Two weeks back, I migrated from an older version of Gitlab - v7.1.1 to v8.9.6. The task was to get all the existing code residing on the older version of Gitlab which needed to be migrated to the new Gitlab server. This should have been a fairly simple task considering Gitlab v8.9.6 has an import feature which allows user to import a project from various sources. This feature was not going to help, my old and new gitlab servers could not talk to each other as theyr were in two different clouds which were seperated on different physical network.
Here’s the case :
Problem : Migrating gitlab projects from a gitlab server across diffrent cloud.
Challenge : Migrate gitlab project along with all the project commits.
Solution :
- Take backup of all projects on old gitlab server on to any development host.
git clone --mirror git@oldgitlab.server:me/Consul.git
This will create a clone of old gitlab repo ‘Consul’ - with files, commits i.e. it creates a bare repository.
- Copy the Consul.git directory to the new gitlab server under the following directory path - /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root/
root@gitlab:/home/ubuntu# ls -lh /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root/
total 20K
drwxrwx--- 7 git git 4.0K Jul 14 13:17 Consul.git
drwxr-xr-x 7 git git 4.0K Jul 19 11:35 gittest.git
- Execute gitlab-rake command to import repository This should create and register a project repository on the new gitlab server.
root@gitlab:/home/ubuntu# gitlab-rake gitlab:import:repos
Processing root/Consul.git
Consul (root/Consul.git) exists
Processing root/gittest.git
Instance method "run" is already defined in Object, use generic helper instead or set StateMachines::Machine.ignore_method_conflicts = true.
Failed trying to create gittest (root/gittest.git)
Errors: {:base=>["Failed to create repository via gitlab-shell"]}
- As an error is encountered in gitlab-rake command, our migration of one of the repository is not successful.
We need to set proper user and file permissions on the project repository directory being added.
root@gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root# chown git.git -R gittest.git
root@gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root# ls -lh
total 20K
drwxrwx--- 7 git git 4.0K Jul 14 13:17 Consul.git
drwxr-xr-x 7 git git 4.0K Jul 19 11:35 gittest.git
Next fix the directory and file permission
root@gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root# chmod o-xr -R gittest.git
root@gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root# ls -lh
total 20K
drwxrwx--- 7 git git 4.0K Jul 14 13:17 Consul.git
drwxrwx--- 7 git git 4.0K Jul 19 11:35 gittest.git
There is a possibilty that the hooks directory in a repository might have a symlink pointing to another directory, remove this symlink.
root@gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root# gitlab-rake gitlab:import:repos
Processing root/Consul.git
* Consul (root/Consul.git) exists
Processing root/gittest.git
* Created gittest (root/gittest.git)
Done!
Congratulations you have migrated gitlab repository.