How to run gitlab-ce (self-managed) on docker container [part 1]

Here we'll see how to run the gitlab-ce (community edition) self-managed on docker container (linux based). We'll use docker-compose too.

First we'll create a new variable GITLAB_HOME, in my case I used this command:

export GITLAB_HOME=$HOME/gitlab

You can verify if the variable it's correctly run echo $GITLAB_HOME in your terminal.

After that, we'll create our files as docker-compose.yml. Choose one folder to it and let's start!

Now, create one file named root_password.txt, and put on it one string to use as the root password. In my case I fill with RootP@ssord123!.

Then, we can create our docker-compose.yml, you can use my template bellow:

version: '3.6'
services:
  web:
    image: 'gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest'
    container_name: gitlab_ce
    restart: always
    hostname: 'gitlab.henriqueholtz.com'
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        external_url 'https://gitlab.henriqueholtz.com'
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
      - '22:22'
    volumes:
      - '$GITLAB_HOME/config:/etc/gitlab'
      - '$GITLAB_HOME/logs:/var/log/gitlab'
      - '$GITLAB_HOME/data:/var/opt/gitlab'
    shm_size: '256m'
    secrets:
      - gitlab_root_password

  gitlab_docs:
    image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:latest
    container_name: gitlab_ce_docs
    hostname: 'https://docs.gitlab.henriqueholtz.com:4000'
    ports:
      - '4000:4000'

secrets:
  gitlab_root_password:
    file: ./root_password.txt

Then we are ready to run our container, then run docker-compose up -d.

Note: If you want use the hostname above (ex: gitlab.henriqueholtz.com), you need to add it on the hosts config. Or we can use the localhost or 127.0.0.1.

Using https://localhost (default port, 443), we already can see the gitlab web interface, but with the 502 status code:

The container can spend some minutes to stand up (for me something around 10 minutes). Meanwhile we can see the logs of our container with the command bellow:

docker logs gitlab-ce -f

We can access our gitlab-docs at localhost:4000:

Some minutes later, we can access our gitlab community edition self-managed, and see the login page: (ex: http://localhost)

Now, to access your own gitlab you can reset the root password of gitlab-ce

The official documentation to install gitlab-ce self-managed of gitlab: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/install/docker.html

Thanks for reading, I see you later, in the next part!