Prerequisites
- You must have a GitHub Enterprise license file. To download an existing license file or request a trial license, visit enterprise.github.com. For more information, see "Managing your GitHub Enterprise license."
- You must install the XenServer Hypervisor on the machine that will run your GitHub Enterprise Server virtual machine (VM). We support versions 6.0 through 7.0.
- We recommend using the XenCenter Windows Management Console for initial setup. Instructions using the XenCenter Windows Management Console are included below. For more information, see the Citrix guide "How to Download and Install a New Version of XenCenter."
Hardware considerations
GitHub Enterprise Server requires a persistent data disk separate from the root disk. For more information, see "System overview." For your storage device, we recommend a high-performance SSD, either directly attached or from a storage area network (SAN). We recommend different hardware configurations based on the number of user licenses used in your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.
| User licenses | vCPUs | Memory | Attached storage | Root storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial, demo, or 10 light users | 2 | 16 GB | 100 GB | 200 GB |
| 10-3000 | 4 | 32 GB | 250 GB | 200 GB |
| 3000-5000 | 8 | 64 GB | 500 GB | 200 GB |
| 5000-8000 | 12 | 96 GB | 750 GB | 200 GB |
| 8000-10000+ | 16 | 128 GB | 1000 GB | 200 GB |
These are minimum recommendations. More resources may be required depending on your usage, such as user activity and selected integrations. When increasing CPU resources, it's recommended to add at least 6.5 GB of memory for each CPU (up to 16 CPUs) added to your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see "Increasing CPU or memory resources."
Note: The root disk can be resized by building a new appliance or using an existing appliance. For more information, see "Increasing storage capacity."
Warning: We recommend you use webhooks to fetch repository changes for continuous integration (CI) or similar systems. Regular automatic checks, or polling, will significantly reduce the scalability of your instance. For more information, see "About webhooks"
Downloading the GitHub Enterprise Server image
- Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise Server download page.
- To download your license file, click Download license.
- Click Get the latest release of GitHub Enterprise Server.
- Select GitHub On-premises, then click XenServer (VHD).
- To download your license file, click Download license.
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."
- In XenCenter, import the GitHub Enterprise Server image you downloaded. For instructions, see the XenCenter guide "Import Disk Images."
- For the "Enable Operating System Fixup" step, select Don't use Operating System Fixup.
- Leave the VM powered off when you're finished.
- 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 XenCenter guide "Add Virtual Disks."
Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server instance
- Copy the virtual machine's public DNS name, and paste it into a web browser.
- At the prompt, upload your license file and set a management console password. For more information, see "Managing your GitHub Enterprise license."
- In the Management Console, configure and save your desired settings. For more information, see "Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance."
- The instance will restart automatically.
- Click Visit your instance.