How to Install Gitlab Server on Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04 LTS

Gitlab is the best alternative to Github git repository management system. It provides an option to users of the self-hosted version as well. You can simply install Gitlab server and take full advantages of its outstanding features. This tutorial will help you Install Gitlab Server (Community Edition) on your own Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04 LTS systems.

You can also visit Online Git Tutorial section to learn about Git command line tutorials and examples.

Prerequisites

Use the following commands to install required dependencies to begin Gitlab installation.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y curl openssh-server ca-certificates

Gitlab Installation

Now, enable the Gitlab Debian package repository on your system. Execute below command on your system, this will add a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gitlab_gitlab-ce.list in your system.

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

After enabling apt repository, run following command to install Gitlab community edition.

sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

The above command will install all the required applications including Nginx web server to run Gitlab on your system.

Gitlab Configuration

Now execute the following command to configure the Gitlab installation. This will make all the installations and required changes in order to run Gitlab community edition.

sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

Gitlab UI Dashboard Access

Access your server using the domain name or IP address on standard HTTP port 80. You will get the password change screen for root user for the first time as below. Update the new secure password for the root user.

After successfully changed the password navigate to the login screen and log in with user “root” and the specified password.

After login, you will get the dashboard access to your Gitlab server. Here you can start with the creation of users and new git repositories.

Now visit our Git Tutorial to learn more about uses of Git repositories with command line helps and examples.

Schedule Data Backup

Use the following command to create the complete backup of Gitlab data. The default backup location will be /var/opt/gitlab/backups. You can change this setting in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb file.

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:create

You can also add the same command scheduler to backup data nightly. The below cron will backup data.

0 22 * * 2-6 sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:create