GitLab Dependency Proxy administration

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

Introduced in GitLab Premium 11.11.

Moved from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in 13.6.

GitLab can be used as a dependency proxy for your frequently-accessed upstream images.

This is the administration documentation. If you want to learn how to use the dependency proxies, see the user guide.

The GitLab Dependency Proxy:

Is turned on by default.
Can be turned off by an administrator.

Turn off the Dependency Proxy

The Dependency Proxy is enabled by default. If you are an administrator, you can turn off the Dependency Proxy. To turn off the Dependency Proxy, follow the instructions that correspond to your GitLab installation.

::Tabs

:::TabTitle Linux package (Omnibus)

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line:
```
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_enabled'] = false
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

:::TabTitle Helm chart (Kubernetes)

After the installation is complete, update the global appConfig to turn off the Dependency Proxy:

global:
  appConfig:
    dependencyProxy:
      enabled: false
      bucket: gitlab-dependency-proxy
      connection: {}
       secret:
       key:

For more information, see Configure Charts using Globals.

:::TabTitle Self-compiled (source)

After the installation is complete, configure the dependency_proxy section in config/gitlab.yml. Set enabled to false to turn off the Dependency Proxy:
```
dependency_proxy:
  enabled: false
```
Restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

::EndTabs

Multi-node GitLab installations

Follow the steps for Linux package installations for each Web and Sidekiq node.

Turn on the Dependency Proxy

The Dependency Proxy is turned on by default, but can be turned off by an administrator. To turn it off manually, follow the instructions in Turn off the Dependency Proxy.

Changing the storage path

By default, the Dependency Proxy files are stored locally, but you can change the default local location or even use object storage.

Changing the local storage path

The Dependency Proxy files for Linux package installations are stored under /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/dependency_proxy/ and for source installations under shared/dependency_proxy/ (relative to the Git home directory).

::Tabs

:::TabTitle Linux package (Omnibus)

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line:

gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_storage_path'] = "/mnt/dependency_proxy"

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

:::TabTitle Self-compiled (source)

Edit the dependency_proxy section in config/gitlab.yml:

dependency_proxy:
  enabled: true
  storage_path: shared/dependency_proxy

Restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

::EndTabs

Using object storage

Instead of relying on the local storage, you can use the consolidated object storage settings. This section describes the earlier configuration format. Migration steps still apply.

::Tabs

:::TabTitle Linux package (Omnibus)

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines (uncomment where necessary):

gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_storage_path'] = "/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/dependency_proxy"
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_object_store_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_object_store_remote_directory'] = "dependency_proxy" # The bucket name.
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_object_store_proxy_download'] = false        # Passthrough all downloads via GitLab instead of using Redirects to Object Storage.
gitlab_rails['dependency_proxy_object_store_connection'] = {
  ##
  ## If the provider is AWS S3, uncomment the following
  ##
  #'provider' => 'AWS',
  #'region' => 'eu-west-1',
  #'aws_access_key_id' => 'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
  #'aws_secret_access_key' => 'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY',
  ##
  ## If the provider is other than AWS (an S3-compatible one), uncomment the following
  ##
  #'host' => 's3.amazonaws.com',
  #'aws_signature_version' => 4             # For creation of signed URLs. Set to 2 if provider does not support v4.
  #'endpoint' => 'https://s3.amazonaws.com' # Useful for S3-compliant services such as DigitalOcean Spaces.
  #'path_style' => false                    # If true, use 'host/bucket_name/object' instead of 'bucket_name.host/object'.
}

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

:::TabTitle Self-compiled (source)

Edit the dependency_proxy section in config/gitlab.yml (uncomment where necessary):

dependency_proxy:
  enabled: true
  ##
  ## The location where build dependency_proxy are stored (default: shared/dependency_proxy).
  ##
  # storage_path: shared/dependency_proxy
  object_store:
    enabled: false
    remote_directory: dependency_proxy  # The bucket name.
    #  proxy_download: false     # Passthrough all downloads via GitLab instead of using Redirects to Object Storage.
    connection:
    ##
    ## If the provider is AWS S3, use the following
    ##
      provider: AWS
      region: us-east-1
      aws_access_key_id: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
      aws_secret_access_key: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
      ##
      ## If the provider is other than AWS (an S3-compatible one), comment out the previous 4 lines and use the following instead:
      ##
      #  host: 's3.amazonaws.com'             # default: s3.amazonaws.com.
      #  aws_signature_version: 4             # For creation of signed URLs. Set to 2 if provider does not support v4.
      #  endpoint: 'https://s3.amazonaws.com' # Useful for S3-compliant services such as DigitalOcean Spaces.
      #  path_style: false                    # If true, use 'host/bucket_name/object' instead of 'bucket_name.host/object'.

Restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

::EndTabs

Migrate local Dependency Proxy blobs and manifests to object storage

After configuring object storage, use the following task to migrate existing Dependency Proxy blobs and manifests from local storage to remote storage. The processing is done in a background worker and requires no downtime.

For Linux package installations:

sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:dependency_proxy:migrate"

For self-compiled installations:

RAILS_ENV=production sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:dependency_proxy:migrate

You can optionally track progress and verify that all Dependency Proxy blobs and manifests migrated successfully using the PostgreSQL console:

sudo gitlab-rails dbconsole for Linux package installations running version 14.1 and earlier.
sudo gitlab-rails dbconsole --database main for Linux package installations running version 14.2 and later.
sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production for self-compiled instances.

Verify that objectstg (where file_store = '2') has the count of all Dependency Proxy blobs and manifests for each respective query:

gitlabhq_production=# SELECT count(*) AS total, sum(case when file_store = '1' then 1 else 0 end) AS filesystem, sum(case when file_store = '2' then 1 else 0 end) AS objectstg FROM dependency_proxy_blobs;

total | filesystem | objectstg
------+------------+-----------
 22   |          0 |        22

gitlabhq_production=# SELECT count(*) AS total, sum(case when file_store = '1' then 1 else 0 end) AS filesystem, sum(case when file_store = '2' then 1 else 0 end) AS objectstg FROM dependency_proxy_manifests;

total | filesystem | objectstg
------+------------+-----------
 10   |          0 |        10

Verify that there are no files on disk in the dependency_proxy folder:

sudo find /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/dependency_proxy -type f | grep -v tmp | wc -l

Changing the JWT expiration

The Dependency Proxy follows the Docker v2 token authentication flow, issuing the client a JWT to use for the pull requests. The token expiration time is a configurable using the application setting container_registry_token_expire_delay. It can be changed from the rails console:

# update the JWT expiration to 30 minutes
ApplicationSetting.update(container_registry_token_expire_delay: 30)

The default expiration and the expiration on GitLab.com is 15 minutes.

Using the dependency proxy behind a proxy

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines:

gitlab_workhorse['env'] = {
  "http_proxy" => "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@example.com:8080",
  "https_proxy" => "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@example.com:8080"
}

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.