GitLab is a popular open-source version control platform that provides a wide range of features for managing and collaborating on code repositories. One way to install and run GitLab is by using Docker, which allows you to quickly and easily set up a GitLab instance without having to worry about dependencies or other system-level configurations. In this article, we will explain how to install GitLab with Docker on Ubuntu 22.04.

Before you begin, make sure that you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your Ubuntu server. You can check if Docker is installed by running the following command:

sudo docker --version

If Docker is not installed, you can install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get install docker.io

Once Docker is installed, you can check if Docker Compose is installed by running the following command:

sudo docker-compose --version

If Docker Compose is not installed, you can install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get install docker-compose

Once Docker and Docker Compose are installed, you can proceed with installing GitLab. To do this, you need to create a new directory where GitLab will store its data and configuration files. For example, you can create a gitlab directory in the /srv directory using the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /srv/gitlab/config /srv/gitlab/data /srv/gitlab/logs

Next, you need to create a docker-compose.yml file in the /srv/gitlab directory. You can use a text editor to create this file, or you can use the following command to create it using the touch command:

sudo touch /srv/gitlab/docker-compose.yml

Once the docker-compose.yml file is created, you can add the following content to it, which will define the Docker containers and settings for GitLab:

version: "3.1"

services:
  gitlab:
    image: 'gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest'
    restart: always
    hostname: 'gitlab.example.com'
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        external_url '<http://gitlab.example.com>'
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
      - '2222:22'
    volumes:
      - '/srv/gitlab/config:/etc/gitlab'
      - '/srv/gitlab/logs:/var/log/gitlab'
      - '/srv/gitlab/data:/var/opt/gitlab'

This docker-compose.yml file defines a single Docker container for GitLab, using the latest GitLab Community Edition image. It specifies the hostname for the GitLab instance, as well as the external URL that should be used to access GitLab. It also maps the necessary ports and volumes, so that GitLab can access its configuration, data, and log files.

Once you have created the docker-compose.yml file, you can use Docker Compose to start the GitLab container by running the following command:

sudo docker-compose up -d

This will start the GitLab container in the background, using the settings specified in the docker-compose.yml file. Once the container is running, you can visit the external URL that you specified in the docker-compose.yml file (in this case, http://gitlab.example.com) to access the GitLab web interface.

The first time you visit the GitLab web interface, you will be prompted to set a password for the root user. This is the default administrative user for GitLab, and you will use this user to log in and manage your GitLab instance. Once you have set the password for the root user, you can log in to GitLab and start using it to manage your code repositories.

In conclusion, installing GitLab with Docker on Ubuntu 22.04 is a simple and convenient way to set up a GitLab instance on your server. By using Docker, you can quickly and easily get GitLab up and running, without having to worry about dependencies or system-level configurations. This makes it a useful option for developers and teams who want to use GitLab for managing and collaborating on code repositories.