Gitlab Server Community Edition (CE) Backup and restore

Backup Steps for Gitlab Omnibus installations:

A backup creates an archive file that contains the database, all repositories and all attachments. The filename will be [TIMESTAMP]_gitlab_backup.tar and default backup/restore directory is var/opt/gitlab/backups. This timestamp can be used to restore an specific backup.  You can only restore a backup to exactly the same version of GitLab Server. You need to keep a separate copy of /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json . This file contains the database encryption key used for two-factor authentication.

Use the below syntax to create backup of Gitlab Server CE:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:create Dumping database ... Dumping PostgreSQL database gitlabhq_production ... [DONE] Compressing database ... [DONE] done Dumping repositories ...  * Test-repository1_BaseVersion ... [DONE]  * Test-repository2_BaseVersion.wiki ...  [DONE]  * Test-repository4.wiki ...  [SKIPPED]  * testuser1 ... [SKIPPED]  * testuser1.wiki ...  [SKIPPED] done Dumping uploads ... done Dumping builds ... done Creating backup archive: 1457963178_gitlab_backup.tar ... done Uploading backup archive to remote storage  ... skipped Deleting tmp directories ... done done done done done Deleting old backups ... skipping [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Backup Restore steps for Gitlab CE Omnibus installations

First make sure your backup tar file is in /var/opt/gitlab/backups 

Next, restore the backup by running the restore command. You need to specify the timestamp of the backup that you are restoring.

Stop below mention process which are connected to the database:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-ctl stop unicorn ok: down: unicorn: 0s, normally up [root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-ctl stop sidekiq ok: down: sidekiq: 1s, normally up

This command will overwrite the contents of your GitLab database and restore the backup data:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:restore BACKUP=1457963178 ……………….

GRANT [DONE] done Restoring repositories ...  * Test-repository1 ... [DONE]  * Test-repository2 ... [DONE]  * Test-repository3 ... [DONE]  * Test-repository4 ... [DONE] * testuser1 ... [DONE] Put GitLab hooks in repositories dirs [DONE] done Restoring uploads ... done Restoring builds ... done This will rebuild an authorized_keys file. You will lose any data stored in authorized_keys file. Do you want to continue (yes/no)? yes . Deleting tmp directories ... done done done done done [root@linuxcnf ~]#

When restoration finish run the below command to start gitlab server:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-ctl start

Check GitLab Data restoration status:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true

Configure cron to make daily backups

For omnibus installations

To schedule a cron job that backsup your repositories automatically as scheduled time.

Add the following line in to cron to schedule the backup for everyday at 11 PM:

[root@linuxcnf ~]#crontab -e 0 23 * * * /opt/gitlab/bin/gitlab-rake gitlab:backup:create CRON=1