Install the Linux package on OpenSUSE and SLES

Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
Offering: GitLab Self-Managed

See supported platforms for the full list of supported distributions and architectures.

Prerequisites

OS requirements:
- OpenSUSE Leap 15.6
- SLES 12
- SLES 15 SP6
See the installation requirements to learn about the minimum hardware requirements.
Before you begin, make sure you have correctly set up your DNS. Replace https://gitlab.example.com in the following commands with your preferred GitLab URL. GitLab is automatically configured and started at that address.
For https:// URLs, GitLab automatically requests a certificate with Let’s Encrypt, which requires inbound HTTP access and a valid hostname. You can also use your own certificate, or just use http:// (without the s) for an unencrypted URL.

Enable SSH and open firewall ports

To open the needed firewall ports (80, 443, 22) and be able to access GitLab:

Enable and start the OpenSSH server daemon:
```
sudo systemctl enable --now sshd
```

With firewalld installed, open the firewall ports:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh
sudo systemctl reload firewalld

Add the GitLab package repository

To install GitLab, first add the GitLab package repository.

Install the needed packages:
```
sudo zypper install curl
```

Use the following script to add the GitLab repository (you can paste the script’s URL to your browser to see what it does before piping it to bash):

curl "https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ee/script.rpm.sh" | sudo bash

curl "https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ce/script.rpm.sh" | sudo bash

Install the package

Install GitLab using your system’s package manager.

Setting the EXTERNAL_URL is optional but recommended. If you don’t set it during the installation, you can set it afterwards.

sudo EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com" zypper install gitlab-ee

sudo EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com" zypper install gitlab-ce

GitLab generates a random password and email address for the root administrator account stored in /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password for 24 hours. After 24 hours, this file is automatically removed for security reasons.

After GitLab is installed, go to the URL you set up and use the following credentials to sign in:

Username: root
Password: See /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password

After signing in, change your password and email address.

Advanced configuration

You can customize your GitLab installation by setting the following optional environment variables before installation. These variables only work during the first installation and have no effect on subsequent reconfigure runs. For existing installations, use the password from /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password or reset the root password.

Variable	Purpose	Required	Example
`EXTERNAL_URL`	Sets the external URL for your GitLab instance	Recommended	`EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com"`
`GITLAB_ROOT_EMAIL`	Custom email for the root administrator account	Optional	`GITLAB_ROOT_EMAIL="admin@example.com"`
`GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD`	Custom password (8 characters minimum) for the root administrator account	Optional	`GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD="strongpassword"`

If GitLab can’t detect a valid hostname during installation, reconfigure won’t run automatically. In this case, pass any needed environment variables to your first gitlab-ctl reconfigure command.

While you can also set the initial password in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb by setting gitlab_rails['initial_root_password'], it is not recommended. It’s a security risk as the password is in clear text. If you have this configured, make sure to remove it after installation.

Choose your GitLab edition and customize with the environment variables above:

sudo GITLAB_ROOT_EMAIL="admin@example.com" GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD="strongpassword" EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com" zypper install gitlab-ee

sudo GITLAB_ROOT_EMAIL="admin@example.com" GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD="strongpassword" EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com" zypper install gitlab-ce

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Recommended next steps

After completing your installation, consider the recommended next steps, including authentication options and sign-up restrictions.