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
    docker stop gitlab
    
  2. Backup docker volumes (all gitlab files)
    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
    docker save -o /home/bob/gitlab-ce-image.tar gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
    
  4. Remove docker container
    docker rm gitlab
    
  5. Download the latest Gitlab docker image
    sudo docker pull gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
    
  6. After the image is downloaded create and run the container
    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:
    docker logs -f --tail 10 gitlab
    
  8. The docker container started and we observed in the logs:
    [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:

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

    and finally we restart the docker container:

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

    and we check the db migration status:

    sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate:status
    

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

    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:

    sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate
    

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

    sudo gitlab-rake db:migrate:status
    
  10. While being inside the container bash shell, we reconfigure the installation:
    sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
    

    and then check that everything went ok:

    sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check
    
  11. If everything is OK, then the command:
    sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production
    

    must return something like this:

    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:
    sudo gitlab-rake cache:clear
    
  13. After that you will be able to login properly to http://localhost:8082

Comments