I’ve joined a project where we are using GitLab 8.15.4 which is not accessible to the public. It is behind a VPN and works just fine.
I want to upgrade for security and feature reasons but we are running into issues with both an upgrade path and import/export is not supported because the source instance is older than the new server we spun up.
So, do we really need to upgrade?
Is GitLab 8 still in active development?
Thanks.
Hi there,
GitLab 8.x is no longer in development, as the last release was in March of 2017.
Staying up to date with the latest releases is always recommended, especially if you are encountering version incompatibility issues.
What issues are you running into with the upgrade path? The documentation on maintenance lays out a good path for you to follow, but it is an update or two behind. Since GitLab recommends that you first upgrade to the latest available minor version within your major version, your upgrade path should look like this:
8.15 -> 8.17.8 -> 9.5.10 -> 10.8.7 -> 11.3.4
Here is an example command for updating an Omnibus install, with a specific release specified.
sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce=8.17.7-ce.0
Hi Caleb, the issues we are having is that we’ve upgraded too quickly and it renders the instance useless and we have to recover from backup. Will attempt your suggested upgrade path.
Also, is there anyway to get the import/export working? After uploading the file (~600mb) the importer starts running but after 30 seconds it throws the following error:
Error importing repository into user/xxxxxx - undefined method import_jid for #<ProjectImportState:0x00007ff9006b6e20>
Thanks for the help and thorough response.
Hi Jibs,
Thanks for reaching back out. What version of GitLab are you using on the newer instance? I did some digging and found this issue where a couple of others encountered the same problem - Gitlab Project import fails: sidekiq undefined method import_jid.
This comment on the issue provides a link to the import/export documentation on version history and compatibility. It looks like the import/export tool is only compatible between GitLab releases that share the same import/export versions, with the table in that doc detailing each GitLab release that changed the import/export version.
For example, GitLab 8.13.0 started utilizing import/export version 0.1.5 - this was changed in GitLab 8.17.0 when version 0.1.6 was released. This means that you can use the import/export tool between GitLab instances running versions 8.13.0 - 8.16.9, but trying to do so with GitLab 8.17.0+ will likely fail as the version of the import/export tool then changes.
So, if your newer instance is anything past GitLab release 8.16.9, then that is your issue. 
If you follow the upgrade path to a release that contains a compatible version of import/export for the newer instance, then you should no longer have any issues importing those projects.
Hi Caleb, thanks for digging and for confirming the compatibility issue–we came to the same conclusion. The new server was indeed newer (v11.7.5) so importing was definitely not supported. We followed your upgrade path and successfully got it upgraded. Thanks again.
