Setup GitLab on Debian 7 with existing Apache WebServer

For the last couple of years I’ve been using gitolite with gitweb to host my private git repositories. I guess everybody that used gitolite for a while will agree that its by far not as user friendly as using GitHub is. The web interface looks like its been designed decades ago and on top its missing several major features like code review, merge requests, issue tracking and much more.

Two days ago I came across GitLab, a complete git repository management suite written in Ruby. The community edition is completely free and totally fine for anything less than 100 users. The web interface looks sick, pure eye-candy 😉

The only problem was, by default GitLab uses an Nginx web server, but I wanted to use it with my existing Apache WebServer, so here’s a little HowTo. The documentation of GitLab is quite good and very helpful, never the less I decided to write this tutorial.

HowTo Setup GitLab on Debian 7 with existing Apache Server

Step 1: Installing GitLab

Install required package dependencies:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo apt-get install curl openssh-server ca-certificates postfix

Add the GitLab package servers to your servers sources. The guys from GitLab provide a simple script that does the work for you. Simply get it via curl and execute it.

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ curl https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ce/script.deb.sh | sudo bash

Afterwards you can use apt-get to simply install GitLab:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

Now run the configuration and start GitLab:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

GitLab is now installed and running. All we have to do now, is let our Apache know how to access it.

Step 2: Edit GitLab Config File

Open the GitLab config file with nano in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo nano /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

Set the external URL to the URL you want your GitLab to be reached with:

external_url 'http://gitlab.example.com'

Also find the following two commands, uncomment them and set them to the following values:

nginx['enable'] = false

web_server['external_users'] = ['www-data']

Now save the file. Thats pretty much all you need to configure on the GitLab side.

Step 3: Add Apache user to GitLab user group

In order to add the Apache user to the GitLab user group run the following command:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo useradd -G gitlab-www www-data

Step 4: Configure Apache to use GitLab

4.1 Create New VirtualHosts file

Go to /etc/apache2/sites-available/ and create a new VirtualHost.

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo touch gitlab

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo nano gitlab

Insert the following code (source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25785903/gitlab-7-2-1-with-apache-server-instead-of-nginx)

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName gitlab.example.com
  ServerSignature Off

  ProxyPreserveHost On

  <Location />
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all

    ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8080
    ProxyPassReverse http://gitlab.example.com/
  </Location>

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule .* http://127.0.0.1:8080%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA]

  # needed for downloading attachments
  DocumentRoot /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails/public

</VirtualHost>

and replace http://gitlab.example.com/  with the desired domain/subdomain you want your GitLab to be reached by. This configuration tells Apache to redirects all requests to 127.0.0.1:8080, on which the Unicorn server of GitLab is listening to.

Close this file with CRTL + X and Press “Y” to save.

4.2 Enable new VirtualHost

To enable the virtualhosts file run the following command:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo a2ensite gitlab

4.3 Enable required Apache mods

Enable all necessary apache mods:

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo a2enmod proxy

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo a2enmod proxy_http

Restart your Apache.

kgoedecke@my-vps:~$ sudo service apache2 restart

Now you should be able to access your GitLab web interface.

The default login credentials are:

Username: root
Password: 5iveL!fe