To install GitHub Enterprise on Azure, you must deploy onto a DS-series instance and use Premium-LRS storage.

Requirements

Before installing GitHub Enterprise on Azure, ensure you meet these software and hardware requirements.

Software

  • You must have an Azure account capable of provisioning new machines.
  • If you're setting up a VM using the command line, you must have the Azure CLI installed on your machine.
  • You must have a GitHub Enterprise license file. To download an existing license file or request a trial license, visit enterprise.github.com.

Hardware

Based on your seat count, we recommend this hardware configuration:

Seats vCPUs Memory Attached Storage Root Storage
10-500 2 16 GB 100 GB 80 GB
500-3000 4 32 GB 250 GB 80 GB
3000-5000 8 64 GB 500 GB 100 GB
5000-8000 12 72 GB 750 GB 120 GB
8000-10000+ 16 128 GB 1000 GB 140 GB

These are minimum recommendations. More resources may be required depending on your usage, such as user activity and selected integrations.

Note: The root disk cannot be resized.

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.

Determining the instance type

Before launching your GitHub Enterprise instance on Azure, you'll need to determine the type of virtual machine that best fits the needs of your organization.

Supported instance types

GitHub Enterprise is supported on these Azure virtual machines:

  • Standard_DS3_v2
  • Standard_DS4_v2
  • Standard_DS12_v2
  • Standard_DS13_v2
  • Standard_DS14_v2
  • Standard_DS15_v2

For more information, see the Azure virtual machines overview page.

Recommended instance types

Based on your seat count, we recommend these instance types:

Seat Range Recommended Type
10 - 500 Standard_DS3_v2
500 - 3000 Standard_DS12_v2
3000 - 8000 Standard_DS14_v2
8000 - 10000+ Standard_DS15_v2

Note: You can always scale up your CPU or memory by resizing your instance. However, because resizing your CPU or memory requires downtime for your users, we recommend over-provisioning resources to account for scale.

Supported regions

The GitHub Enterprise appliance requires a premium storage data disk, which is currently only available in the following regions:

  • Central US
  • East US
  • East US 2
  • South Central US
  • West US
  • North Europe
  • West Europe
  • East Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Japan East
  • Japan West
  • Australia East
  • Australia Southeast

Deploying the GitHub Enterprise VM

  1. Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise download page.

  2. To download your license file, click Download license.

  3. Click Get the latest release.

  4. From the Select your platform drop-down menu, click Microsoft Azure.

  5. Click Deploy to Azure.

Creating the GitHub Enterprise VM using the Azure Portal

  1. On the Azure template page, click Save. Save Azure template
  2. To configure your VM, click Edit Parameters. Edit parameters pane
  3. In the Account prefix field, enter a unique name to identify your GitHub Enterprise instance (like acmecorp). The prefix may only contain numbers or lower-case letters and be between three to 24 characters long. Account name
  4. From the Location drop-down menu, select a region to deploy your instance into. Azure location name
  5. In the VM size field, select the Azure instance type you need. For more information, see Recommended instance types. Azure location name
  6. In the Storage disk size field, enter the size of the hard disk based on your seat count. For more information, see the hardware requirements. Disk size
  7. Click OK. Ok template form

Creating a new resource group for the VM and data disk:

  1. Click Or create new. Create new resource group button
  2. In the Resource group field, enter a name for the group. Create new resource group button
  3. From the location listing on the right, select West US for the resource group. This does not need to match the VM region picked above. Create new resource group button

Saving the VM

  1. If you'd like to keep this new VM on your dashboard, click Pin to Startboard Startboard pin
  2. Click Create. Create VM button

Tip: After the VM is saved, it may take about five minutes before it shows up in the Azure portal.

Enabling disk encryption

An encrypted data volume provides an extra level of security by ensuring that any data you write to your instance is protected. There's a slight peformance impact when using encrypted disks. If you decide to encrypt your volume, we strongly recommend doing so before starting your instance for the first time. For more information, see the guide on using Azure's Key Value encryption. Instead of creating a new resource group, you can provide the name of the resource group you created earlier.

If you decide to enable encryption after you've configured your instance, you will need to migrate your data to the encrypted volume, which will incur some downtime for your users.

Starting the VM

  1. Click Browse. Browse button
  2. Click Virtual Machines (v2). Virtual machine button
  3. Click the row corresponding to your recently created VM. Recently created virtual machine
  4. Copy the VM's public IP address and paste it into a web browser. Recently created virtual machine
  5. Configure the GitHub Enterprise appliance.

Creating the GitHub Enterprise VM using the command line

  1. Ensure the CLI is running in asm mode with the config mode command:

    azure config mode asm
info:   New mode is asm

  2. Create a Premium-LRS storage account to store your data with the storage account create command, passing in options for:

    • name_of_storage_account: The name of your storage account (for example, gheacmedata). The prefix may only contain numbers or lower-case letters and be between three to 24 characters long.
    • region: The name of your preferred Azure region (for example, West US) 
      azure storage account create name_of_storage_account -l region --type PLRS
info:    Executing command storage account create
+ Creating storage account
info:    storage account create command OK

  3. Find the latest GitHub Enterprise appliance image with the vm image list command:

    azure vm image list | grep GitHub
data:    29ad5df6dd__GitHub-Enterprise

  4. Create a new VM using the appliance image with the vm create command, passing in options for:

    • vm_name: The name for your VM (for example, ghe-acme-corp)
    • vm_size: The size for your instance (for example, Standard_D3)
    • region: The name of your preferred Azure region (for example, West US)
    • appliance_image_name: The name of the appliance image VM (for example, 29ad5df6dd__GitHub-Enterprise)

    Note that the username and password arguments are required for the Azure CLI, but are ignored by the appliance image.

    azure vm create \
    --vm-size vm_size \
    --location "region" \
    --userName ignoreduser \
    --password ign0redP@ss \
    vm_name \
    appliance_image_name
info:    Executing command vm create
+ Looking up cloud service
+ Creating cloud service
+ Retrieving storage accounts
+ Creating VM
info:    vm create command OK

  5. Configure the security settings on your VM by opening up required ports with the vm endpoint command, passing in the name of your VM (for example, ghe-acme-corp):

    azure vm endpoint create-multiple vm_name 122,80,8080,443,8443,9418,25,161:161:udp,1194:1194:udp
info:    Executing command vm endpoint create-multiple
+ Getting virtual machines
+ Reading network configuration
+ Updating network configuration
info:    vm endpoint create-multiple command OK

    This table identifies what each port is used for:

    Port Service Description
    22 SSH Git over SSH access. Clone, fetch, and push operations to public/private repositories supported.
    25 SMTP SMTP with encryption (STARTTLS) support.
    80 HTTP Web application access. Note that all requests are redirected to the HTTPS port when SSL is enabled.
    122 SSH Instance shell access. Note that the default SSH port (22) is dedicated to application git+ssh network traffic.
    161/UDP SNMP Required for network monitoring protocol operation.
    443 HTTPS Web application and Git over HTTPS access.
    1194/UDP VPN Secure replication network tunnel in High Availability configuration.
    8080 HTTP Plain-text web based Management Console. Not required unless SSL is disabled manually
    8443 HTTPS Secure web based Management Console. Required for basic installation and configuration.
    9418 Git Simple Git protocol port. Clone and fetch operations to public repositories only. Unencrypted network communication.

  6. Create and attach a new storage disk to the VM with the vm disk command, passing in options for:

    • vm_name: The name for your VM (for example, ghe-acme-corp)
    • size_in_gb: The size of the disk (for example, 100). The size of the hard disk should be based on your seat count. For more information, see Required Hardware.
    • name_of_storage_account: The URL for the resulting VHD, using the name of your storage account 
      azure vm disk attach-new vm_name size_in_gb https://name_of_storage_account.blob.core.windows.net/data-disks/ghe-data.vhd
info:    Executing command vm disk attach-new
+ Getting virtual machines
+ Adding Data-Disk
info:    vm disk attach-new command OK

  7. Before configuring the instance, you must wait for it to enter ReadyRole. You can check the status of the instance with the vm list command, passing in the name of your VM (for example, ghe-acme-corp):

    azure vm list -d vm_name
info:    Executing command vm list
+ Getting virtual machines
data:    Name      Status     Location   DNS Name               IP Address
data:    --------  ---------  ---------  ---------------------  ------------
data:    vm_name   ReadyRole  West US    ghe-acme-corp.app.foo  999.75.444.11
info:    vm list command OK

  8. Copy the VM's public DNS name and paste it into a web browser.

  9. Configure the GitHub Enterprise appliance.