How to Backup and Restore Omnibus GitLab

When we backup GitLab, there are two components that need to be backed up:

1. GitLab Configuration Files
2. Gitlab Application Files

1. GitLab Configuration Backup

GitLab configuration files consist of user information who are using two-factor authentication. If you do not back-up the configuration files, the users will lose access to the GitLab server.

The GitLab configuration file is located in: /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json

The command to backup GitLab configuration file is as follows:

# sudo gitlab-ctl backup-etc <DIRECTORY>

By default, the configuration backup is stored in : /etc/gitlab/config_backup/.

Daily Backup

You can create a daily backup as a root user by using the following command:

# sudo crontab -e -u root

Daily back-up will run every day at 04:30 AM:

30 04 * * * sudo gitlab-ctl backup-etc

Restore from Backup

To restore the backup file, you need to extract the tar file by using this command:

# sudo tar -xf gitlab_config_1487687824_date.tar -C /

Next, run sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure after restoring a configuration backup.

sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

2. GitLab Application Backup

GitLab application backup creates a backup for the following items:

1. Database
2. Attachments
3. Git repositories data
4. CI/CD job output logs
5. CI/CD job artifacts
6. LFS objects
7. Container Registry images
8. GitLab Pages content

GitLab application backup is created separately in /var/opt/gitlab/backups/.

You can use the following command to create application backup:

# sudo gitlab-backup create

Daily Backup

In order to create daily backup, run following command:

# sudo crontab -e -u root

0 2 * * * /opt/gitlab/bin/gitlab-backup create CRON=1

The daily backup will be created every day at 02:00 AM.

Restore from Backup

To restore the backup, you need to stop GitLab by using the following commands:

sudo gitlab-ctl stop unicorn
sudo gitlab-ctl stop puma
sudo gitlab-ctl stop sidekiq
# Verify
sudo gitlab-ctl status

The default user created by GitLab is named as ‘git’. If you want to restore from backup change the ownership of the backup file located in /var/opt/gitlab/backups/ to the user ‘git’ by using the following command:

# sudo chown git:git /var/opt/gitlab/backups/11493107454_2018_04_25_10.6.4-ce_gitlab_backup.tar

Next, use the following command to restore a backup for GitLab:

# This command will overwrite the contents of your GitLab database!
sudo gitlab-backup restore BACKUP=1493107454_2018_04_25_10.6.4-ce

Once the backup is restored, reconfigure GitLab server:

sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
sudo gitlab-ctl restart
# Verify
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true

The last command, gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true will help us to verify if everything went smoothly or not.