Provisioning a GitLab Instance on an AWS VM

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for provisioning a GitLab instance on an AWS EC2 VM using the GitLab Sandbox Cloud.

Prerequisites

Access to GitLab Sandbox Cloud
Okta credentials for authentication
SSH key pair for EC2 instance access (can also be created during EC2 instance launch)

Steps

1. Access GitLab Sandbox Cloud

Go to https://gitlabsandbox.cloud/ and login with Okta
Create an account if you don’t have one with the following settings:
- Cloud provider: aws-51eab1fa (Master Account)
- Organizational Unit: eng-infra-sandbox

2. Access Your AWS Account

When the account has been created (or if you already had one):

Access it by clicking on your account in the Sandbox Cloud dashboard
Use the Open AWS Web Console button in your Cloud Account page
Log in to the AWS account using the username and password from View IAM Credentials

3. Launch an EC2 Instance

Go to EC2 in the AWS Console
Click Launch instance
Configure the instance:
- Give it a name
- Select Ubuntu as the AMI
- Select instance type t2.medium or larger (GitLab requires a minimum of 4 GB RAM)
- Select or create a key pair. If creating a new key pair, download the .pem file immediately — you will need it for SSH access later
Under Network settings, allow HTTP/HTTPS traffic from the internet
Configure storage: 50 GiB gp2/gp3 (NOT iops)
Click the Launch instance button on the right
Go to your instances to see info about the created instance

4. Install GitLab

You can install GitLab using one of two methods:

Option A: Manual Installation

If you created your key pair using the AWS dashboard, update the key file permissions first:
Terminal window
```
chmod 600 <absolute-path-to-ssh-key>
```

SSH into the instance:

ssh -i <absolute-path-to-ssh-key> ubuntu@<public-dns-of-the-instance>

Follow the instructions to install GitLab: https://docs.gitlab.com/install/package/ubuntu/

Option B: Using OpenCode (Recommended)

Use this prompt with OpenCode:

SSH into ubuntu@<public-dns-of-the-instance> and install GitLab following https://docs.gitlab.com/install/package/ubuntu/. To SSH into the VM use this key: <absolute-path-to-ssh-key>

Dealing with Machine Restarts

When stopping and starting EC2 instances, a new IP address and hostname is assigned to the instance. You can fix this in one of two ways:

Option 1: Assign an Elastic IP (Recommended for Persistent Use)

Assign your EC2 instance an Elastic IP to make the IP static.

Note: Elastic IPs may incur additional costs.

Option 2: Update GitLab Configuration

Once the machine is running again:

Update the external_url parameter in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb to point to the new hostname:
```
external_url 'http://<new-public-dns-of-the-instance>'
```

Run the following commands:

sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
sudo gitlab-ctl restart

The instance is now available on the new hostname