---
type: howto
---

# Digital Ocean and Docker Machine test environment

This guide is for quickly testing different versions of GitLab and not
recommended for ease of future upgrades or keeping the data you create.

## Initial setup

In this guide you'll configure a Digital Ocean droplet and set up Docker
locally on either macOS or Linux.

### On macOS

#### Install Docker Desktop

- <https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop>

### On Linux

#### Install Docker Engine

- <https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/linux/>

#### Install Docker Machine

- <https://docs.docker.com/machine/install-machine/>

NOTE: **Note:**
The rest of the steps are identical for macOS and Linux.

## Create new Docker host

1. Login to Digital Ocean.
1. Generate a new API token at <https://cloud.digitalocean.com/settings/api/tokens>.

   This command will create a new DO droplet called `gitlab-test-env-do` that will act as a Docker host.

   NOTE: **Note:**
   4GB is the minimum requirement for a Docker host that will run more than one GitLab instance.

   - RAM: 4GB
   - Name: `gitlab-test-env-do`
   - Driver: `digitalocean`

1. Set the DO token:

   ```shell
   export DOTOKEN=<your generated token>
   ```

1. Create the machine:

   ```shell
   docker-machine create \
     --driver digitalocean \
     --digitalocean-access-token=$DOTOKEN \
     --digitalocean-size "4gb" \
       gitlab-test-env-do
   ```

Resource: <https://docs.docker.com/machine/drivers/digital-ocean/>.

## Creating GitLab test instance

### Connect your shell to the new machine

In this example we'll create a GitLab EE 8.10.8 instance.

First connect the Docker client to the Docker host you created previously.

```shell
eval "$(docker-machine env gitlab-test-env-do)"
```

You can add this to your `~/.bash_profile` file to ensure the `docker` client uses the `gitlab-test-env-do` Docker host

### Create new GitLab container

- HTTP port: `8888`
- SSH port: `2222`
  - Set `gitlab_shell_ssh_port` using `--env GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG`
- Hostname: IP of Docker host
- Container name: `gitlab-test-8.10`
- GitLab version: **EE** `8.10.8-ee.0`

#### Set up container settings

```shell
export SSH_PORT=2222
export HTTP_PORT=8888
export VERSION=8.10.8-ee.0
export NAME=gitlab-test-8.10
```

#### Create container

```shell
docker run --detach \
--env GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG="external_url 'http://$(docker-machine ip gitlab-test-env-do):$HTTP_PORT'; gitlab_rails['gitlab_shell_ssh_port'] = $SSH_PORT;" \
--hostname $(docker-machine ip gitlab-test-env-do) \
-p $HTTP_PORT:$HTTP_PORT -p $SSH_PORT:22 \
--name $NAME \
gitlab/gitlab-ee:$VERSION
```

### Connect to the GitLab container

#### Retrieve the Docker host IP

```shell
docker-machine ip gitlab-test-env-do
# example output: 192.168.151.134
```

Browse to: `http://192.168.151.134:8888/`.

#### Execute interactive shell/edit configuration

```shell
docker exec -it $NAME /bin/bash
```

```shell
# example commands
root@192:/# vi /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
root@192:/# gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```

### Resources

- <https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/docker/>.
- <https://docs.docker.com/machine/get-started/>.
- <https://docs.docker.com/machine/reference/ip/>.

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