Uploads administration

Uploads represent all user data that may be sent to GitLab as a single file. As an example, avatars and notes’ attachments are uploads. Uploads are integral to GitLab functionality, and therefore cannot be disabled.

Using local storage

Note: This is the default configuration

To change the location where the uploads are stored locally, follow the steps below.

In Omnibus installations:

Note: For historical reasons, uploads are stored into a base directory, which by default is uploads/-/system. It is strongly discouraged to change this configuration option on an existing GitLab installation.

The uploads are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/uploads.

  1. To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/uploads, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line: 

    gitlab_rails['uploads_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/"
gitlab_rails['uploads_base_dir'] = "uploads"

  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

In installations from source:

The uploads are stored by default in /home/git/gitlab/public/uploads/-/system.

  1. To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/uploads, edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    uploads:
  storage_path: /mnt/storage
  base_dir: uploads

  2. Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using object storage

Version history

Notes:

If you don’t want to use the local disk where GitLab is installed to store the uploads, you can use an object storage provider like AWS S3 instead. This configuration relies on valid AWS credentials to be configured already.

Read more about using object storage with GitLab.

Object Storage Settings

For source installations the following settings are nested under uploads: and then object_store:. On Omnibus GitLab installs they are prefixed by uploads_object_store_.

Setting Description Default
enabled Enable/disable object storage false
remote_directory The bucket name where Uploads will be stored  
direct_upload Set to true to remove Puma from the Upload path. Workhorse handles the actual Artifact Upload to Object Storage while Puma does minimal processing to keep track of the upload. There is no need for local shared storage. The option may be removed if support for a single storage type for all files is introduced. Read more on direct upload. false
background_upload Set to false to disable automatic upload. Option may be removed once upload is direct to S3 (if direct_upload is set to true it will override background_upload) true
proxy_download Set to true to enable proxying all files served. Option allows to reduce egress traffic as this allows clients to download directly from remote storage instead of proxying all data false
connection Various connection options described below  

S3-compatible connection settings

The connection settings match those provided by Fog, and are as follows:

Setting Description Default
provider Always AWS for compatible hosts AWS
aws_access_key_id AWS credentials, or compatible  
aws_secret_access_key AWS credentials, or compatible  
aws_signature_version AWS signature version to use. 2 or 4 are valid options. Digital Ocean Spaces and other providers may need 2. 4
enable_signature_v4_streaming Set to true to enable HTTP chunked transfers with AWS v4 signatures. Oracle Cloud S3 needs this to be false. true
region AWS region us-east-1
host S3 compatible host for when not using AWS, e.g. localhost or storage.example.com s3.amazonaws.com
endpoint Can be used when configuring an S3 compatible service such as MinIO, by entering a URL such as http://127.0.0.1:9000 (optional)
path_style Set to true to use host/bucket_name/object style paths instead of bucket_name.host/object. Leave as false for AWS S3. false
use_iam_profile Set to true to use IAM profile instead of access keys false

In Omnibus installations:

The uploads are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/public/uploads/-/system.

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines by replacing with the values you want: 

    gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_remote_directory'] = "uploads"
gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'aws_access_key_id' => 'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
  'aws_secret_access_key' => 'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'
}
    Note: If you are using AWS IAM profiles, be sure to omit the AWS access key and secret access key/value pairs.
    gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'use_iam_profile' => true
}
  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local uploads to the object storage using gitlab:uploads:migrate Rake task.

In installations from source:

The uploads are stored by default in /home/git/gitlab/public/uploads/-/system.

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    uploads:
  object_store:
    enabled: true
    remote_directory: "uploads" # The bucket name
    connection:
      provider: AWS # Only AWS supported at the moment
      aws_access_key_id: AWS_ACESS_KEY_ID
      aws_secret_access_key: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
      region: eu-central-1
  2. Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local uploads to the object storage using gitlab:uploads:migrate Rake task.

Oracle Cloud S3 connection settings

Note that Oracle Cloud S3 must be sure to use the following settings:

Setting Value
enable_signature_v4_streaming false
path_style true

If enable_signature_v4_streaming is set to true, you may see the following error: 

STREAMING-AWS4-HMAC-SHA256-PAYLOAD is not supported

OpenStack compatible connection settings

The connection settings match those provided by Fog, and are as follows:

Setting Description Default
provider Always OpenStack for compatible hosts OpenStack
openstack_username OpenStack username  
openstack_api_key OpenStack API key  
openstack_temp_url_key OpenStack key for generating temporary URLs  
openstack_auth_url OpenStack authentication endpoint  
openstack_region OpenStack region  
openstack_tenant OpenStack tenant ID  

In Omnibus installations:

The uploads are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/public/uploads/-/system.

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines by replacing with the values you want: 

    gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_remote_directory'] = "OPENSTACK_OBJECT_CONTAINER_NAME"
gitlab_rails['uploads_object_store_connection'] = {
 'provider' => 'OpenStack',
 'openstack_username' => 'OPENSTACK_USERNAME',
 'openstack_api_key' => 'OPENSTACK_PASSWORD',
 'openstack_temp_url_key' => 'OPENSTACK_TEMP_URL_KEY',
 'openstack_auth_url' => 'https://auth.cloud.ovh.net/v2.0/',
 'openstack_region' => 'DE1',
 'openstack_tenant' => 'TENANT_ID',
}
  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local uploads to the object storage using gitlab:uploads:migrate Rake task.

In installations from source:

The uploads are stored by default in /home/git/gitlab/public/uploads/-/system.

  1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines: 

    uploads:
  object_store:
    enabled: true
    direct_upload: false
    background_upload: true
    proxy_download: false
    remote_directory: OPENSTACK_OBJECT_CONTAINER_NAME
    connection:
      provider: OpenStack
      openstack_username: OPENSTACK_USERNAME
      openstack_api_key: OPENSTACK_PASSWORD
      openstack_temp_url_key: OPENSTACK_TEMP_URL_KEY
      openstack_auth_url: 'https://auth.cloud.ovh.net/v2.0/'
      openstack_region: DE1
      openstack_tenant: 'TENANT_ID'
  2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
  3. Migrate any existing local uploads to the object storage using gitlab:uploads:migrate Rake task.