--- stage: Release group: Release info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments --- # GitLab Pages administration for source installations **(FREE SELF)** NOTE: Before attempting to enable GitLab Pages, first make sure you have [installed GitLab](../../install/installation.md) successfully. This is the documentation for configuring a GitLab Pages when you have installed GitLab from source and not using the Omnibus packages. You are encouraged to read the [Omnibus documentation](index.md) as it provides some invaluable information to the configuration of GitLab Pages. Please proceed to read it before going forward with this guide. We also highly recommend that you use the Omnibus GitLab packages. We optimize them specifically for GitLab, and we take care of upgrading GitLab Pages to the latest supported version. ## Overview GitLab Pages makes use of the [GitLab Pages daemon](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages), a simple HTTP server written in Go that can listen on an external IP address and provide support for custom domains and custom certificates. It supports dynamic certificates through SNI and exposes pages using HTTP2 by default. You are encouraged to read its [README](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages/blob/master/README.md) to fully understand how it works. In the case of [custom domains](#custom-domains) (but not [wildcard domains](#wildcard-domains)), the Pages daemon needs to listen on ports `80` and/or `443`. For that reason, there is some flexibility in the way which you can set it up: 1. Run the Pages daemon in the same server as GitLab, listening on a secondary IP. 1. Run the Pages daemon in a separate server. In that case, the [Pages path](#change-storage-path) must also be present in the server that the Pages daemon is installed, so you must share it through the network. 1. Run the Pages daemon in the same server as GitLab, listening on the same IP but on different ports. In that case, you must proxy the traffic with a load balancer. If you choose that route, you should use TCP load balancing for HTTPS. If you use TLS-termination (HTTPS-load balancing), the pages aren't able to be served with user-provided certificates. For HTTP, it's OK to use HTTP or TCP load balancing. In this document, we proceed assuming the first option. If you aren't supporting custom domains, a secondary IP isn't needed. ## Prerequisites Before proceeding with the Pages configuration, make sure that: 1. You have a separate domain to serve GitLab Pages from. In this document we assume that to be `example.io`. 1. You have configured a **wildcard DNS record** for that domain. 1. You have installed the `zip` and `unzip` packages in the same server that GitLab is installed since they are needed to compress and decompress the Pages artifacts. 1. (Optional) You have a **wildcard certificate** for the Pages domain if you decide to serve Pages (`*.example.io`) under HTTPS. 1. (Optional but recommended) You have configured and enabled the [shared runners](../../ci/runners/index.md) so that your users don't have to bring their own. ### DNS configuration GitLab Pages expect to run on their own virtual host. In your DNS server/provider you need to add a [wildcard DNS A record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_DNS_record) pointing to the host that GitLab runs. For example, an entry would look like this: ```plaintext *.example.io. 1800 IN A 192.0.2.1 ``` Where `example.io` is the domain to serve GitLab Pages from, and `192.0.2.1` is the IP address of your GitLab instance. NOTE: You should not use the GitLab domain to serve user pages. For more information see the [security section](#security). ## Configuration Depending on your needs, you can set up GitLab Pages in 4 different ways. The following options are listed from the easiest setup to the most advanced one. The absolute minimum requirement is to set up the wildcard DNS since that is needed in all configurations. ### Wildcard domains **Requirements:** - [Wildcard DNS setup](#dns-configuration) URL scheme: `http://.example.io/` This is the minimum setup that you can use Pages with. It is the base for all other setups as described below. NGINX proxies all requests to the daemon. The Pages daemon doesn't listen to the outside world. 1. Install the Pages daemon: ```shell cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages.git cd gitlab-pages sudo -u git -H git checkout v$( /home/git/gitlab/gitlab-pages-secret ``` 1. Edit `/etc/default/gitlab` and set `gitlab_pages_enabled` to `true` in order to enable the pages daemon: ```ini gitlab_pages_enabled=true ``` 1. Copy the `gitlab-pages` NGINX configuration file: ```shell sudo cp lib/support/nginx/gitlab-pages /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab-pages.conf sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-{available,enabled}/gitlab-pages.conf ``` 1. Restart NGINX 1. [Restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source) ### Wildcard domains with TLS support **Requirements:** - [Wildcard DNS setup](#dns-configuration) - Wildcard TLS certificate URL scheme: `https://.example.io/` NGINX proxies all requests to the daemon. Pages daemon doesn't listen to the outside world. 1. Install the Pages daemon: ```shell cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages.git cd gitlab-pages sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(.example.io/` and `http://custom-domain.com` In that case, the pages daemon is running, NGINX still proxies requests to the daemon but the daemon is also able to receive requests from the outside world. Custom domains are supported, but no TLS. 1. Install the Pages daemon: ```shell cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages.git cd gitlab-pages sudo -u git -H git checkout v$(.example.io/` and `https://custom-domain.com` In that case, the pages daemon is running, NGINX still proxies requests to the daemon but the daemon is also able to receive requests from the outside world. Custom domains and TLS are supported. 1. Install the Pages daemon: ```shell cd /home/git sudo -u git -H git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages.git cd gitlab-pages sudo -u git -H git checkout v$( [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/33422) in GitLab 11.5. GitLab Pages access control can be configured per-project, and allows access to a Pages site to be controlled based on a user's membership to that project. Access control works by registering the Pages daemon as an OAuth application with GitLab. Whenever a request to access a private Pages site is made by an unauthenticated user, the Pages daemon redirects the user to GitLab. If authentication is successful, the user is redirected back to Pages with a token, which is persisted in a cookie. The cookies are signed with a secret key, so tampering can be detected. Each request to view a resource in a private site is authenticated by Pages using that token. For each request it receives, it makes a request to the GitLab API to check that the user is authorized to read that site. From [GitLab 12.8](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/merge_requests/3689) onward, Access Control parameters for Pages are set in a configuration file, which by convention is named `gitlab-pages-config`. The configuration file is passed to pages using the `-config flag` or `CONFIG` environment variable. Pages access control is disabled by default. To enable it: 1. Modify your `config/gitlab.yml` file: ```yaml pages: access_control: true ``` 1. [Restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source). 1. Create a new [system OAuth application](../../integration/oauth_provider.md#user-owned-applications). This should be called `GitLab Pages` and have a `Redirect URL` of `https://projects.example.io/auth`. It does not need to be a "trusted" application, but it does need the `api` scope. 1. Start the Pages daemon by passing a configuration file with the following arguments: ```shell auth-client-id= auth-client-secret= auth-redirect-uri='http://projects.example.io/auth' auth-secret=<40 random hex characters> auth-server= ``` 1. Users can now configure it in their [projects' settings](../../user/project/pages/introduction.md#gitlab-pages-access-control). ## Change storage path Follow the steps below to change the default path where GitLab Pages' contents are stored. 1. Pages are stored by default in `/home/git/gitlab/shared/pages`. If you wish to store them in another location you must set it up in `gitlab.yml` under the `pages` section: ```yaml pages: enabled: true # The location where pages are stored (default: shared/pages). path: /mnt/storage/pages ``` 1. [Restart GitLab](../restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source) ## Set maximum Pages size The default for the maximum size of unpacked archives per project is 100 MB. To change this value: 1. On the top bar, select **Menu >** **{admin}** **Admin**. 1. On the left sidebar, select **Settings > Preferences**. 1. Expand **Pages**. 1. Update the value for **Maximum size of pages (MB)**. ## Backup Pages are part of the [regular backup](../../raketasks/backup_restore.md) so there is nothing to configure. ## Security You should strongly consider running GitLab Pages under a different hostname than GitLab to prevent XSS attacks.