Running GitLab on Apache 2.4 on a sub-domain?

I wouldn’t ask if I hadn’t exhausted myself trying to figure this out. I’m pretty new to server configuration. I’ve tried twice to get GitLab running, both with similar results.

Today I reinstalled Debian 8 on my VPS. I then installed and configured Apache2 to serve a website of mine. There are two virtual hosts, one which redirects all HTTP requests for my site to HTTPS and then the HTTPS virtual host.

I also have a mail server running (PostFix and Dovecot) if that makes any difference.

I followed the guide here with no sucess. I realize this is a little outdated, but I figured I could just wing the rest.

After installing GitLab some really weird things happen. Depending on the order of Apache2 starting and GitLab starting my website wont be served, or will for a second, etc. Shutting down GitLab, disabling its virtual host and restarting Apache gives me the behavior I would expect.

I found the guide here and attempted to follow it. It seems the tutorial I followed above follows the GitLab guide, but the Apache virtual host configuration files are quite different. I have used all sorts of different config files for the GitLab virtual host from different guides, including the “official” one found on the GitLab guide.

My Apache config file is at the bottom of the page, but before you read through the entire thing the only thing I changed is Apache’s default directory being a directory in my home folder (/home/allen/Sites) instead of the default. (/var/www)

The end goal is to get my main site at “tagvar.com” and get GitLab at “git.tagvar.com”.

Here are the config files for the virtual hosts which serve up my site…

HTTP:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName tagvar.com
ServerAdmin me@tagvar.com
DocumentRoot /home/allen/Sites/TagVar/Public
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
Redirect permanent / https://tagvar.com

HTTPS/SSL:

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName tagvar.com
ServerAdmin allen@tagvar.com
DocumentRoot /home/allen/Sites/TagVar/Public
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /home/allen/Sites/SSL/tagvar.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /home/allen/Sites/SSL/private.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /home/allen/Sites/SSL/certificate.crt

Unfortunately, I have very little understanding of what’s going on, and I really don’t know what else to try, or what’s wrong. What I can tell you is that any configuration file I use for the GitLab virtual host ends up doing nothing, because if I go to “git.tagvar.com” I just get redirected to the HTTPS version of the site.

I have a specific DNS record pointing git.tagvar.com to my IP, even though I also have another DNS record pointing all sub-domains to my IP.

Does anyone know what the issue is here, and how to fix it? I appreciate any help I get.

P.S. I can’t get the “virtualhost” tags to show up on this forum, but they’re there and pointed to *:80 and *:443 respectively.

# This is the main Apache server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ for detailed information about
# the directives and /usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian about Debian specific
# hints.
#
#
# Summary of how the Apache 2 configuration works in Debian:
# The Apache 2 web server configuration in Debian is quite different to
# upstream's suggested way to configure the web server. This is because Debian's
# default Apache2 installation attempts to make adding and removing modules,
# virtual hosts, and extra configuration directives as flexible as possible, in
# order to make automating the changes and administering the server as easy as
# possible.

# It is split into several files forming the configuration hierarchy outlined
# below, all located in the /etc/apache2/ directory:
#
#	/etc/apache2/
#	|-- apache2.conf
#	|	`--  ports.conf
#	|-- mods-enabled
#	|	|-- *.load
#	|	`-- *.conf
#	|-- conf-enabled
#	|	`-- *.conf
# 	`-- sites-enabled
#	 	`-- *.conf
#
#
# * apache2.conf is the main configuration file (this file). It puts the pieces
#   together by including all remaining configuration files when starting up the
#   web server.
#
# * ports.conf is always included from the main configuration file. It is
#   supposed to determine listening ports for incoming connections which can be
#   customized anytime.
#
# * Configuration files in the mods-enabled/, conf-enabled/ and sites-enabled/
#   directories contain particular configuration snippets which manage modules,
#   global configuration fragments, or virtual host configurations,
#   respectively.
#
#   They are activated by symlinking available configuration files from their
#   respective *-available/ counterparts. These should be managed by using our
#   helpers a2enmod/a2dismod, a2ensite/a2dissite and a2enconf/a2disconf. See
#   their respective man pages for detailed information.
#
# * The binary is called apache2. Due to the use of environment variables, in
#   the default configuration, apache2 needs to be started/stopped with
#   /etc/init.d/apache2 or apache2ctl. Calling /usr/bin/apache2 directly will not
#   work with the default configuration.


# Global configuration
#

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# NOTE!  If you intend to place this on an NFS (or otherwise network)
# mounted filesystem then please read the Mutex documentation (available
# at <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#mutex>);
# you will save yourself a lot of trouble.
#
# Do NOT add a slash at the end of the directory path.
#
#ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"

#
# The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK.
#
Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default

#
# PidFile: The file in which the server should record its process
# identification number when it starts.
# This needs to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
#
PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}

#
# Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out.
#
Timeout 300

#
# KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
# one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate.
#
KeepAlive On

#
# MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow
# during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount.
# We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance.
#
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100

#
# KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from the
# same client on the same connection.
#
KeepAliveTimeout 5


# These need to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}

#
# HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP addresses
# e.g., www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off).
# The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people
# had to knowingly turn this feature on, since enabling it means that
# each client request will result in AT LEAST one lookup request to the
# nameserver.
#
HostnameLookups Off

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>
# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

#
# LogLevel: Control the severity of messages logged to the error_log.
# Available values: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the log level for particular modules, e.g.
# "LogLevel info ssl:warn"
#
LogLevel warn

# Include module configuration:
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.conf

# Include list of ports to listen on
Include ports.conf


# Sets the default security model of the Apache2 HTTPD server. It does
# not allow access to the root filesystem outside of /usr/share and /var/www.
# The former is used by web applications packaged in Debian,
# the latter may be used for local directories served by the web server. If
# your system is serving content from a sub-directory in /srv you must allow
# access here, or in any related virtual host.
<Directory />
	Options FollowSymLinks
	AllowOverride None
	Require all denied
</Directory>

<Directory /usr/share>
	AllowOverride None
	Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /home/allen/Sites>
	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
	AllowOverride None
	Require all granted
</Directory>

#<Directory /srv/>
#	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
#	AllowOverride None
#	Require all granted
#</Directory>




# AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory
# for additional configuration directives.  See also the AllowOverride
# directive.
#
AccessFileName .htaccess

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being
# viewed by Web clients.
#
<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
	Require all denied
</FilesMatch>


#
# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive.
#
# These deviate from the Common Log Format definitions in that they use %O
# (the actual bytes sent including headers) instead of %b (the size of the
# requested file), because the latter makes it impossible to detect partial
# requests.
#
# Note that the use of %{X-Forwarded-For}i instead of %h is not recommended.
# Use mod_remoteip instead.
#
LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

# Include of directories ignores editors' and dpkg's backup files,
# see README.Debian for details.

# Include generic snippets of statements
IncludeOptional conf-enabled/*.conf

# Include the virtual host configurations:
IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

# Include PHPMyAdmin
Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet