gitlab-org--gitlab-foss/doc/pages/administration.md

# GitLab Pages Administration

_**Note:** This feature was [introduced][ee-80] in GitLab EE 8.3_

If you are looking for ways to upload your static content in GitLab Pages, you
probably want to read the [user documentation](README.md).

## Configuration

There are a couple of things to consider before enabling GitLab pages in your
GitLab EE instance.

1. You need to properly configure your DNS to point to the domain that pages
   will be served
1. Pages use a separate nginx configuration file which needs to be explicitly
   added in the server under which GitLab EE runs

Both of these settings are described in detail in the sections below.

### DNS configuration

GitLab Pages expect to run on their own virtual host. In your DNS you need to
add a [wildcard DNS A record][wiki-wildcard-dns] pointing to the host that
GitLab runs. For example, an entry would look like this:

```
*.gitlabpages.com. 60 IN A 1.2.3.4
```

where `gitlabpages.com` is the domain under which GitLab Pages will be served
and `1.2.3.4` is the IP address of your GitLab instance.

It is strongly advised to **not** use the GitLab domain to serve user pages.
See [security](#security).

### Omnibus package installations

See the relevant documentation at <http://doc.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/pages.html>.

### Installations from source

1. Go to the GitLab installation directory:

   ```bash
   cd /home/git/gitlab
   ```

1. Edit `gitlab.yml` and under the `pages` setting, set `enabled` to `true` in
   order to enable the pages feature:

   ```bash
   ## GitLab Pages
   pages:
     enabled: true
     # The location where pages are stored (default: shared/pages).
     # path: shared/pages

     # The domain under which the pages are served:
     # http://group.example.com/project
     # or project path can be a group page: group.example.com
     host: example.com
     port: 80 # Set to 443 if you serve the pages with HTTPS
     https: false # Set to true if you serve the pages with HTTPS
     ```

1. Make sure you have copied the new `gitlab-pages` Nginx configuration file:

  ```bash
  sudo cp lib/support/nginx/gitlab-pages /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab-pages.conf
  sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-{available,enabled}/gitlab-pages.conf
  ```

  Don't forget to add your domain name in the Nginx config. For example if your
  GitLab pages domain is `gitlabpages.com`, replace

  ```bash
  server_name ~^(?<group>.*)\.YOUR_GITLAB_PAGES\.DOMAIN$;
  ```

  with

  ```
  server_name ~^(?<group>.*)\.gitlabpages\.com$;
  ```

  You must be extra careful to not remove the backslashes.

1. Restart Nginx and GitLab:

  ```bash
  sudo service nginx restart
  sudo service gitlab restart
  ```

### Running GitLab pages with HTTPS

If you want the pages to be served under HTTPS, a wildcard SSL certificate is
required.

1. In `gitlab.yml`, set the port to `443` and https to `true`:

   ```bash
   ## GitLab Pages
   pages:
     enabled: true
     # The location where pages are stored (default: shared/pages).
     # path: shared/pages

     # The domain under which the pages are served:
     # http://group.example.com/project
     # or project path can be a group page: group.example.com
     host: gitlabpages.com
     port: 443 # Set to 443 if you serve the pages with HTTPS
     https: true # Set to true if you serve the pages with HTTPS
     ```
1. Use the `gitlab-pages-ssl` Nginx configuration file

  ```bash
  sudo cp lib/support/nginx/gitlab-pages-ssl /etc/nginx/sites-available/gitlab-pages-ssl.conf
  sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-{available,enabled}/gitlab-pages.conf
  ```

  Make sure to edit the config and add your domain as well as correctly point
  to the right location where the SSL certificates reside.

## Set maximum pages size

The maximum size of the unpacked archive can be configured in the Admin area
under the Application settings in the **Maximum size of pages (MB)**.
The default is 100MB.

## Security

You should strongly consider running GitLab pages under a different hostname
than GitLab to prevent XSS.

## How it works

- The public/ is extracted from artifacts and content is served as static pages
- Pages asynchronous worker use `dd` to limit the unpacked tar size
- Pages are part of backups
- Pages notify the deployment status using Commit Status API
- Pages use a new sidekiq queue: pages

[ee-80]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/merge_requests/80
[wiki-wildcard-dns]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_DNS_record