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Vultr profile image Sanskriti Harmukh
Sanskriti Harmukh for Vultr

Posted on with Aashish Chaurasiya • Originally published at docs.vultr.com

Deploying GitLab CE DevOps Management Suite on Ubuntu 24.04

#devops #docker #cicd #git

GitLab CE (Community Edition) is a complete, open-source DevOps platform that combines source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security testing, and project planning in a single application. This guide deploys GitLab CE using Docker Compose with Traefik handling automatic HTTPS, then retrieves the initial root password. By the end, you'll have a self-hosted GitLab instance running securely at your domain.

Set Up the Directory Structure

1. Create the project directory structure:

$ mkdir -p ~/gitlab/{config,logs,data,letsencrypt}
$ cd ~/gitlab
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2. Create the environment file:

$ nano .env
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GITLAB_DOMAIN=gitlab.example.com
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=admin@example.com
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Deploy with Docker Compose

1. Add your user to the Docker group:

$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
$ newgrp docker
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2. Create the Docker Compose manifest:

$ nano docker-compose.yml
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services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:latest
    container_name: traefik
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      DOCKER_API_VERSION: "1.44"
    command:
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.to=websecure"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.scheme=https"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.email=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt

  gitlab:
    image: gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
    container_name: gitlab
    restart: always
    hostname: ${GITLAB_DOMAIN}
    shm_size: '256m'
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        external_url 'https://${GITLAB_DOMAIN}'
        nginx['listen_port'] = 80
        nginx['listen_https'] = false
        nginx['proxy_set_headers'] = {
          "X-Forwarded-Proto" => "https",
          "X-Forwarded-Ssl" => "on"
        }
        gitlab_rails['gitlab_shell_ssh_port'] = 2222
    ports:
      - "2222:22"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/gitlab
      - ./logs:/var/log/gitlab
      - ./data:/var/opt/gitlab
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.gitlab.rule=Host(`${GITLAB_DOMAIN}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.gitlab.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.gitlab.tls=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.gitlab.tls.certresolver=le"
      - "traefik.http.services.gitlab.loadbalancer.server.port=80"
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3. Start the services:

$ docker compose up -d
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4. Verify the services are running:

$ docker compose ps
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GitLab takes a few minutes to initialize on the first start.

Access GitLab

1. Retrieve the initial root password:

$ sudo docker exec -it gitlab grep 'Password:' /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password
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This file auto-deletes after 24 hours, so capture the password right away.

2. Sign in:

  • URL: https://gitlab.example.com
  • Username: root
  • Password: the value from the command above

Change the root password immediately after first login.

Next Steps

GitLab CE is running and served securely over HTTPS. From here you can:

  • Create groups and projects, and invite team members
  • Configure GitLab Runners to execute CI/CD pipelines
  • Set up SMTP for email notifications and SAML/OIDC for SSO

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.

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