For a Linux-package (Omnibus) GitLab server, HTTPS is enabled by setting a stable fully qualified domain name in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, choosing either GitLab’s ACME/Let’s Encrypt automation or a manually installed certificate, and running sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure. The correct procedure changes if TLS is terminated by a reverse proxy, or if GitLab runs with Helm or from source.
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Choose the TLS design before changing GitLab
GitLab’s Linux package does not enable HTTPS by default. You need a DNS name such as gitlab.example.com; an IP address is a poor certificate identity and is especially unsuitable for private or offline deployments. Decide where TLS will terminate and how certificates will be renewed before editing configuration.
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| Deployment or design | Where TLS is configured | Best fit | Main requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omnibus with bundled NGINX | /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and usually /etc/gitlab/ssl |
A single self-hosted server | DNS for the GitLab FQDN and local NGINX access to port 443 |
| Omnibus with Let’s Encrypt | GitLab’s ACME integration | Publicly reachable servers that want automatic renewal | Public DNS plus reachable ports 80 and 443 |
| Omnibus behind a reverse proxy or load balancer | TLS device plus GitLab’s HTTP backend settings | Centralized ingress, WAF, or multi-server routing | Correct forwarded headers and a consistent external URL |
| Private or air-gapped Omnibus | Internal CA or another reachable ACME service | Networks that cannot complete public ACME validation | Trust distribution to every client and runner |
| Helm deployment | Kubernetes Ingress or Gateway and a TLS Secret | GitLab running in Kubernetes | Ingress/Gateway configuration; do not use Omnibus file paths |
| Self-compiled GitLab | Source-install NGINX configuration | Administrators maintaining GitLab from source | The HTTPS GitLab URL and the gitlab-ssl NGINX example |
The commands below assume an Omnibus installation with the bundled NGINX. Substitute your real hostname everywhere; do not leave gitlab.example.com as a literal value.
Prerequisites for an Omnibus HTTPS setup
Use a stable fully qualified domain name
Create a DNS record for the server, for example an A record for gitlab.example.com or an AAAA record when the server is reached over IPv6. Confirm that the name resolves to the address clients actually use. Public Let’s Encrypt validation requires the name to resolve on the public internet, not only in an internal DNS zone.
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Check firewall and routing
- Port 443/TCP must reach the GitLab host for normal HTTPS traffic.
- Port 80/TCP must reach the host when Let’s Encrypt uses HTTP-01 validation and when you want HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects.
- No other service may already be bound to the ports that bundled NGINX needs.
- Cloud firewalls, hardware firewalls, NAT rules, and host firewalls must all allow the intended path.
Back up configuration
Back up /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and any existing key or certificate files before editing. A configuration backup lets you restore the previous service behavior if reconfiguration fails.
Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt
Let’s Encrypt is the simplest option when the hostname is public and ports 80 and 443 are reachable. GitLab’s integration uses ACME, and the resulting certificates expire every 90 days, so renewal automation is part of the design rather than an optional maintenance task.
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- Open the Omnibus configuration file:
sudo editor /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb. - Set the external URL to the final HTTPS address:
external_url "https://gitlab.example.com". - Leave certificate-path settings unset so GitLab can manage the ACME certificate.
- Optionally specify an administrative contact address with
letsencrypt['contact_emails'] = ['[email protected]']. Use an address that is monitored for expiry and ACME notices.
Run the reconfiguration
Save the file and apply it:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
During reconfiguration GitLab configures NGINX, requests the certificate, and writes the generated material in its managed locations. If validation fails, the command reports the ACME error; fix DNS or reachability before repeatedly requesting certificates.
Test with the ACME staging endpoint first
GitLab supports ACME endpoints other than Let’s Encrypt, including ZeroSSL, Buypass, SSL.com, and step-ca. Its documentation recommends testing a staging endpoint before production so that configuration mistakes do not consume production ACME rate limits. Switch to the production endpoint only after a staging order succeeds.
Understand renewal behavior
GitLab schedules automated renewal after midnight on every fourth day of the month, with the minute distributed using the external_url value. This is version-sensitive operational behavior. If your release supports explicit renewal timing, set the hour and minute rather than assuming the default schedule, and verify the current behavior in the documentation for the installed GitLab version.
Install a certificate manually
Manual certificates are appropriate when a certificate authority is internal, public ACME validation is impossible, or your organization already operates a renewal pipeline. Disable GitLab’s Let’s Encrypt integration; otherwise the two certificate-management methods can conflict.
Place the key and full chain in the default directory
- Disable ACME in
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:letsencrypt['enable'] = false. - Create the default certificate directory:
sudo install -d -m 755 /etc/gitlab/ssl. - Copy the private key to a hostname-matching file such as
/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.key. - Copy the certificate bundle to
/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.crt. - Set the key to mode 600 and the certificate to mode 644:
sudo chmod 600 /etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.keyandsudo chmod 644 /etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.crt.
The certificate file must contain the complete chain in this order: the server certificate first, every intermediate certificate next, and the root CA last. An incomplete or incorrectly ordered chain commonly causes browser, Git client, runner, or API validation errors even when the leaf certificate itself is valid.
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Handle encrypted private keys
If the private key is encrypted, NGINX needs a password file during reconfiguration. Set gitlab_rails['nginx']['ssl_password_file'] to a file readable by the service, protect that file as a secret, and verify that its contents contain exactly the key password. Without this setting, NGINX cannot obtain the password and reconfiguration will fail.
Apply the manual certificate
Run:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
Review the command output for certificate or NGINX errors before testing from a client. If only certificate contents changed and the paths and key remain the same, reload NGINX without a full service restart:
sudo gitlab-ctl hup nginx
If the GitLab Container Registry certificate changed as well, reload the registry:
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Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS
After HTTPS works, you can make HTTP requests redirect to it. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, set:
gitlab_rails['nginx']['redirect_http_to_https'] = true
Apply the change with sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure. Keep port 80 reachable when using HTTP-01 ACME validation; a redirect does not remove the need for the validation path. Before enforcing the redirect, confirm that Git remote URLs, runners, webhooks, and integrations use the HTTPS hostname and that no health check depends on an unredirected HTTP response.
Verify the live certificate and chain
Do not treat a successful reconfigure as proof that every client will trust the service. Test the endpoint from a client network and inspect the certificate actually presented on port 443.
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Inspect the live endpoint
Use GitLab’s bundled OpenSSL binary:
echo | /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/openssl s_client -connect gitlab.example.com:443
Check the output for the subject and issuer, the hostname in the Subject Alternative Name extension, the validity dates, the negotiated protocol, and verification errors. To see the complete chain, add -showcerts and inspect every certificate returned by the server.
Inspect a local certificate file
For a certificate before installation, run:
/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/openssl x509 -in /path/to/certificate.crt -text -noout
Confirm that the hostname appears in Subject Alternative Name, that the current date falls between the “Not Before” and “Not After” dates, and that the issuer is the expected public or internal CA. A local-file inspection does not prove that NGINX is serving that file, so perform both checks after deployment.
Test application behavior
- Open the HTTPS URL in a browser and verify that there is no certificate warning.
- Clone or fetch a test repository using the HTTPS Git URL.
- Sign in, load a project, and check that static assets are not requested over HTTP.
- Exercise a webhook or runner that calls GitLab, because those clients may use a different trust store from your browser.
- If the registry is enabled, test its hostname and certificate separately.
Put GitLab behind a reverse proxy or load balancer
In this design, the proxy owns the public certificate and GitLab receives HTTP on the private network. Do not install a second, unrelated public certificate in bundled NGINX unless you intentionally want end-to-end TLS.
Configure the Omnibus backend
Set the external URL to the public HTTPS address, then configure bundled NGINX to listen on port 80 without HTTPS:
external_url "https://gitlab.example.com"gitlab_rails['nginx']['listen_port'] = 80gitlab_rails['nginx']['listen_https'] = false
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Apply the settings with sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure. Restrict the backend port so that only the proxy can reach it; otherwise users could bypass the TLS policy and access GitLab directly over HTTP.
Forward the headers GitLab needs
The proxy must preserve the original request context. Forward the original Host, X-Forwarded-Ssl, X-Forwarded-For, and X-Forwarded-Port values as required by your proxy and GitLab version. The backend must be able to determine that the public request was HTTPS and which hostname the client requested.
Missing or incorrect forwarded headers can create redirect loops, mixed-content links, failed login flows, or “422 Unprocessable Entity” responses caused by CSRF checks. Check proxy access logs and the request headers reaching GitLab before changing application settings at random.
Decide whether to encrypt the internal hop
HTTP between proxy and GitLab is acceptable only when that network segment is appropriately isolated and monitored. If policy requires encryption in transit everywhere, use TLS on the backend as well and configure the proxy to validate GitLab’s internal certificate. The public certificate and the backend certificate can be issued by different authorities, but each side must trust the other as configured.
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Public Let’s Encrypt validation cannot issue a certificate for a name that is not publicly resolvable or reachable. For a private or air-gapped GitLab, disable Let’s Encrypt and use a certificate from an internal CA or an ACME service reachable from that network.
Use a domain name rather than an IP address so the certificate identity remains stable if the server address changes. Distribute the internal CA root to administrator workstations, Git clients, CI runners, containers, and monitoring systems. A certificate can be correctly installed on GitLab yet still appear untrusted to a runner that lacks the internal root.
When renewal is manual, record the expiry date, owner, renewal command, and reload procedure. Replace the full chain and key atomically where possible, then run gitlab-ctl hup nginx and verify the live endpoint from a client that uses the internal trust store.
Helm and self-compiled deployments use different paths
GitLab installed with Helm
In Kubernetes, TLS is represented by Ingress or Gateway settings and a Kubernetes TLS Secret. You can reference an existing Secret or use cert-manager automation with a Let’s Encrypt HTTP-01 solver. The ingress controller terminates TLS or passes it onward according to the chart and controller configuration. Do not copy /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb or /etc/gitlab/ssl instructions into a Helm release; those are Omnibus concepts.
Validate the DNS record for the ingress address, confirm that the HTTP-01 solver can receive traffic on port 80, and inspect the Secret actually selected by the Ingress or Gateway. After a renewal, test the external endpoint rather than only checking the Secret object.
Self-compiled GitLab
A source installation uses the HTTPS GitLab URL and an NGINX configuration based on GitLab’s gitlab-ssl example. Certificate file locations, service users, reload commands, and application settings differ from Omnibus. Keep the private key permissions restricted, install the complete chain, reload the web server after replacement, and test both the browser endpoint and Git operations.
Security settings and operational maintenance
HSTS
GitLab documents HTTP Strict Transport Security as enabled by default for the main application, with a default max_age of 63,072,000 seconds (two years). HSTS tells browsers to use HTTPS for future requests. Because a browser can continue enforcing that policy after a server mistake, verify HTTPS on every required hostname before changing HSTS scope or adding subdomains.
Certificate renewal ownership
Assign one owner for renewal monitoring even when ACME is automated. Alert before expiry, test renewal in a non-production environment when possible, and keep an emergency certificate replacement procedure. For a manually managed certificate, renewal is incomplete until the new chain is installed, the relevant service is reloaded, and an external client sees the new expiry date.
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Limit key exposure
- Keep private keys readable only by the account and services that need them.
- Do not place keys in repositories, issue trackers, shell history, or world-readable backup directories.
- Protect certificate backups because a certificate without its key is public information, but the key enables impersonation.
- Use separate certificates for separate hostnames when the security boundaries or renewal owners differ.
Troubleshoot common failures
ACME validation cannot reach the server
Check public DNS from outside your network, NAT and firewall rules, port 80 routing, and whether another web server answers the hostname. A private DNS record, blocked port, proxy that strips the challenge path, or an AAAA record pointing to an unreachable IPv6 address can all cause validation failure.
The browser reports an incomplete chain
Rebuild the manual .crt with the server certificate first, followed by every intermediate and then the root CA. Reload NGINX and inspect the live endpoint with openssl s_client -showcerts. Installing only the leaf certificate is the most common cause.
Reconfigure fails after adding a key
Check that the key matches the certificate, that the files are readable by the service, and that an encrypted key has a correctly configured ssl_password_file. Read the NGINX error in the reconfigure output before changing unrelated GitLab settings.
Users see redirect loops or 422 errors behind a proxy
Confirm that the public external_url is HTTPS, backend NGINX has HTTPS disabled only when intended, and the proxy forwards Host, X-Forwarded-Ssl, X-Forwarded-For, and X-Forwarded-Port. Ensure the proxy is not overwriting the forwarded scheme on internal redirects.
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The certificate is valid in a browser but not for runners
Runners may use a separate operating-system or container trust store. Install the issuing internal CA where the runner executes, or use a publicly trusted certificate for a publicly reachable hostname. Then rerun a clone or API request from the runner environment.
Quick Recap
Completion checklist
- The HTTPS FQDN resolves to the intended endpoint.
- The selected design is documented: bundled NGINX, external proxy, Helm ingress, or source installation.
- Let’s Encrypt is enabled only when public ACME validation is possible; it is disabled for manual certificates.
- Manual bundles contain the server certificate, all intermediates, and the root in that order.
- Private keys and password files have restrictive permissions.
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigurecompleted without errors, or the relevant proxy/Ingress reload succeeded.- The live chain, hostname, expiry, and trust status were checked with OpenSSL.
- HTTPS Git operations, browser login, webhooks, runners, and the registry (if enabled) were tested.
- Renewal monitoring and an emergency replacement procedure have an owner.
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