Update 2016-05-13: The following procedure works perfectly for migrations from version 8.0.4 to 8.7.5

A few days ago, I had to migrate a Gitlab instance installed in Docker from version 8.04 to 8.2.0. I followed the exact steps described in GitLab Docker images documentation. But it was not so easy! Of cource, it required some more! Thus, after 4 hours of errors, searching and trials I found the way! Thank god!

In this article we will make the assumption that Gitlab volumes are stored in /home/bob/docker-data/gitlab directory. Here are the exact steps I followed to make a successful migration:

1. Stop docker container

   1	docker stop gitlab

2. Backup docker volumes (all gitlab files)

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   backupDate=$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S") \ && cd /home/bob/docker-data/ \ && sudo tar zvcf gitlab-data-${backupDate}.tar.gz gitlab/

3. Optionally backup docker image

   1	docker save -o /home/bob/gitlab-ce-image.tar gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest

4. Remove docker container

   1	docker rm gitlab

5. Download the latest Gitlab docker image

   1	sudo docker pull gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest

6. After the image is downloaded create and run the container

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   docker run -d \ --hostname 192.168.1.1 \ --publish 8443:443 --publish 8082:80 --publish 2224:22 \ --name gitlab \ --restart always \ --volume /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime \ --volume /home/bob/docker-data/gitlab/config:/etc/gitlab \ --volume /home/bob/docker-data/gitlab/logs:/var/log/gitlab \ --volume /home/bob/docker-data/gitlab/data:/var/opt/gitlab \ gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest

7. The container starts and we observer the logs via:

   1	docker logs -f --tail 10 gitlab

8. The docker container started and we observed in the logs:

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   [2015-11-26T15:12:26+02:00] INFO: Retrying execution of execute[create gitlab database user], 19 attempt(s) left [2015-11-26T15:12:28+02:00] INFO: Retrying execution of execute[create gitlab database user], 18 attempt(s) left ... (some lines omitted) ... [2015-11-26T15:13:09+02:00] INFO: Retrying execution of execute[create gitlab database user], 0 attempt(s) left Error executing action `run` on resource 'execute[create gitlab database user]' Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed Expected process to exit with [0], but received '2' ---- Begin output of /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql --port 5432 -h /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql -d template1 -c "CREATE USER gitlab" ---- STDOUT: STDERR: psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory Is the server running locally and accepting connections on Unix domain socket "/var/opt/gitlab/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"? ---- End output of /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql --port 5432 -h /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql -d template1 -c "CREATE USER gitlab" ---- Ran /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql --port 5432 -h /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql -d template1 -c "CREATE USER gitlab" returned 2 Resource Declaration: # In /opt/gitlab/embedded/cookbooks/cache/cookbooks/gitlab/recipes/postgresql.rb 153: execute "create #{sql_user} database user" do 154: command "#{bin_dir}/psql --port #{pg_port} -h #{postgresql_socket_dir} -d template1 -c \"CREATE USER #{sql_user}\"" 155: user postgresql_user 156: # Added retries to give the service time to start on slower systems 157: retries 20 158: not_if { !pg_helper.is_running? || pg_helper.user_exists?(sql_user) } 159: end 160: Compiled Resource: # Declared in /opt/gitlab/embedded/cookbooks/cache/cookbooks/gitlab/recipes/postgresql.rb:153:in `block in from_file' execute("create gitlab database user") do action [:run] retries 20 retry_delay 2 default_guard_interpreter :execute command "/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql --port 5432 -h /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql -d template1 -c \"CREATE USER gitlab\"" backup 5 returns 0 user "gitlab-psql" declared_type :execute cookbook_name "gitlab" recipe_name "postgresql" not_if { #code block } end

   These are two known permission issues described in official documentation and in issue #9611. In order to overcome them, we execute:

   1 2	docker exec -it gitlab update-permissions docker exec gitlab chown -R gitlab-redis /var/opt/gitlab/redis

   and finally we restart the docker container:

   1	docker restart gitlab

9. Then we have to check if the database migration was successfull and avoid issue #3255. Thus, we log into bash shell:

   1	docker exec -t -i gitlab /bin/bash

   and we check the db migration status:

   1	sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate:status

   If everything is stated as up, we are OK. However, if we notice down migrations like this

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   up 20150920161119 Add line code to sent notification down 20150924125150 Add project id to ci commit down 20150924125436 Migrate project id for ci commits

   we have to rerun the database migration ourserlves:

   1	sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate

   When it finishes we have to check that everything went ok:

   1	sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate:status

10. While being inside the container bash shell, we reconfigure the installation:

    1	sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

    and then check that everything went ok:

    1	sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check

11. If everything is OK, then the command:

    1	sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production

    must return something like this:

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    System information System: Ubuntu 14.04 Current User: git Using RVM: no Ruby Version: 2.1.7p400 Gem Version: 2.2.5 Bundler Version:1.10.6 Rake Version: 10.4.2 Sidekiq Version:3.3.0 GitLab information Version: 8.2.0 Revision: d6bcf44 Directory: /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails DB Adapter: postgresql URL: http://192.168.1.1:8082 HTTP Clone URL: http://192.168.1.1:8082/some-group/some-project.git SSH Clone URL: [email protected]:some-group/some-project.git Using LDAP: yes Using Omniauth: no GitLab Shell Version: 2.6.7 Repositories: /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories Hooks: /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/hooks/ Git: /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/git

12. Finally we have to clear Redis cache, or we will face the issue #3619 or issue #3609:

    1	sudo gitlab-rake cache:clear

13. After that you will be able to login properly to http://localhost:8082