gitlab installation

gitlab-install.txt

1) gitlab installation
	https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-gitlab-on-ubuntu-16-04

	generate SSL certs for gitlab and configure gitlab for https
		self-signed certificates are a problem for runners; to overcome this problem, follow the instructions on
			http://moonlightbox.logdown.com/posts/2016/09/12/gitlab-ci-runner-register-x509-error

			a) specify common name default for SSL certs (instruction different from above URL)
				$vi /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
				[ v3_ca ]
				subjectAltName=IP:<ip_in_dotted_decimal>

			b) create new SSL certs
				cd /etc/gitlab/ssl
				openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/gitlab/ssl/192.168.1.1.key -out /etc/gitlab/ssl/192.168.1.1.crt
				openssl dhparam -out /etc/gitlab/ssl/dhparam.pem 2048

			c) setup https for gitlab
						https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/nginx.html#enable-https
				gitlab-ctl reconfigure
				gitlab-ctl restart

			c) copy cert to gitlab-runner as well
				mkdir -p /etc/gitlab-runner/certs
				cp /etc/gitlab/ssl/<ip>.crt /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/

			d) register a runner (do this step after installing runners in step-3)
				gitlab-ci-multi-runner register


 

2) for public websites, generate trusted certificate from Lets Encrypt
		https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-gitlab-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-16-04

3) install gitlab ci-runners
	https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/linux-repository.html
	(for installing a runner)

4) sample gitlab project with CI setup
	https://about.gitlab.com/2016/03/01/gitlab-runner-with-docker/

	https://gitlab.univ-nantes.fr/help/ci/environments.md
	https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/ci/quick_start/README.html
	
I tried the gitlab-runner for shell and docker executors. Both of them seem working fine. We can use shell executor as an option to execute vagrant-based pipelines as well.

TODO:
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1) try virtualbox-based executors. They are also useful.
2) place a cache in the server and cache artifacts aggressively. Don't pull anything from internet unless you absolutely have to.
3) setup the integration of all projects on gitlab and reduce the build time to less than a minute.