how to install gitlab on a directadmin server

I have a VPS with directadmin and few other websites on it, i want to install gitlab without damaging other sites. currently tried but it will show up on all domains. it seems external_url is ignored completely.

it took me a day to figure out how to do it and i'm gonna share it with others, hope it helps!

if you're a beginner like me you should know these two things:

1- all the configurations are in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

2- every time you change gitlab.rb you have to run gitlab-ctl reconfigure and gitlab-ctl restart

ok.. the problem is that gitlab is bundled with nginx by default and it will break your apache setup. in order to fix that.

1- open your gitlab.rb configuration file: nano /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

2- make sure your external_url is set correctly like: gitlab.your-domain.tld

3- find and set nginx['enable'] = false, it's commented by default, remove # from the beginning of the line to uncomment.

4- find and set web_server['external_users'] = ['admin'] it's very important since directadmin is not using default apache user 'www-data'

5- find and set gitlab_workhorse['listen_network'] = "tcp"

6- and finally set gitlab_workhorse['listen_addr'] = "127.0.0.1:8181"

OPTIONAL to set smtp server create an email account in your directadmin and then set it by updating following configurations:

gitlab_rails['smtp_enable'] = true
gitlab_rails['smtp_address'] = "mail.domain.tld"
gitlab_rails['smtp_port'] = 587
gitlab_rails['smtp_user_name'] = "gitlab@domain.tld"
gitlab_rails['smtp_password'] = "email_password_here"
gitlab_rails['smtp_domain'] = "domain.tld"
gitlab_rails['smtp_authentication'] = "plain"
gitlab_rails['smtp_enable_starttls_auto'] = false

now save the file and run gitlab-ctl reconfigure then gitlab-ctl restart in order changes take effect.

now you're gitlab is ready, all you have to do now is to create subdomain that you used ex: gitlab for your domain. after you created the subdomain in your directadmin go to Admin Level > Custom HTTPD Configurations click on your domain and paste the following text into the blank text area: (note that you should change gitlab.your-domain.tld to whatever you set for external_url in gitlab.rb:

  ServerName gitlab.your-domain.tld
  ServerSignature Off

  ProxyPreserveHost On

  # Ensure that encoded slashes are not decoded but left in their encoded state.
  # http://doc.gitlab.com/ce/api/projects.html#get-single-project
  AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode

  <Location />
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all

    #Allow forwarding to gitlab-workhorse
    ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8181
    ProxyPassReverse http://gitlab.your-domain.tld/
  </Location>

  # Apache equivalent of nginx try files
  # http://serverfault.com/questions/290784/what-is-apaches-equivalent-of-nginxs-try-files
  # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10954516/apache2-proxypass-for-rails-app-gitlab
  RewriteEngine on

  #Forward all requests to gitlab-workhorse except existing files like error documents
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/uploads/.*
  RewriteRule .* http://127.0.0.1:8181%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,NE]

  # needed for downloading attachments
  DocumentRoot /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails/public

  #Set up apache error documents, if back end goes down (i.e. 503 error) then a maintenance/deploy page is thrown up.
  ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
  ErrorDocument 422 /422.html
  ErrorDocument 500 /500.html
  ErrorDocument 502 /502.html
  ErrorDocument 503 /503.html

that's it! you should be able to use your gitlab setup now without breaking other sites on your server. hope it helps!