Configure the GitLab chart with an external object storage

GitLab relies on object storage for highly-available persistent data in Kubernetes. By default, an S3-compatible storage solution named minio is deployed with the chart. For production quality deployments, we recommend using a hosted object storage solution like Google Cloud Storage or AWS S3.

To disable MinIO, set this option and then follow the related documentation below:

--set global.minio.enabled=false

An example of the full configuration has been provided in the examples.

This documentation specifies usage of access and secret keys for AWS. It is also possible to use IAM roles.

S3 encryption

Introduced in GitLab 13.4.

GitLab supports Amazon KMS to encrypt data stored in S3 buckets. You can enable this in two ways:

These two options are not mutually exclusive. You can set a default encryption policy, but also enable server-side encryption headers to override those defaults.

See the GitLab documentation on encrypted S3 buckets for more details.

Azure Blob Storage

Introduced in GitLab 13.4.

Direct support for Azure Blob storage is available for uploaded attachments, CI job artifacts, LFS, and other object types supported via the consolidated settings. In previous GitLab versions, an Azure MinIO gateway was needed.

note
GitLab does not support the Azure MinIO gateway as the storage for the Docker Registry. Please refer to the corresponding Azure example when setting up the Docker Registry.

Although Azure uses the word container to denote a collection of blobs, GitLab standardizes on the term bucket.

Azure Blob storage requires the use of the consolidated object storage settings. A single Azure storage account name and key must be used across multiple Azure blob containers. Customizing individual connection settings by object type (for example, artifacts, uploads, and so on) is not permitted.

To enable Azure Blob storage, see rails.azurerm.yaml as an example to define the Azure connection. You can load this as a secret via:

kubectl create secret generic gitlab-rails-storage --from-file=connection=rails.azurerm.yml

Then, disable MinIO and set these global settings:

--set global.minio.enabled=false
--set global.appConfig.object_store.enabled=true
--set global.appConfig.object_store.connection.secret=gitlab-rails-storage

Be sure to create Azure containers for the default names or set the container names in the bucket configuration.

note
If you experience requests failing with Requests to the local network are not allowed, see the Troubleshooting section.

Docker Registry images

Configuration of object storage for the registry chart is done via the registry.storage key, and the global.registry.bucket key.

--set registry.storage.secret=registry-storage
--set registry.storage.key=config
--set global.registry.bucket=bucket-name

Note: The bucket name needs to be set both in the secret, and in global.registry.bucket. The secret is used in the registry server, and the global is used by GitLab backups.

Create the secret per registry chart documentation on storage, then configure the chart to make use of this secret.

Examples for S3(S3 compatible storages, but Azure MinIO gateway not supported, see Azure Blob Storage), Azure and GCS drivers can be found in examples/objectstorage.

Registry configuration

  1. Decide on which storage service to use.
  2. Copy appropriate file to registry-storage.yaml.
  3. Edit with the correct values for the environment.
  4. Follow registry chart documentation on storage for creating the secret.
  5. Configure the chart as documented.

LFS, Artifacts, Uploads, Packages, External Diffs, Terraform State, Dependency Proxy, Secure Files

Configuration of object storage for LFS, artifacts, uploads, packages, external diffs, Terraform state, Secure Files, and pseudonymizer is done via the following keys:

  • global.appConfig.lfs
  • global.appConfig.artifacts
  • global.appConfig.uploads
  • global.appConfig.packages
  • global.appConfig.externalDiffs
  • global.appConfig.dependencyProxy
  • global.appConfig.terraformState
  • global.appConfig.ciSecureFiles

Note also that:

  • You must create buckets for the default names or custom names in the bucket configuration.
  • A different bucket is needed for each, otherwise performing a restore from backup doesn’t function properly.
  • Storing MR diffs on external storage is not enabled by default, so, for the object storage settings for externalDiffs to take effect, global.appConfig.externalDiffs.enabled key should have a true value.
  • The dependency proxy feature is not enabled by default, so, for the object storage settings for dependencyProxy to take effect, global.appConfig.dependencyProxy.enabled key should have a true value.

Below is an example of the configuration options:

--set global.appConfig.lfs.bucket=gitlab-lfs-storage
--set global.appConfig.lfs.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.lfs.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.artifacts.bucket=gitlab-artifacts-storage
--set global.appConfig.artifacts.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.artifacts.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.uploads.bucket=gitlab-uploads-storage
--set global.appConfig.uploads.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.uploads.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.packages.bucket=gitlab-packages-storage
--set global.appConfig.packages.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.packages.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.externalDiffs.bucket=gitlab-externaldiffs-storage
--set global.appConfig.externalDiffs.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.externalDiffs.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.terraformState.bucket=gitlab-terraform-state
--set global.appConfig.terraformState.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.terraformState.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.dependencyProxy.bucket=gitlab-dependencyproxy-storage
--set global.appConfig.dependencyProxy.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.dependencyProxy.connection.key=connection

--set global.appConfig.ciSecureFiles.bucket=gitlab-ci-secure-files
--set global.appConfig.ciSecureFiles.connection.secret=object-storage
--set global.appConfig.ciSecureFiles.connection.key=connection

See the charts/globals documentation on appConfig for full details.

Create the secret(s) per the connection details documentation, and then configure the chart to use the provided secrets. Note, the same secret can be used for all of them.

Examples for AWS (any S3 compatible like Azure using MinIO) and Google providers can be found in examples/objectstorage.

appConfig configuration

  1. Decide on which storage service to use.
  2. Copy appropriate file to rails.yaml.
  3. Edit with the correct values for the environment.
  4. Follow connection details documentation for creating the secret.
  5. Configure the chart as documented.

Backups

Backups are also stored in object storage, and must be configured to point externally rather than the included MinIO service. The backup/restore procedure uses two separate buckets:

  • A bucket for storing backups (global.appConfig.backups.bucket)
  • A temporary bucket for preserving existing data during the restore process (global.appConfig.backups.tmpBucket)

AWS S3-compatible object storage systems, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob Storage are supported backends. You can configure the backend type by setting global.appConfig.backups.objectStorage.backend to s3 for AWS S3, gcs for Google Cloud Storage, or azure for Azure Blob Storage. You must also provide a connection configuration through the gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config key.

When using Google Cloud Storage, the GCP project must be set with the global.appConfig.backups.objectStorage.config.gcpProject value.

For S3-compatible storage:

--set global.appConfig.backups.bucket=gitlab-backup-storage
--set global.appConfig.backups.tmpBucket=gitlab-tmp-storage
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.secret=storage-config
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.key=config

For Google Cloud Storage (GCS):

--set global.appConfig.backups.bucket=gitlab-backup-storage
--set global.appConfig.backups.tmpBucket=gitlab-tmp-storage
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.backend=gcs
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.gcpProject=my-gcp-project-id
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.secret=storage-config
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.key=config

For Azure Blob Storage:

--set global.appConfig.backups.bucket=gitlab-backup-storage
--set global.appConfig.backups.tmpBucket=gitlab-tmp-storage
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.backend=azure
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.secret=storage-config
--set gitlab.toolbox.backups.objectStorage.config.key=config

See the backup/restore object storage documentation for full details.

note
To backup or restore files from the other object storage locations, the configuration file needs to be configured to authenticate as a user with sufficient access to read/write to all GitLab buckets.

Backups storage example

  1. Create the storage.config file:

    • On Amazon S3, the contents should be in the s3cmd configuration file format

      [default]
access_key = BOGUS_ACCESS_KEY
secret_key = BOGUS_SECRET_KEY
bucket_location = us-east-1
multipart_chunk_size_mb = 128 # default is 15 (MB)

    • On Google Cloud Storage, you can create the file by creating a service account with the storage.admin role and then creating a service account key. Below is an example of using the gcloud CLI to create the file.

      export PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get-value project)
gcloud iam service-accounts create gitlab-gcs --display-name "Gitlab Cloud Storage"
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding --role roles/storage.admin ${PROJECT_ID} --member=serviceAccount:gitlab-gcs@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create --iam-account gitlab-gcs@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com storage.config

    • On Azure Storage

      [default]
# Setup endpoint: hostname of the Web App
host_base = https://your_minio_setup.azurewebsites.net
host_bucket = https://your_minio_setup.azurewebsites.net
# Leave as default
bucket_location = us-west-1
use_https = True
multipart_chunk_size_mb = 128 # default is 15 (MB)

# Setup access keys
# Access Key = Azure Storage Account name
access_key = BOGUS_ACCOUNT_NAME
# Secret Key = Azure Storage Account Key
secret_key = BOGUS_KEY

# Use S3 v4 signature APIs
signature_v2 = False

  2. Create the secret

    kubectl create secret generic storage-config --from-file=config=storage.config

Google Cloud CDN

Introduced in GitLab 15.5.

You can use Google Cloud CDN to cache and fetch data from the artifacts bucket. This can help improve performance and reduce network egress costs.

Configuration of Cloud CDN is done via the following keys:

  • global.appConfig.artifacts.cdn.secret
  • global.appConfig.artifacts.cdn.key (default is cdn)

To use Cloud CDN:

  1. Set up Cloud CDN to use the artifacts bucket as the backend.
  2. Create a key for signed URLs.
  3. Give the Cloud CDN service account permission to read from the bucket.
  4. Prepare a YAML file with the parameters using the example in rails.googlecdn.yaml. You will need to fill in the following information:
    • url: Base URL of the CDN host from step 1
    • key_name: Key name from step 2
    • key: The actual secret from step 2

  5. Load this YAML file into a Kubernetes secret under the cdn key. For example, to create a secret gitlab-rails-cdn:

     kubectl create secret generic gitlab-rails-cdn --from-file=cdn=rails.googlecdn.yml

  6. Set global.appConfig.artifacts.cdn.secret to gitlab-rails-cdn. If you’re setting this via a helm parameter, use:

     --set global.appConfig.artifacts.cdn.secret=gitlab-rails-cdn

Troubleshooting

Azure Blob: URL [FILTERED] is blocked: Requests to the local network are not allowed

This happens when the Azure Blob hostname is resolved to a RFC1918 (local / private) IP address. As a workaround, allow Outbound requests for your Azure Blob hostname (yourinstance.blob.core.windows.net).