Updating gitlab-ce 9.1.2-ce.0 to 11.4.5-ce.0 on Debian Jessie

How to Use GitLab Upgrade
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1

Hello there

We have a gitlab-ce 9.1.2-ce.0 installation on Debian Jessie, installed using the official Debian packages:

apt-get install gitlab-ce

Using:

apt-get update
apt-get install gitlab-ce

we wish to upgrade to 11.4.5-ce.0 (the most current version in the official Debian repository).

However, at

https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/update/

we read:

"From version 10.8 onwards, upgrade paths are enforced for version upgrades by default. This restricts performing direct upgrades that skip major versions [..] which can result in breakage [...]"

I assume this would apply in our case.

What is the official way to enforce the required upgrade path?

Needless to say, we want to rule out or at least minimize breakage.

During the upgrade, the GitLab installation will be taken off line entirely. Therefore, downtime is not an issue in this case.

Thank you kindly in advance.

Andrew

2

Hi Andrew, and welcome to the forum! :slight_smile:

I think we need to improve the wording in our documentation.

To first answer your question, I’d recommend this upgrade path:

9.1.2 -> 9.5.10 ->
                   10.0.0 -> 10.8.7 ->
^        ^                             11.0.0 -> 11.4.6
|        |          ^         ^
|        |          |         |         ^         ^
|        |          |         |         |         |
|        |          |         |         |         |
|        |          |         |         |         +
|        |          |         |         |         Target version
|        |          |         |         +
|        |          |         |         First release in the 11.x major version series
|        |          |         +
|        |          |         Last release in the 10.x major version series
|        |          +
|        |          First release in the 10.x major version series
|        +
|        Last release in the 9.x major version series
+
Current release to upgrade

You can see the list of versions with

apt-cache madison gitlab-ce | awk '{print $3}'

And you can upgrade to a particular version with:

apt install gitlab-ce=9.5.10 # Run this as root / sudo

In short, for such long jumps, always:

  1. Upgrade to the latest minor/patch version within a major version series first
  2. then to the first release in a next major series,
  3. and repeat until you reach the version you want to be on.

The note about 10.8 is simply to state that once you’ve installed GitLab 10.8.0, the package will actually prevent you from doing upgrades across major version series, unless you’re at the last release of a series.

Before GitLab 10.8 you’d be able to do an upgrade from e.g. 9.1.2 to 11.4.6. Probably resulting in breakages. After 10.8 the package will prevent you from doing that, and it will force you to go through the recommended upgrade path.

I hope this helps!