Upgrade self-compiled instances

Upgrade a self-compiled installation to a later version of GitLab.

To upgrade a self-compiled GitLab instance:

1. Create a backup.
2. Stop GitLab.
3. Update Ruby.
4. Update Node.js.
5. Update Go.
6. Update Git.
7. Update PostgreSQL.
8. Update the GitLab codebase.
9. Update configuration files.
10. Install libraries and run migrations.
11. Update GitLab Shell.
12. Update GitLab Workhorse.
13. Update Gitaly.
14. Update GitLab Pages.
15. Perform post-upgrade steps.

Prerequisites

Before you upgrade:

• Consult information you need before you upgrade.
• Review the software requirements for Ruby, Node.js, Go, and PostgreSQL.

Create a backup

Prerequisites:

• Make sure rsync is installed.

To create a backup:

cd /home/git/gitlab

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

Stop GitLab

To stop GitLab:

# For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl stop gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab stop

Update Ruby

If a newer version of Ruby is required, you must update Ruby:

1. To check which version of Ruby you have, run:

   ruby -v

2. For instructions on updating to newer versions of Ruby, see Ruby installation instructions.

Update Node.js

If a newer version of Node.js is required, you must update Node.js:

1. To check which version of Node.js you have, run:

   node -v

2. For instructions on updating to newer versions of Node.js, see Node.js download instructions.

GitLab also requires Yarn >= v1.10.0 to manage JavaScript dependencies. For more information, see the Yarn website.

Update Go

If a newer version of Go is required, you must update Go:

1. To check which version of Go you have, run:

   go version

2. For instructions on updating to newer versions of Go, see Go installation instructions.

Update Git

You should use the Git version provided by Gitaly. For more information, see GitLab installation instructions for Git.

Update PostgreSQL

If a newer version of PostgreSQL is required, you must update PostgreSQL:

1. To check which version of PostgreSQL you have, run:

   pg_ctl --version

2. For instructions on updating to newer versions of PostgreSQL, see PostgreSQL upgrading documentation.

3. Make sure you have the required PostgreSQL extensions.

Update the GitLab codebase

To update your clone of the GitLab codebase:

1. Fetch repository metadata:

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   
   sudo -u git -H git fetch --all --prune
   sudo -u git -H git checkout -- Gemfile.lock db/structure.sql locale

2. Check out the branch for the version you want to upgrade to:

   GitLab Enterprise Edition

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   
   sudo -u git -H git checkout <BRANCH-ee>

   GitLab Community Edition

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   
   sudo -u git -H git checkout <BRANCH>

Update configuration files

GitLab upgrades might require updates to the following configuration:

• gitlab.yml
• database.yml
• NGINX (or Apache)
• SMTP
• systemd
• SysV

The following sections document how to determine if configuration updates are required.

New configuration for gitlab.yml

There might be new configuration options available for gitlab.yml.

1. View possible new configuration:

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

2. Apply new configuration manually to your current gitlab.yml.

New configuration for database.yml

There might be new configuration options available for database.yml.

1. View possible new configuration:

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:config/database.yml.postgresql origin/BRANCH:config/database.yml.postgresql

2. Apply new configuration manually to your current database.yml.

New configuration for NGINX or Apache

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

The GitLab application no longer sets Strict-Transport-Security in your installation. You must enable it in your NGINX configuration to continue using it.

If you are using Apache instead of NGINX, see the updated Apache templates. Because Apache does not support upstreams behind Unix sockets, you must let GitLab Workhorse listen on a TCP port by using /etc/default/gitlab.

SMTP configuration

If you use SMTP to deliver mail, you must add the following line to config/initializers/smtp_settings.rb:

ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp

See smtp_settings.rb.sample for an example.

Configure systemd units

1. Check if the systemd units have been updated:

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   
   git diff origin/PREVIOUS_BRANCH:lib/support/systemd origin/BRANCH:lib/support/systemd

2. Copy them over:

   sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/systemd/system
   sudo cp lib/support/systemd/* /usr/local/lib/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Configure SysV init script

There might be new configuration options available for gitlab.default.example.

1. View possible new configuration:

   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

2. Apply them manually to your current /etc/default/gitlab.

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

If you are using the init script on a system running systemd as init, because you have not switched to native systemd units yet, run:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Install libraries and run migrations

To install libraries and run migrations:

1. Install the needed libraries:

   cd /home/git/gitlab
   
   # If you haven't done so during installation or a previous upgrade already
   sudo -u git -H bundle config set --local deployment 'true'
   sudo -u git -H bundle config set --local without 'development test kerberos'
   
   # Update gems
   sudo -u git -H bundle install
   
   # Optional: clean up old gems
   sudo -u git -H bundle clean

2. Run migrations:

   # Run database migrations
   sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake db:migrate 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

Update GitLab Shell

To update GitLab Shell, run these commands:

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 make build

Update GitLab Workhorse

To install and compile GitLab Workhorse, run these commands:

cd /home/git/gitlab

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake "gitlab:workhorse:install[/home/git/gitlab-workhorse]" RAILS_ENV=production

Update Gitaly

Upgrade Gitaly servers to the newer version before upgrading the application server. This prevents the gRPC client on the application server from sending RPCs that the old Gitaly version does not support.

If Gitaly is located on its own server, or you use Gitaly Cluster (Praefect), see Zero-downtime upgrades.

During the build process, Gitaly compiles and embeds Git binaries, which requires additional dependencies.

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev libexpat1-dev gettext libz-dev libssl-dev libpcre2-dev build-essential

# Fetch Gitaly source with Git and compile with Go
cd /home/git/gitlab
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake "gitlab:gitaly:install[/home/git/gitaly,/home/git/repositories]" RAILS_ENV=production

Update GitLab Pages

To install and compile GitLab Pages:

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

Post-upgrade steps

After you’ve upgraded:

1. Start GitLab and NGINX.
2. Check GitLab status.

Start GitLab and NGINX

To start GitLab and NGINX:

# For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl start gitlab.target
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab start
sudo service nginx restart

Check GitLab status

To check the status of GitLab:

1. 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

2. 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!

Troubleshooting

If you have trouble during the upgrade, try some of the steps in the following sections.

Revert the code to the previous version

To revert to a previous version, you must follow the upgrading guides for the previous version.

For example, if you have upgraded to GitLab 16.6 and want to revert back to 16.5, follow the guides for upgrading from 16.4 to 16.5.

When reverting:

• You should not follow the database migration guides, because the backup has already been migrated to the previous version.
• If you ran database migrations, you must restore a backup after the downgrade. The version of the code must be compatible with the version of the schema that’s used. The older schema is in the backup.

Restore from a backup

To restore from a 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, add BACKUP=timestamp_of_backup to the previous code block.