GitLab CE (Community Edition) (docker)

Install GitLab CE (Community Edition) self-managed on your host with docker.

Get started

1. Config the ROOT_PASSWORD and the other environment variables in the .env files:

   ROOT_PASSWORD=

2. Build and Start the GitLab docker container:

   docker-compose up -d

   Creating gitlab ... done
   ...

3. The initialization process may take a long time, see:

   docker logs -f gitlab

4. Add gitlab.example.com entry in your /etc/hosts file:

   vi /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1   gitlab.example.com

5. Open GitLab admin app in your browser and login with the administrator account:

   • admin-url: https://gitlab.example.com/admin/
   • username: root
   • password: (see ROOT_PASSWORD in the .env file)

6. Open GitLab user app in your browser to register and login with a standard user account:

   • users-url: https://gitlab.example.com/users/

NOTE:
This install procedure was tested on 2022-03-26 using Docker-Desktop and WSL2 (Ubuntu) on Windows 10.

References

• https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/install/docker.html
• https://hub.docker.com/r/gitlab/gitlab-ce
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSf2OoFyqE

Appendix

Initial Root Password

The administrator password will be random generated if you remove the configuration for the initial root password from the docker-compose:

...
        gitlab_rails['initial_root_password'] = '$ROOT_PASSWORD'
...

In this case you can display the initial root password as follow:

docker exec gitlab cat /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password

# WARNING: This value is valid only in the following conditions
#          1. If provided manually (either via `GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD` environment variable or via `gitlab_rails['initial_root_password']` setting in `gitlab.rb`, it was provided before database was seeded for the first time (usually, the first reconfigure run).
#          2. Password hasn't been changed manually, either via UI or via command line.
#
#          If the password shown here doesn't work, you must reset the admin password following https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/security/reset_user_password.html#reset-your-root-password.

Password: Q8FxSbKo0v0QzR/oOMG42MyrJu24HOlUXBHeXw6BujU=

# NOTE: This file will be automatically deleted in the first reconfigure run after 24 hours.

To clean the installation

docker-compose down
sudo find ./etc/gitlab -not \( -name '.gitignore' \) -delete
sudo find ./var/log/gitlab -not \( -name '.gitignore' \) -delete
sudo find ./var/opt/gitlab -not \( -name '.gitignore' \) -delete