I have been using unfuddle which provided me with free 512 MB to use for my private projects, and (of course) GitHub for any opensource projects.

But what is better than setting up Git on your own server?

I have a $5/mth Digital Ocean VPS that is overloaded to run node apps, wordpress and mail server.. So, I might as well run GitLab too.

GitLab Installation Guide

At the point of writing, I am using GitLab 7.1 (stable) on Ubuntu 14.04.

Refer to their detailed installation guide.

WARNING: Do NOT use their simplified guide which install everything automatically. I did that, and it screwed up my existing nginx config..

Their installation guide is long, but comprehensive, and you can choose not to install any packages which you already have installed.

Follow their guide (except on the sections on HTTPS/SSL).

Setting up for HTTPS/SSL

For setting up HTTPS/SSL, refer to this GitLab recipe.

But I still need some refinement to that recipe, so I will share my configs.

I will be setting up for a fictional domain git.okloh.com.

Create your FREE SSL Cert

A FREE class 1 SSL is provided by StartCom. Go to StartCom, and create another certificate for git.okloh.com.

1. Save your private key password somewhere

2. On your server, cd /etc/ssl/private

3. Save your private key git-okloh.key

4. Save your certificate git-okloh.pem

5. wget https://www.startssl.com/certs/sub.class1.server.ca.pem to download their intermediate CA Cert

6. cat git-okloh.pem sub.class1.server.ca.pem > git-okloh-chain.pem to concat and create a chain cert

7. openssl rsa -in git-okloh.key -out git-okloh-decrypted.key > enter your private key password

Note: In many tutorials, you would see that they use a .crt instead of a .pem. They are the same thing, but in different format. But it doesn’t matter. You can use a .pem in place.

Nginx

This is my nginx config that works:

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upstream gitlab {
  server unix:/home/git/gitlab/tmp/sockets/gitlab.socket;
}

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name   git.okloh.com;
  rewrite       ^ https://$server_name$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
  listen        443 ssl;
  server_name   git.okloh.com;
  root          /home/git/gitlab/public;

  ssl                   on;
  ssl_certificate       /etc/ssl/private/git-okloh-chain.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key   /etc/ssl/private/git-okloh-decrypted.key;
  ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
  ssl_protocols         SSLv3 TLSv1;
  ssl_ciphers           ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!LOW:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM;

  client_max_body_size 20m;

  access_log  /var/log/nginx/gitlab_access.log;
  error_log   /var/log/nginx/gitlab_error.log;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/index.html $uri.html @gitlab;
  }

  location @gitlab {
    proxy_read_timeout 300; # https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/694
    proxy_connect_timeout 300; # https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/694
    proxy_redirect     off;

    proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header   Host              $http_host;
    proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP         $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For   $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_pass http://gitlab;
  }

  location ~ ^/(assets)/  {
    root /home/git/gitlab/public;
    gzip_static on; # to serve pre-gzipped version
    expires max;
    add_header Cache-Control public;
  }

  error_page 502 /502.html;
}

GitLab Config

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gitlab:
  host: git.okloh.com
  port: 443
  https: true

GitLab-Shell Config

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gitlab_url: "https://git.okloh.com/"
http_settings:
  self_signed_cert: false
ca_file: "/etc/ssl/private/git-okloh-chain.pem"
ca_path: "/etc/ssl/private"

Restart

Remember to restart both services.

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sudo service gitlab restart
sudo service nginx restart

If anything is wrong, you can check:

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cd /home/git/gitlab/
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production

Pitfall: Port 443 already binded

In a previous tutorial, I setup iRedMail, which actually runs on Apache, which listen on port 443.

You will need to remove port 433 on apache, and probably do a reverse proxy from nginx for port 433. This perhaps will be covered in another tutorial.

Pitfall: Sidekiq not running

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# Make sure it is running
ps -ef | grep sidekiq | grep -v grep

# If not, run it
sudo -u git -H RAILS_ENV=production bin/background_jobs start