New doc: how to install GitLab on Azure

32 files changed, 450 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/articles/index.md b/doc/articles/index.md
index 1aa65504852..4b0c85b9272 100644
--- a/doc/articles/index.md
+++ b/doc/articles/index.md
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ Learn how to deploy a static website with [GitLab Pages](../user/project/pages/i
 
 ## Install and maintain GitLab
 
-Install, upgrade, integrate, migrate to GitLab:
+[Admin](../README.md#administrator-documentation), [install](../install/README.md),
+upgrade, integrate, migrate to GitLab:
 
 | Article title | Category | Publishing date |
 | :------------ | :------: | --------------: |
diff --git a/doc/install/README.md b/doc/install/README.md
index bc831a37735..1d510cb29c3 100644
--- a/doc/install/README.md
+++ b/doc/install/README.md
@@ -18,9 +18,17 @@ the hardware requirements.
   Useful for unsupported systems like *BSD. For an overview of the directory
   structure, read the [structure documentation](structure.md).
 - [Docker](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/docker/) - Install GitLab using Docker.
+
+## Install GitLab on cloud providers
+
 - [Installing in Kubernetes](kubernetes/index.md) - Install GitLab into a Kubernetes
   Cluster using our official Helm Chart Repository.
-- Testing only! [DigitalOcean and Docker Machine](digitaloceandocker.md) -
+- [Install GitLab on OpenShift](../articles/openshift_and_gitlab/index.md)
+- [Install GitLab on DC/OS](https://mesosphere.com/blog/gitlab-dcos/) via [GitLab-Mesosphere integration](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/09/16/announcing-gitlab-and-mesosphere/)
+- [Install GitLab on Azure](azure/index.md)
+- [Install GitLab on Google Cloud Platform](google_cloud_platform/index.md)
+- [Install on AWS](https://about.gitlab.com/aws/)
+- _Testing only!_ [DigitalOcean and Docker Machine](digitaloceandocker.md) -
   Quickly test any version of GitLab on DigitalOcean using Docker Machine.
 
 ## Database
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@@ -0,0 +1,439 @@
+# Install GitLab on Microsoft Azure
+
+> _This article was originally written by Dave Wentzel and [published on the GitLab Blog][Original-Blog-Post]._
+>
+> _Ported to the GitLab documentation and updated on 2017-08-24 by [Ian Scorer](https://gitlab.com/iscorer)._
+
+Azure is Microsoft's business cloud and GitLab is a pre-configured offering on the Azure Marketplace. 
+Hopefully, you aren't surprised to hear that Microsoft and Azure have embraced open source software 
+like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and of course - GitLab! This means that you can spin up a 
+pre-configured GitLab VM and have your very own private GitLab up and running in around 30 minutes. 
+Let's get started.
+
+### Getting started
+
+First, you'll need an account on Azure. There are three ways to do this:
+
+- If your company (or you) already has an account, then you are ready to go!
+- You can also open your own Azure account for free. _At time of writing_, you get $200 
+of credit to spend on Azure services for 30 days. You can use this credit to try out paid Azure 
+services, exploring Microsoft's cloud for free. Even after the first 30 days, you never have to pay
+anything unless you decide to transition to paid services with a Pay-As-You-Go Azure subscription. 
+This is a great way to try out Azure and cloud computing, and you can 
+[read more in their comprehensive FAQ][Azure-Free-Account-FAQ].
+- If you have an MSDN subscription, you can activate your Azure subscriber benefits. Your MSDN 
+subscription gives you recurring Azure credits every month, so why not put those credits to use and 
+try out GitLab right now?
+
+### Working with Azure
+
+Once you have an Azure account, you can get started. Login to Azure using 
+[portal.azure.com](https://portal.azure.com) and the first thing you will see is the Dashboard:
+
+![Azure Dashboard](img/azure-dashboard.png)
+
+The Dashboard gives you a quick overview of Azure resources, and from here you you can build VMs, 
+create SQL Databases, author websites, and perform lots of other cloud tasks.
+
+### Create New VM
+
+The [Azure Marketplace][Azure-Marketplace] is an online store for pre-configured applications and 
+services which have been optimized for the cloud by software vendors like GitLab, and both 
+the [Community Edition ("CE")][CE] and the [Enterprise Edition ("EE")][EE] versions of GitLab are 
+available on the Azure Marketplace as pre-configured solutions.
+
+To begin creating a new GitLab VM, click on the **+ New** icon, type "GitLab" into the search 
+box, and then click the **"GitLab Community Edition"** search result:
+
+![Azure - New - Search for 'GitLab'](img/azure-new-search-gitlab.png)
+
+A new "blade" window will pop-out, where you can read more about the **"GitLab Community Edition"** 
+offering which is freely available under the MIT Expat License:
+
+![Azure - New - Select 'GitLab Community Edition'](img/azure-new-gitlab-ce.png)
+
+Click **"Create"** and you will be presented with the "Create virtual machine" blade:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Basics](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-basics.png)
+
+### Basics
+
+The first items we need to configure are the basic settings of the underlying virtual machine:
+
+1. Enter a `Name` for the VM - e.g. **"GitLab-CE"**
+1. Select a `VM disk type` - either **HDD** _(slower, lower cost)_ or **SSD** _(faster, higher cost)_
+1. Enter a `User name` - e.g. **"gitlab-admin"**
+1. Select an `Authentication type`, either **SSH public key** or **Password**:
+    
+    >**Note:** if you're unsure which authentication type to use, select **Password**
+
+    1. If you chose **SSH public key** - enter your `SSH public key` into the field provided 
+    _(read the [SSH documentation][GitLab-Docs-SSH] to learn more about how to setup SSH 
+    public keys)_
+    1. If you chose **Password** - enter the password you wish to use _(this is the password that you 
+    will use later in this tutorial to [SSH] into the VM, so make sure it's a strong password/passphrase)_
+1. Choose the appropriate `Subscription` tier for your Azure account
+1. Choose an existing `Resource Group` or create a new one - e.g. **"GitLab-CE-Azure"**
+>**Note:** a "Resource group" is a way to group related resources together for easier administration. 
+We chose "GitLab-CE-Azure", but your resource group can have the same name as your VM.
+1. Choose a `Location` - if you're unsure, select the default location
+
+Here are the settings we've used:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Basics Completed](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-basics-password.png)
+
+Check the settings you have entered, and then click **"OK"** when you're ready to proceed.
+
+### Size
+
+Next, you need to choose the size of your VM - selecting features such as the number of CPU cores, 
+the amount of RAM, the size of storage (and its speed), etc.
+
+>**Note:** in common with other cloud vendors, Azure operates a resource/usage pricing model, i.e. 
+the more resources your VM consumes the more it will cost you to run, so make your selection 
+carefully. You'll see that Azure provides an _estimated_ monthly cost beneath each VM Size to help
+guide your selection.
+
+The default size - the lowest cost **"DS1_V2 Standard"** VM - meets the minimum system requirements 
+to run a small GitLab environment for testing and evaluation purposes, and so we're going to go 
+ahead and select this one, but please choose the size which best meets your own requirements:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Size](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-size.png)
+
+>**Note:** be aware that whilst your VM is active (known as "allocated"), it will incur 
+"compute charges" which, ultimately, you will be billed for. So, even if you're using the 
+free trial credits, you'll likely want to learn 
+[how to properly shutdown an Azure VM to save money][Azure-Properly-Shutdown-VM].
+
+Go ahead and click your chosen size, then click **"Select"** when you're ready to proceed to the
+next step.
+
+### Settings
+
+On the next blade, you're asked to configure the Storage, Network and Extension settings. 
+We've gone with the default settings as they're sufficient for test-driving GitLab, but please 
+choose the settings which best meet your own requirements:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Settings](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-settings.png)
+
+Review the settings and then click **"OK"** when you're ready to proceed to the last step.
+
+### Purchase
+
+The Purchase page is the last step and here you will be presented with the price per hour for your 
+new VM. You'll be billed only for the VM itself (e.g. "Standard DS1 v2") because the 
+**"GitLab Community Edition"** marketplace solution is free to use at 0 USD/hr:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Purchase](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-purchase.png)
+
+>**Note:** at this stage, you can review and modify the any of the settings you have made during all 
+previous steps, just click on any of the four steps to re-open them.
+
+When you have read and agreed to the terms of use and are ready to proceed, click **"Purchase"**.
+
+### Deployment
+
+At this point, Azure will begin deploying your new VM. The deployment process will take a few 
+minutes to complete, with progress displayed on the **"Deployment"** blade:
+
+![Azure - Create Virtual Machine - Deployment](img/azure-create-virtual-machine-deployment.png)
+
+Once the deployment process is complete, the new VM and its associated resources will be displayed 
+on the Azure Dashboard (you may need to refresh the page):
+
+![Azure - Dashboard - All resources](img/azure-dashboard-running-resources.png)
+
+The new VM can also be accessed by clicking the `All resources` or `Virtual machines` icons in the 
+Azure Portal sidebar navigation menu.
+
+### Setup a domain name
+
+The VM will have a public IP address (static by default), but Azure allows us to assign a friendly 
+DNS name to the VM, so let's go ahead and do that.
+
+From the Dashboard, click on the **"GitLab-CE"** tile to open the management blade for the new VM. 
+The public IP address that the VM uses is shown in the 'Essentials' section:
+
+![Azure - VM - Management - Public IP Address](img/azure-vm-management-public-ip.png)
+
+Click on the public IP address - which should open the **"Public IP address - Configuration"** blade, 
+then click on **"Configuration"** (under "Settings"). Now enter a friendly DNS name for your instance 
+in the `DNS name label` field:
+
+![Azure - VM - Domain Name](img/azure-vm-domain-name.png)
+
+In the screenshot above, you'll see that we've set the `DNS name label` to **"gitlab-ce-test"**. 
+This will make our VM accessible at `gitlab-ce-test.centralus.cloudapp.azure.com` 
+_(the full domain name of your own VM will be different, of course)_. 
+
+Click **"Save"** for the changes to take effect.
+
+>**Note:** if you want to use your own domain name, you will need to add a DNS `A` record at your 
+domain registrar which points to the public IP address of your Azure VM. If you do this, you'll need 
+to make sure your VM is configured to use a _static_ public IP address (i.e. not a _dynamic_ one) 
+or you will have to reconfigure the DNS `A` record each time Azure reassigns your VM a new public IP 
+address. Read [IP address types and allocation methods in Azure][Azure-IP-Address-Types] to learn more.
+
+### Let's open some ports!
+
+At this stage you should have a running and fully operational VM. However, none of the services on 
+your VM (e.g. GitLab) will be publicly accessible via the internet until you have opened up the 
+neccessary ports to enable access to those services.
+
+Ports are opened by adding _security rules_ to the **"Network security group"** (NSG) which our VM 
+has been assigned to. If you followed the process above, then Azure will have automatically created 
+an NSG named `GitLab-CE-nsg` and assigned the `GitLab-CE` VM to it. 
+
+>**Note:** if you gave your VM a different name then the NSG automatically created by Azure will 
+also have a different name - the name you have your VM, with `-nsg` appended to it.
+
+You can navigate to the NSG settings via many different routes in the Azure Portal, but one of the 
+simplest ways is to go to the Azure Dashboard, and then click on the Network Security Group listed 
+in the **"All resources"** tile:
+
+![Azure - Dashboard - All resources - Network security group](img/azure-dashboard-highlight-nsg.png)
+
+With the **"Network security group"** blade open, click on **"Inbound security rules"** under 
+**"Settings"**:
+
+![Azure - Network security group - Inbound security rules](img/azure-nsg-inbound-sec-rules-highlight.png)
+
+Next, click **"Add"**:
+
+![Azure - Network security group - Inbound security rules - Add](img/azure-nsg-inbound-sec-rules-add-highlight.png)
+
+#### Which ports to open?
+
+Like all servers, our VM will be running many services. However, we want to open up the correct 
+ports to enable public internet access to two services in particular:
+
+1. **HTTP** (port 80) - opening port 80 will enable our VM to respond to HTTP requests, allowing 
+public access to the instance of GitLab running on our VM.
+1. **SSH** (port 22) - opening port 22 will enable our VM to respond to SSH connection requests, 
+allowing public access (with authentication) to remote terminal sessions 
+_(you'll see why we need [SSH] access to our VM [later on in this tutorial](#maintaining-your-gitlab-instance))_
+
+#### Open HTTP on Port 80
+
+In the **"Add inbound security rule"** blade, let's open port 80 so that our VM will accept HTTP 
+connections:
+
+![Azure - Add inbound security rules - HTTP](img/azure-add-inbound-sec-rule-http.png)
+
+1. Enter **"HTTP"** in the `Name` field
+1. Select **HTTP** from the options in the `Service` drop-down
+1. Make sure the `Action` is set to **Allow**
+1. Click **"OK"**
+
+#### Open SSH on Port 22
+
+Repeat the above process, adding a second Inbound security rule to open port 22, enabling our VM to 
+accept [SSH] connections:
+
+![Azure - Add inbound security rules - SSH](img/azure-add-inbound-sec-rule-ssh.png)
+
+1. Enter **"SSH"** in the `Name` field
+1. Select **SSH** from the options in the `Service` drop-down
+1. Make sure the `Action` is set to **Allow**
+1. Click **"OK"**
+
+
+It will take a moment for Azure to add each new Inbound Security Rule (and you may need to click on 
+**"Inbound security rules"** to refresh the list), but once completed, you should see the two new 
+rules in the list:
+
+![Azure - Inbound security rules - List](img/azure-inbound-sec-rules-list.png)
+
+## Connecting to GitLab
+Use the domain name you set up earlier (or the public IP address) to visit your new GitLab instance 
+in your browser. If everything has gone according to plan you should be presented with the 
+following page, asking you to set a _new_ password for the administrator account automatically
+created by GitLab:
+
+![GitLab - Change Password](img/gitlab-change-password.png)
+
+Enter your _new_ password into both form fields, and then click **"Change your password"**.
+
+Once you have changed the password you will be redirected to the GitLab login page. Use `root` as 
+the username, enter the new password you set in the previous step, and then click **"Sign in"**:
+
+![GitLab - Login](img/gitlab-login.png)
+
+### Success?
+
+After signing in successfully, you should see the GitLab Projects page displaying a 
+**"Welcome to GitLab!"** message:
+
+![GitLab - Projects Page](img/gitlab-home.png)
+
+If so, you now have a working GitLab instance on your own private Azure VM. **Congratulations!** 
+
+## Creating your first GitLab project
+
+You can skip this section if you are familiar with Git and GitLab. Otherwise, let's create our first 
+project. From the Welcome page, click **"New Project"**.
+
+Let's give our project a name and a description, and then accept the default values for everything 
+else:
+
+1. Enter **"demo"** into the `Project path` project name field
+1. Enter a `description`, e.g. **"My awesome demo project!"**
+1. Click **"Create project"**
+
+![GitLab - New Project](img/gitlab-new-project.png)
+
+Once the new project has been created (which should only take a moment), you'll be redirected to 
+homepage for the project:
+
+![GitLab - Empty Project](img/gitlab-project-home-empty.png)
+
+If you scroll further down the project's home page, you'll see some basic instructions on how to 
+setup a local clone of your new repository and push and pull from it:
+
+![GitLab - Empty Project - Basic Instructions](img/gitlab-project-home-instructions.png)
+
+**That's it! You now have your own private GitLab environment installed and running in the cloud!**
+
+## Maintaining your GitLab instance
+
+It's important to keep your GitLab environment up-to-date. The GitLab team is constantly making 
+enhancements and occasionally you may need to update for security reasons. So let's review how to 
+update GitLab. 
+
+### Checking our current version
+
+To check which version of GitLab we're currently running, click on the "Admin Area" link - it's the
+the wrench icon displayed in the top-right, next to the search box. 
+
+In the following screenshot you can see an **"update asap"** notification message in the top-right. 
+This particular message indicates that there is a newer version of GitLab available which contains 
+one or more security fixes:
+
+![GitLab - update asap](img/gitlab-admin-area.png)
+
+Under the **"Components"** section, we can see that our VM is currently running version `8.6.5` of 
+GitLab. This is the version of GitLab which was contained in the Azure Marketplace 
+**"GitLab Community Edition"** offering we used to build the VM when we wrote this tutorial. 
+
+>**Note:** The version of GitLab in your own VM instance may well be different, but the update 
+process will still be the same.
+
+### Connect via SSH
+
+To perform an update, we need to connect directly to our Azure VM instance and run some commands 
+from the terminal. Our Azure VM is actually a server running Linux (Ubuntu), so we'll need to 
+connect to it using SSH ([Secure Shell][SSH]). 
+
+If you're running Windows, you'll need to connect using [PuTTY] or an equivalent Windows SSH client. 
+If you're running Linux or macOS, then you already have an SSH client installed. 
+
+>**Note:** 
+- Remember that you will need to login with the username and password you specified 
+[when you created](#basics) your Azure VM
+- If you need to reset your VM password, read 
+[how to reset SSH credentials for a user on an Azure VM][Azure-Troubleshoot-SSH-Connection].
+
+#### SSH from the command-line
+
+If you're running [SSH] from the command-line (terminal), then type in the following command to 
+connect to your VM, substituting `username` and `your-azure-domain-name.com` for the correct values. 
+
+Again, remember that your Azure VM domain name will be the one you 
+[setup previously in the tutorial](#set-up-a-domain-name). If you didn't setup a domain name for 
+your VM, you can use the IP address in its place in the following command:
+
+```bash
+ssh username@your-azure-domain-name.com
+```
+Provide your password at the prompt to authenticate.
+
+#### SSH from Windows (PuTTY)
+
+If you're using [PuTTY] in Windows as your [SSH] client, then you might want to take a quick 
+read on [using PuTTY in Windows][Using-SSH-In-Putty].
+
+### Updating GitLab
+
+Once you've logged in via SSH, enter the following command to update GitLab to the latest
+version:
+
+```bash
+sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce
+```
+
+This command will update GitLab and its associated components to the latest versions, so it will 
+take a little time to complete. You'll see various update tasks being completed in your SSH 
+terminal window:
+
+![GitLab updating](img/gitlab-ssh-update-in-progress.png)
+
+Once the update process has completed, you'll see a message like this:
+
+```
+Upgrade complete! If your GitLab server is misbehaving try running
+
+   sudo gitlab-ctl restart
+
+before anything else.
+```
+
+#### Check out your updated GitLab
+
+Refresh your GitLab instance in the browser and navigate to the Admin Area. You should now have an 
+up-to-date GitLab instance. 
+
+When we wrote this tutorial our Azure VM GitLab instance was updated to the latest version at time 
+of writing (`9.4.0`). You can see that the message which was previously displaying **"update asap"** 
+is now showing **"up-to-date"**:
+
+![GitLab up to date](img/gitlab-admin-area-9.4.0.png)
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Naturally, we believe that GitLab is a great git repository tool. However, GitLab is a whole lot 
+more than that too. GitLab unifies issues, code review, CI and CD into a single UI, helping you to 
+move faster from idea to production, and in this tutorial we showed you how quick and easy it is to 
+setup and run your own instance of GitLab on Azure, Microsoft's cloud service. 
+
+Azure is a great way to experiment with GitLab, and if you decide (as we hope) that GitLab is for 
+you, you can continue to use Azure as your secure, scalable cloud provider or of course run GitLab
+on any cloud service you choose.
+
+## Where to next?
+
+Check out our other [Technical Articles][GitLab-Technical-Articles] or browse the [GitLab Documentation][GitLab-Docs] to learn more about GitLab.
+
+### Useful links
+
+- [GitLab Community Edition][CE]
+- [GitLab Enterprise Edition][EE]
+- [Microsoft Azure][Azure]
+    - [Azure - Free Account FAQ][Azure-Free-Account-FAQ]
+    - [Azure - Marketplace][Azure-Marketplace]
+    - [Azure Portal][Azure-Portal]
+    - [Azure - Pricing Calculator][Azure-Pricing-Calculator]
+    - [Azure - Troubleshoot SSH Connections to an Azure Linux VM][Azure-Troubleshoot-SSH-Connection]
+    - [Azure - Properly Shutdown an Azure VM][Azure-Properly-Shutdown-VM]
+- [SSH], [PuTTY] and [Using SSH in PuTTY][Using-SSH-In-Putty]
+
+[Original-Blog-Post]: https://about.gitlab.com/2016/07/13/how-to-setup-a-gitlab-instance-on-microsoft-azure/ "How to Setup a GitLab Instance on Microsoft Azure"
+[GitLab-Docs]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/README.html "GitLab Documentation"
+[GitLab-Technical-Articles]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/articles/index.html "GitLab Technical Articles"
+[GitLab-Docs-SSH]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/ssh/README.html "GitLab Documentation: SSH"
+[CE]: https://about.gitlab.com/features/
+[EE]: https://about.gitlab.com/features/#ee-starter
+
+[Azure-Troubleshoot-Linux-VM]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/troubleshoot-app-connection "Troubleshoot application connectivity issues on a Linux virtual machine in Azure"
+[Azure-IP-Address-Types]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-ip-addresses-overview-arm "IP address types and allocation methods in Azure"
+[Azure-How-To-Open-Ports]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/nsg-quickstart-portal "How to open ports to a virtual machine with the Azure portal"
+[Azure-Troubleshoot-SSH-Connection]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/troubleshoot-ssh-connection "Troubleshoot SSH connections to an Azure Linux VM"
+[Azure]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/
+[Azure-Free-Account-FAQ]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/free-account-faq/
+[Azure-Marketplace]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/
+[Azure-Portal]: https://portal.azure.com
+[Azure-Pricing-Calculator]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/
+[Azure-Properly-Shutdown-VM]: https://buildazure.com/2017/03/16/properly-shutdown-azure-vm-to-save-money/ "Properly Shutdown an Azure VM to Save Money"
+
+[SSH]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell
+[PuTTY]: http://www.putty.org/
+[Using-SSH-In-Putty]: https://mediatemple.net/community/products/dv/204404604/using-ssh-in-putty-
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