Updating GitLab installed with the Omnibus GitLab package

Updating GitLab installed with the Omnibus GitLab package

See the upgrade recommendations for suggestions on when to upgrade. If you are upgrading from a non-Omnibus installation to an Omnibus installation, check this guide.

Version specific changes

Updating to major versions might need some manual intervention. For more info, check the version your are updating to:

Mandatory upgrade paths for version upgrades

From version 10.8 onwards, upgrade paths are enforced for version upgrades by default. This restricts performing direct upgrades that skip major versions (for example 10.3 to 12.7 in one jump) which can result in breakage of the GitLab installations due to multiple reasons like deprecated or removed configuration settings, upgrade of internal tools and libraries etc. Users will have to follow the official upgrade recommendations while upgrading their GitLab instances.

Updating methods

There are two ways to update Omnibus GitLab:

Using the official repositories
Manually download the package

Updating using the official repositories

If you have installed Omnibus GitLab Community Edition or Enterprise Edition, then the official GitLab repository should have already been set up for you.

To update to a newer GitLab version, all you have to do is:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

# Centos/RHEL
sudo yum install gitlab-ce

If you are an Enterprise Edition user, replace gitlab-ce with gitlab-ee in the above commands.

Updating using a manually downloaded package

If for some reason you don't use the official repositories, it is possible to download the package and install it manually.

Visit the Community Edition repository or the Enterprise Edition repository depending on the edition you already have installed.
Find the package version you wish to install and click on it.
Click the 'Download' button in the upper right corner to download the package.
Once the GitLab package is downloaded, install it using the following commands, replacing XXX with the Omnibus GitLab version you downloaded:
```
# Debian/Ubuntu
dpkg -i gitlab-ce-XXX.deb

# CentOS/RHEL
rpm -Uvh gitlab-ce-XXX.rpm
```
If you are an Enterprise Edition user, replace gitlab-ce with gitlab-ee in the above commands.

Updating Community Edition to Enterprise Edition

To upgrade an existing GitLab Community Edition (CE) server, installed using the Omnibus packages, to GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE), all you have to do is install the EE package on top of CE. While upgrading from the same version of CE to EE is not explicitly necessary, and any standard upgrade jump (i.e. 8.0 to 8.7) should work, in the following steps we assume that you are upgrading the same versions.

The steps can be summed up to:

Find the currently installed GitLab version:

For Debian/Ubuntu
```
sudo apt-cache policy gitlab-ce | grep Installed
```
The output should be similar to: Installed: 8.6.7-ce.0. In that case, the equivalent Enterprise Edition version will be: 8.6.7-ee.0. Write this value down.

For CentOS/RHEL
```
sudo rpm -q gitlab-ce
```
The output should be similar to: gitlab-ce-8.6.7-ce.0.el7.x86_64. In that case, the equivalent Enterprise Edition version will be: gitlab-ee-8.6.7-ee.0.el7.x86_64. Write this value down.
Add the gitlab-ee Apt or Yum repository:

For Debian/Ubuntu
```
curl -s https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ee/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
```
For CentOS/RHEL
```
curl -s https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ee/script.rpm.sh | sudo bash
```
The above command will find your OS version and automatically set up the repository. If you are not comfortable installing the repository through a piped script, you can first check its contents.
Next, install the gitlab-ee package. Note that this will automatically uninstall the gitlab-ce package on your GitLab server. Reconfigure Omnibus right after the gitlab-ee package is installed. Make sure that you install the exact same GitLab version:

For Debian/Ubuntu
```
## Make sure the repositories are up-to-date
sudo apt-get update

## Install the package using the version you wrote down from step 1
sudo apt-get install gitlab-ee=8.6.7-ee.0

## Reconfigure GitLab
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
For CentOS/RHEL
```
## Install the package using the version you wrote down from step 1
sudo yum install gitlab-ee-8.6.7-ee.0.el7.x86_64

## Reconfigure GitLab
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Note: If you want to upgrade to EE and at the same time also update GitLab to the latest version, you can omit the version check in the above commands. For Debian/Ubuntu that would be sudo apt-get install gitlab-ee and for CentOS/RHEL sudo yum install gitlab-ee.
Now go to the GitLab admin panel of your server (/admin/license/new) and upload your license file.
After you confirm that GitLab is working as expected, you may remove the old Community Edition repository:

For Debian/Ubuntu
```
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gitlab_gitlab-ce.list
```
For CentOS/RHEL
```
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/gitlab_gitlab-ce.repo
```

That's it! You can now use GitLab Enterprise Edition! To update to a newer version follow the section on Updating using the official repositories.

Note: If you want to use dpkg/rpm instead of apt-get/yum, go through the first step to find the current GitLab version and then follow the steps in Updating by manually downloading the official packages.

Zero downtime updates

Note: This is only available in GitLab 9.1.0 or newer. Skipping restarts during reconfigure with /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure was added in version 10.6. If running a version prior to 10.6, you will need to create /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-migrations.

It's possible to upgrade to a newer version of GitLab without having to take your GitLab instance offline. This can only be done if you are using PostgreSQL. If you are using MySQL you will still need downtime when upgrading.

Verify that you can upgrade with no downtime by checking the Upgrading without downtime section of the update document.

If you meet all the requirements above, follow these instructions in order. There are three sets of steps, depending on your deployment type:

Deployment type	Description
Single	GitLab CE/EE on a single node
Multi-node / HA	GitLab CE/EE on multiple nodes
Geo	GitLab EE with Geo enabled

Single deployment

Create an empty file at /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure. During software installation only, this will prevent the upgrade from running gitlab-ctl reconfigure and automatically running database migrations
```
sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure
```

Update the GitLab package

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

# Centos/RHEL
sudo yum install gitlab-ce

If you are an Enterprise Edition user, replace gitlab-ce with gitlab-ee in the above command.

To get the regular migrations in place, run

SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

Once the node is updated and reconfigure finished successfully, complete the migrations with
```
sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate
```

Hot reload unicorn and sidekiq services

sudo gitlab-ctl hup unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl hup sidekiq

Multi-node / HA deployment

Pick a node to be the Deploy Node. It can be any node, but it must be the same node throughout the process.

Deploy node

Create an empty file at /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure. During software installation only, this will prevent the upgrade from running gitlab-ctl reconfigure and automatically running database migrations
```
sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure
```

All other nodes (not the Deploy node)

Ensure that gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false is set in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

Deploy node

Update the GitLab package

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

# Centos/RHEL
sudo yum install gitlab-ce

If you are an Enterprise Edition user, replace gitlab-ce with gitlab-ee in the above command.

To get the regular database migrations in place, run

SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

All other nodes (not the Deploy node)

Update the GitLab package
```
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce
```
If you are an Enterprise Edition user, replace gitlab-ce with gitlab-ee in the above command.
Ensure nodes are running the latest code
```
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```

Deploy node

Once all nodes are updated, run the following to run post-deployment database migrations
```
sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate
```

For nodes that run unicorn or sidekiq

Hot reload unicorn and sidekiq services

sudo gitlab-ctl hup unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl hup sidekiq

Geo deployment

Primary node

On the Primary node, executing the following:

Ensure that gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false is set in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
Create an empty file at /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure. During software installation only, this will prevent the upgrade from running gitlab-ctl reconfigure and automatically running database migrations
```
sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure
```

Update the GitLab package

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ee

# Centos/RHEL
sudo yum install gitlab-ee

To get the database migrations in place, run

SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

Run non post-deployment database migrations

SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate

Run post-deployment database migrations
```
sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate
```

Hot reload unicorn and sidekiq services

sudo gitlab-ctl hup unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl hup sidekiq

Verify Geo configuration and dependencies
```
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:geo:check
```

Secondary node(s)

Note: Only proceed if you have successfully completed all steps on the Primary node.

On all Secondary nodes, executing the following:

Ensure that geo_secondary['auto_migrate'] = false is set in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
Create an empty file at /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure. During software installation only, this will prevent the upgrade from running gitlab-ctl reconfigure and automatically running database migrations
```
sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-reconfigure
```

Update the GitLab package

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ee

# Centos/RHEL
sudo yum install gitlab-ee

To get the database migrations in place, run

SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

Run post-deployment database migrations, specific to the Geo database
```
sudo gitlab-rake geo:db:migrate
```

Hot reload unicorn, sidekiq and restart geo-logcursor services

sudo gitlab-ctl hup unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl hup sidekiq
sudo gitlab-ctl restart geo-logcursor

Verify Geo configuration and dependencies
```
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:geo:check
```
Verify Geo status
```
sudo gitlab-rake geo:status
```

Downgrading

This section contains general information on how to revert to an earlier version of a package.

Note: This guide assumes that you have a backup archive created under the version you are reverting to.

These steps consist of:

Download the package of a target version.(example below uses GitLab 6.x.x)
Stop GitLab
Install the old package
Reconfigure GitLab
Restoring the backup
Starting GitLab

See example below:

First download a GitLab 6.x.x CE or EE (subscribers only) package.

Steps:

Stop GitLab:

sudo gitlab-ctl stop unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl stop sidekiq

Downgrade GitLab to 6.x:

# Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -r gitlab
sudo dpkg -i gitlab-6.x.x-yyy.deb

# CentOS:
sudo rpm -e gitlab
sudo rpm -ivh gitlab-6.x.x-yyy.rpm

Prepare GitLab for receiving the backup restore. Due to a backup restore bug in versions earlier than GitLab 6.8.0, it is needed to drop the database before running gitlab-ctl reconfigure, only if you are downgrading to 6.7.x or less:
```
sudo -u gitlab-psql /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/dropdb gitlabhq_production
```
Reconfigure GitLab (includes database migrations):
```
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```

Restore your backup:

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:restore BACKUP=12345 # where 12345 is your backup timestamp

Start GitLab:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl start
```

Updating GitLab CI from prior `5.4.0` to version `7.14` via Omnibus GitLab

Warning: Omnibus GitLab 7.14 was the last version where CI was bundled in the package. Starting from GitLab 8.0, CI was merged into GitLab, thus it's no longer a separate application included in the Omnibus package.

In GitLab CI 5.4.0 we changed the way GitLab CI authorizes with GitLab.

In order to use GitLab CI 5.4.x, GitLab 7.7.x is required.

Make sure that GitLab 7.7.x is installed and running and then go to Admin section of GitLab. Under Applications create a new a application which will generate the app_id and app_secret.

In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

gitlab_ci['gitlab_server'] = { "url" => 'http://gitlab.example.com', "app_id" => '12345678', "app_secret" => 'QWERTY12345' }

Where url is the url to the GitLab instance.

Make sure to run sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure after saving the configuration.

Troubleshooting

Getting the status of a GitLab installation

sudo gitlab-ctl status
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true

Information on using gitlab-ctl to perform maintenance tasks.
Information on using gitlab-rake to check the configuration.

RPM 'package is already installed' error

If you are using RPM and you are upgrading from GitLab Community Edition to GitLab Enterprise Edition you may get an error like this:

package gitlab-7.5.2_omnibus.5.2.1.ci-1.el7.x86_64 (which is newer than gitlab-7.5.2_ee.omnibus.5.2.1.ci-1.el7.x86_64) is already installed

You can override this version check with the --oldpackage option:

sudo rpm -Uvh --oldpackage gitlab-7.5.2_ee.omnibus.5.2.1.ci-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

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Updating GitLab installed with the Omnibus GitLab package

Updating GitLab installed with the Omnibus GitLab package

Version specific changes

Mandatory upgrade paths for version upgrades

Updating methods

Updating using the official repositories

Updating using a manually downloaded package

Updating Community Edition to Enterprise Edition

Zero downtime updates

Single deployment

Multi-node / HA deployment

Geo deployment

Downgrading

Updating GitLab CI from prior 5.4.0 to version 7.14 via Omnibus GitLab

Troubleshooting

Getting the status of a GitLab installation

RPM 'package is already installed' error

Updating GitLab CI from prior `5.4.0` to version `7.14` via Omnibus GitLab