Convert a Docker CE instance to EE

You can convert an existing GitLab Community Edition (CE) container for Docker to a GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) container using the same approach as upgrading the version.

You should convert from the same version of CE to EE (for example, CE 18.1 to EE 18.1). However, this is not required. Any standard upgrade (for example, CE 18.0 to EE 18.1) should work. The following steps assume that you are converting to the same version.

1. Take a backup. At minimum, back up the database and the GitLab secrets file.

2. Stop the current CE container, and remove or rename it.

3. To create a new container with GitLab EE, replace ce with ee in your docker run command or docker-compose.yml file. Reuse the CE container name, port mappings, file mappings, and version.