This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2020-11-12. 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 OpenStack KVM

To install GitHub Enterprise Server on OpenStack KVM, you must have OpenStack access and download the GitHub Enterprise Server QCOW2 image.

In this article

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 users216 GB100 GB200 GB
10 to 3,000432 GB250 GB200 GB
3,000 to 5000864 GB500 GB200 GB
5,000 to 80001296 GB750 GB200 GB
8,000 to 10,000+16128 GB1000 GB200 GB

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."

You can resize your instance's root disk by building a new instance or using an existing instance. For more information, see "Increasing storage capacity."

CPU and memory

GitHub Enterprise Server requires more CPU and memory resources depending on levels of activity for users, automations, and integrations.

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."

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. Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise Server download page.
  2. To download your license file, click Download license.
  3. Click Get the latest release of GitHub Enterprise Server.
  4. Select GitHub On-premises, then click OpenStack KVM (QCOW2).
  5. Click Download for OpenStack KVM (QCOW2).

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. In OpenStack Horizon, upload the GitHub Enterprise Server image you downloaded. For instructions, see the "Upload an image" section of the OpenStack guide "Upload and manage images."

  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 OpenStack guide "Create and manage volumes."

  3. Create a security group, and add a new security group rule for each port in the table below. For instructions, see the OpenStack guide "Configure access and security for instances."

    PortServiceDescription
    22SSHGit over SSH access. Clone, fetch, and push operations to public/private repositories supported.
    25SMTPSMTP with encryption (STARTTLS) support.
    80HTTPWeb application access. All requests are redirected to the HTTPS port when SSL is enabled.
    122SSHInstance shell access. The default SSH port (22) is dedicated to application git+ssh network traffic.
    161/UDPSNMPRequired for network monitoring protocol operation.
    443HTTPSWeb application and Git over HTTPS access.
    1194/UDPVPNSecure replication network tunnel in high availability configuration.
    8080HTTPPlain-text web based Management Console. Not required unless SSL is disabled manually.
    8443HTTPSSecure web based Management Console. Required for basic installation and configuration.
    9418GitSimple Git protocol port. Clone and fetch operations to public repositories only. Unencrypted network communication. If you have enabled private mode on your instance, then opening this port is only required if you also enabled anonymous Git read access. For more information, see "Enforcing repository management policies in your enterprise."
  4. Optionally, associate a floating IP to the instance. Depending on your OpenStack setup, you may need to allocate a floating IP to the project and associate it to the instance. Contact your system administrator to determine if this is the case for you. For more information, see "Allocate a floating IP address to an instance" in the OpenStack documentation.

  5. Launch your GitHub Enterprise Server instance using the image, data volume, and security group created in the previous steps. For instructions, see the OpenStack guide "Launch and manage instances."

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 GitHub Enterprise license."
  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