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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-06-03. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Installing GitHub Enterprise Server on VMware

To install GitHub Enterprise Server on VMware, you must download the VMware vSphere client, and then download and deploy the GitHub Enterprise Server software.

Prerequisites

Hardware considerations

Minimum requirements

We recommend different hardware configurations depending on the number of user licenses for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. If you provision more resources than the minimum requirements, your instance will perform and scale better.

User licensesvCPUsMemoryAttached storageRoot storage
Trial, demo, or 10 light users432 GB150 GB200 GB
10 to 3,000848 GB300 GB200 GB
3,000 to 50001264 GB500 GB200 GB
5,000 to 80001696 GB750 GB200 GB
8,000 to 10,000+20160 GB1000 GB200 GB

If you plan to enable GitHub Actions for the users of your instance, more resources are required.

vCPUsMemoryMaximum job throughput
432 GBDemo or light testing
864 GB25 jobs
16160 GB35 jobs
32256 GB100 jobs

For more information about these requirements, see "Getting started with GitHub Actions for GitHub Enterprise Server."

For more information about adjusting resources for an existing instance, see "Increasing storage capacity" and "Increasing CPU or memory resources."

Storage

We recommend a high-performance SSD with high input/output operations per second (IOPS) and low latency for GitHub Enterprise Server. Workloads are I/O intensive. If you use a bare metal hypervisor, we recommend directly attaching the disk or using a disk from a storage area network (SAN).

Your instance requires a persistent data disk separate from the root disk. For more information, see "System overview."

To configure GitHub Actions, you must provide external blob storage. For more information, see "Getting started with GitHub Actions for GitHub Enterprise Server."

The available space on the root filesystem will be 50% of the total disk size. You can resize your instance's root disk by building a new instance or using an existing instance. For more information, see "System overview" and "Increasing storage capacity."

CPU and memory

The CPU and memory resources that GitHub Enterprise Server requires depend on the levels of activity for users, automations, and integrations.

If you plan to enable GitHub Actions for the users of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, you may need to provision additional CPU and memory resources for your instance. For more information, see "Getting started with GitHub Actions for GitHub Enterprise Server."

When you increase CPU resources, we recommend adding at least 6.5 GB of memory for each vCPU (up to 16 vCPUs) that you provision for the instance. When you use more than 16 vCPUs, you don't need to add 6.5 GB of memory for each vCPU, but you should monitor your instance to ensure it has enough memory.

Warning: We recommend that users configure webhook events to notify external systems of activity on GitHub Enterprise Server. Automated checks for changes, or polling, will negatively impact the performance and scalability of your instance. For more information, see "About webhooks."

For more information about monitoring the capacity and performance of GitHub Enterprise Server, see "Monitoring your appliance."

You can increase your instance's CPU or memory resources. For more information, see "Increasing CPU or memory resources."

Downloading the GitHub Enterprise Server image

  1. Download your license. For more information, see "Downloading your license for GitHub Enterprise."

  2. Navigate to the image you want to use for your new instance.

    • Navigate to Release notes.
    • In the right sidebar, click the version you want to download.
    • Click Download GitHub Enterprise Server X.X.X.
  3. Under "GitHub On-premises", select the "Select your hypervisor" dropdown menu and click VMware ESXi/vSphere (OVA).

  4. Click Download for VMware ESXi/vSphere (OVA).

Creating the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

To create the instance, you'll need to import the GitHub Enterprise Server image to your virtual machine and attach an additional storage volume for your instance data. For more information, see "Hardware considerations."

  1. Using the vSphere Windows Client or the vCenter Web Client, import the GitHub Enterprise Server image you downloaded. For instructions, see the VMware guide "Deploy an OVF or OVA Template."
    • When selecting a datastore, choose one with sufficient space to host the VM's disks. For the minimum hardware specifications recommended for your instance size, see "Hardware considerations." We recommend thick provisioning with lazy zeroing.
    • Leave the Power on after deployment box unchecked, as you will need to add an attached storage volume for your repository data after provisioning the VM.
  2. Create a new virtual disk to use as an attached storage volume for your instance data, and configure the size based on your user license count. For instructions, see the VMware guide "Add a New Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine."

Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

  1. Copy the virtual machine's public DNS name, and paste it into a web browser.
  2. At the prompt, upload your license file and set a management console password. For more information, see "Managing your license for GitHub Enterprise."
  3. In the Management Console, configure and save your desired settings. For more information, see "Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance."
  4. The instance will restart automatically.
  5. Click Visit your instance.

Further reading