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

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Place GitLab into a read-only state (CORE ONLY)

CAUTION: Warning: This document should be used as a temporary solution. There's work in progress to make this possible with Geo.

In some cases, you might want to place GitLab under a read-only state. The configuration for doing so depends on your desired outcome.

Make the repositories read-only

The first thing you'll want to accomplish is to ensure that no changes can be made to your repositories. There's two ways you can accomplish that:

• Either stop Unicorn/Puma to make the internal API unreachable:

  sudo gitlab-ctl stop puma  # or unicorn
  

• Or, open up a Rails console:

  sudo gitlab-rails console
  

  And set the repositories for all projects read-only:

  Project.all.find_each { |project| project.update!(repository_read_only: true) }
  

  When you're ready to revert this, you can do so with the following command:

  Project.all.find_each { |project| project.update!(repository_read_only: false) }
  

Shut down the GitLab UI

If you don't mind shutting down the GitLab UI, then the easiest approach is to stop sidekiq and puma/unicorn, and you'll effectively ensure that no changes can be made to GitLab:

sudo gitlab-ctl stop sidekiq
sudo gitlab-ctl stop puma  # or unicorn

When you're ready to revert this:

sudo gitlab-ctl start sidekiq
sudo gitlab-ctl start puma  # or unicorn

Make the database read-only

If you want to allow users to use the GitLab UI, then you'll need to ensure that the database is read-only:

1. Take a GitLab backup in case things don't go as expected.

2. Enter PostgreSQL on the console as an admin user:

   sudo \
       -u gitlab-psql /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql \
       -h /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql gitlabhq_production
   

3. Create the gitlab_read_only user. Note that the password is set to mypassword, change that to your liking:

   -- NOTE: Use the password defined earlier
   CREATE USER gitlab_read_only WITH password 'mypassword';
   GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE gitlabhq_production to gitlab_read_only;
   GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO gitlab_read_only;
   GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO gitlab_read_only;
   GRANT SELECT ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO gitlab_read_only;
   
   -- Tables created by "gitlab" should be made read-only for "gitlab_read_only"
   -- automatically.
   ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR USER gitlab IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO gitlab_read_only;
   ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR USER gitlab IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON SEQUENCES TO gitlab_read_only;
   

4. Get the hashed password of the gitlab_read_only user and copy the result:

   sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_read_only
   

5. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the password from the previous step:

   postgresql['sql_user_password'] = 'a2e20f823772650f039284619ab6f239'
   postgresql['sql_user'] = "gitlab_read_only"
   

6. Reconfigure GitLab and restart PostgreSQL:

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   sudo gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
   

When you're ready to revert the read-only state, you'll need to remove the added lines in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, and reconfigure GitLab and restart PostgreSQL:

sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
sudo gitlab-ctl restart postgresql

Once you verify all works as expected, you can remove the gitlab_read_only user from the database.