Install GitLab using the Linux package

The Linux packages are mature, scalable, and are used on GitLab.com. If you need additional flexibility and resilience, we recommend deploying GitLab as described in the reference architecture documentation.

The Linux package is quicker to install, easier to upgrade, and contains features to enhance reliability not found in other installation methods. Install through a single package (also known as Omnibus GitLab) that bundles all the different services and tools required to run GitLab. See the installation requirements to learn about the minimum hardware requirements.

Linux packages are available in our packages repository for:

• GitLab Enterprise Edition.
• GitLab Community Edition.

Check that the required GitLab version is available for your host operating system.

Supported platforms

GitLab officially supports long term support (LTS) versions of operating systems. Some operating systems, such as Ubuntu, have a clear distinction between LTS and non-LTS versions. However, there are other operating systems, openSUSE for example, that don’t follow the LTS concept.

We will usually provide support for a version of an operating system until it is no longer supported by its vendor, where support is defined as standard or maintenance support and not as expanded, extended, or premium support. However, we might end support earlier than the operating system’s vendor in these circumstances:

• Business considerations: Including but not limited to low customer adoption, disproportionate maintenance costs, or strategic product direction changes.
• Technical constraints: When third-party dependencies, security requirements, or underlying technology changes make continued support impractical or impossible.
• Vendor actions: When operating system vendors make changes that fundamentally impact our software’s functionality or when required components become unavailable.

We will usually issue a deprecation notice at least 6 months before support for any operating system version is discontinued, on a best-effort basis. In cases where technical constraints, vendor actions, or other external factors require that we provide shorter notice periods, we will communicate any support changes as soon as reasonably possible.

Footnotes:

1. Known issues exist for running GitLab on ARM.

Unofficial, unsupported installation methods

The following installation methods are provided as-is by the wider GitLab community and are not supported by GitLab:

• Debian native package (by Pirate Praveen)
• FreeBSD package (by Torsten Zühlsdorff)
• Arch Linux package (by the Arch Linux community)
• Puppet module (by Vox Pupuli)
• Ansible playbook (by Jeff Geerling)
• GitLab virtual appliance (KVM) (by OpenNebula)
• GitLab on Cloudron (via Cloudron App Library)

End-of-life versions

GitLab provides Linux packages for operating systems only until their end-of-life (EOL) date. After the EOL date, GitLab stops releasing official packages.

However, sometimes we don’t deprecate an operating system even after it’s EOL because we can’t provide packages for a newer version. The most common reason for this is PackageCloud, our package repository provider, not supporting newer versions and so we can’t upload packages to it.

The list of deprecated operating systems and the final GitLab release for them can be found below:

Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit - Raspbian)

GitLab dropped support for Raspberry Pi OS (32 bit - Raspbian) with GitLab 17.11 being the last version available for the 32-bit platform. Starting with GitLab 18.0, you should move to Raspberry Pi OS (64 bit) and use the Debian arm64 package.

For information on backing up data on a 32-bit OS and restoring it to a 64-bit OS, see Upgrading operating systems for PostgreSQL.

Uninstall the Linux package

To uninstall the Linux package, you can opt to either keep your data (repositories, database, configuration) or remove all of them:

1. Optional. To remove all users and groups created by the Linux package before removing the package:

   sudo gitlab-ctl stop && sudo gitlab-ctl remove-accounts

   If you have a problem removing accounts or groups, run userdel or groupdel manually to delete them. You might also want to manually remove the leftover user home directories from /home/.

2. Choose whether to keep your data or remove all of them:

   • To preserve your data (repositories, database, configuration), stop GitLab and remove its supervision process:

     sudo systemctl stop gitlab-runsvdir
     sudo systemctl disable gitlab-runsvdir
     sudo rm /usr/lib/systemd/system/gitlab-runsvdir.service
     sudo systemctl daemon-reload
     sudo systemctl reset-failed
     sudo gitlab-ctl uninstall

   • To remove all data:

     sudo gitlab-ctl cleanse && sudo rm -r /opt/gitlab

3. Uninstall the package (replace with gitlab-ce if you have GitLab FOSS installed):

   apt

   # Debian/Ubuntu
   sudo apt remove gitlab-ee

   dnf

   # AlmaLinux/RHEL/Oracle Linux/Amazon Linux 2023
   sudo dnf remove gitlab-ee

   zypper

   # OpenSUSE Leap/SLES
   sudo zypper remove gitlab-ee

   yum

   # Amazon Linux 2
   sudo yum remove gitlab-ee