Gitlab CE 7.1.1 upgrade

How to Use GitLab Upgrade
1

Hello,
I have gitlab CE 7.1.1 installed from source in Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS.
I would like to upgrade Whitman to the latest version, as you advise me to do?

Thanks
Manuel

2

Hello Manuel,
the word “Whitman” threw me off there. I’m assuming spell check changed it from “GitLab”.

The goal I would advise working toward is to get to an Omnibus installation so that future updates become as easy as running one command. And then run that command once per month to stay on the latest version.

  1. Make sure you don’t lose any data, so start with a backup
  2. Try to have minimal downtime, do a dry run with a VM. Install 7.1.1 from source on 12.04 in a VM
  3. Restore your backup to this VM
  4. Take a snapshot of the VM before starting the upgrade process, saving you a lot of setup time if something goes wrong and you want to try something else.
  5. Unless for some reason you have to install from source, upgrade to an Omnibus installation, even if it is a minor version bump to 7.2, this will make things easier going forward install docs
  6. Upgrading all the way from 7.1.1 to 8.12.1 will probably result in an epic failure, but nothings stops you from trying. You will probably need to do smaller incremental upgrades until you get there, but if you keep taking snapshots, nothing stops you from trying a bigger jump and then rolling back if it fails.
  7. Write down your steps. If you have a backup and all goes well with the test-vm, do the upgrade on your production system.
  8. Ask for help if you get stuck
3

Hello,
exaclty how do I update my version 7.1.1 to omnibus ?

I create a fresh installation of Omibus 7.1.1. (same version of my non-omnibus gitlab) and I backup my non-omnibus and restore to new omnibus installation, and later upgrade omnibus to latest version ?

Thanks
Manuel

4

Sorry for how long it took me to reply.

If what you are suggesting works, it will probably be the easiest, quickest low-risk way to do this, unless you have 10’s of gigs of repositories and the backup/restore takes very long.

The other option is, providing you have a good backup, you can upgrade your current source installation to an Omnibus installation with these instructions https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/update/README.md#upgrading-from-a-non-omnibus-installation-to-an-omnibus-installation