Linux you may have to run gmake instead of make below.

cd /home/git/gitlab-pages

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

12. Update configuration files

New configuration options for gitlab.yml

There might be configuration options available for gitlab.yml. View them with the command below and apply them manually to your current gitlab.yml:

cd /home/git/gitlab

git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:config/gitlab.yml.example origin/BRANCH:config/gitlab.yml.example

Nginx configuration

Ensure you’re still up-to-date with the latest NGINX configuration changes:

cd /home/git/gitlab

# For HTTPS configurations
git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:lib/support/nginx/gitlab-ssl origin/BRANCH:lib/support/nginx/gitlab-ssl

# For HTTP configurations
git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:lib/support/nginx/gitlab origin/BRANCH:lib/support/nginx/gitlab

If you are using Strict-Transport-Security in your installation to continue using it you must enable it in your Nginx configuration as GitLab application no longer handles setting it.

If you are using Apache instead of NGINX please see the updated Apache templates. Also note that because Apache does not support upstreams behind Unix sockets you will need to let gitlab-workhorse listen on a TCP port. You can do this via /etc/default/gitlab.

SMTP configuration

If you’re installing from source and use SMTP to deliver mail, you will need to add the following line to config/initializers/smtp_settings.rb:

ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp

See smtp_settings.rb.sample as an example.

Init script

There might be new configuration options available for gitlab.default.example. View them with the command below and apply them manually to your current /etc/default/gitlab:

cd /home/git/gitlab

git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:lib/support/init.d/gitlab.default.example origin/BRANCH:lib/support/init.d/gitlab.default.example

Ensure you’re still up-to-date with the latest init script changes:

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo cp lib/support/init.d/gitlab /etc/init.d/gitlab

For Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

13. Install libs, migrations, etc

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H bundle install --deployment --without development test mysql aws kerberos

# 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

# Compile GetText PO files

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gettext:compile RAILS_ENV=production

# Update node dependencies and recompile assets
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake yarn:install gitlab:assets:clean gitlab:assets:compile RAILS_ENV=production NODE_ENV=production NODE_OPTIONS="--max_old_space_size=4096"

# Clean up cache
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake cache:clear RAILS_ENV=production

14. Start application

sudo service gitlab start
sudo service nginx restart

15. 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:

cd /home/git/gitlab

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

If all items are green, then congratulations, the upgrade is complete!

Version specific upgrading instructions

This section contains upgrading instructions for specific versions. When present, first follow the upgrading guidelines for all versions. If the version you are upgrading to is not listed here, then no additional steps are required.

Things went south? Revert to previous version

1. Revert the code to the previous version

To revert to a previous version, you’ll need to following the upgrading guides for the previous version. If you upgraded to 11.8 and want to revert back to 11.7, you’ll need to follow the guides for upgrading from 11.6 to 11.7. You can use the version dropdown at the top of the page to select the right version.

When reverting, you should not follow the database migration guides, as the backup is already migrated to the previous version.

2. Restore from the backup

cd /home/git/gitlab

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

If you have more than one backup *.tar file(s) please add BACKUP=timestamp_of_backup to the command above.