Deploy GitLab CE 19 DevOps Platform

Deploy and Host GitLab CE with Railway

GitLab Community Edition is an open-source DevOps platform: Git repositories, merge requests with code review, issues, boards, wikis and built-in CI/CD. This community template runs the official GitLab Omnibus image on Railway with a persistent volume, Git over SSH through a TCP proxy, and a CI runner that registers itself.

About Hosting GitLab CE

GitLab Omnibus bundles nginx, Puma, Sidekiq, Gitaly, gitlab-shell, PostgreSQL and Redis in one container. Hosting it well means keeping three kinds of state: repositories and the database, the configuration with gitlab-secrets.json (the keys that decrypt CI variables and 2FA secrets), and the SSH host keys. Railway allows one volume per service, so this template keeps all of it on a single volume and builds GitLab's configuration from service variables: external URL, SSH host and port, memory profile and optional SMTP. A separate GitLab Runner service uses the shell executor, because Railway has no Docker-in-Docker, and registers itself with a short-lived token that is revoked after use.

Common Use Cases

• Private Git hosting for a team or company that wants code on infrastructure it controls
• Code review with merge requests, protected branches and approval rules
• Issue tracking, boards, milestones and project wikis next to the code
• Lightweight CI pipelines (tests, linting, builds, scripted deploys) on the bundled shell runner
• A central GitLab for external runners on your own VMs or Kubernetes clusters

Dependencies for GitLab CE Hosting

• GitLab CE 19.4.1 (official gitlab/gitlab-ce Omnibus image, with bundled PostgreSQL, Redis, Gitaly and nginx)
• GitLab Runner 19.4.1 (official gitlab/gitlab-runner Ubuntu image, shell executor)
• A Railway volume for GitLab data and one for the runner configuration
• A Railway TCP proxy for Git over SSH

Deployment Dependencies

• GitLab Docker installation: https://docs.gitlab.com/install/docker/
• Omnibus configuration reference: https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/
• Running GitLab in a memory-constrained environment: https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/memory_constrained_envs/
• GitLab Runner shell executor: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/shell/
• GitLab upgrade paths: https://docs.gitlab.com/update/upgrade_paths/

Implementation Details

First login: wait until the GitLab service is healthy (the first boot configures GitLab and creates the database, which takes several minutes). Open the public URL and sign in as root with the generated GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD from the GitLab service variables, then change it. New sign-ups require admin approval by default; turn sign-up off under Admin → Settings → General if the instance is private. Add your SSH key and clone with the SSH URL GitLab shows (it points to the TCP proxy host and port).

CI/CD: the runner appears under Admin → CI/CD → Runners a few minutes after GitLab is up and picks up untagged jobs. Jobs run directly in the runner container with git, curl, bash, jq, make, Python 3 and rsync available; the image: keyword is ignored because Railway cannot run Docker inside a container. Add more tools in services/gitlab-runner/Dockerfile, or register an external Docker runner against your GitLab URL for container-based jobs. Use this runner only for projects you trust, since jobs share its container.

Scaling: raise GITLAB_PUMA_WORKERS (about 700 MB each) or GITLAB_SIDEKIQ_CONCURRENCY and give the GitLab service more memory; the defaults fit 4–8 GB. GitLab itself runs as a single replica because it owns its volume. For more CI capacity raise GITLAB_RUNNER_CONCURRENT and the runner's resources.

E-mail: set SMTP_ADDRESS, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASSWORD and GITLAB_EMAIL_FROM. GitLab sends mail only over SMTP, and Railway allows outbound SMTP on the Pro plan.

Versions: GitLab is pinned in services/gitlab/Dockerfile (GITLAB_VERSION), the runner in services/gitlab-runner/Dockerfile (RUNNER_VERSION). Upgrade along GitLab's upgrade path, one required stop at a time, and keep the runner on the same minor version. Back up with gitlab-backup create (in the GitLab service shell) and keep a copy of /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json with it.

Why Deploy GitLab CE on Railway?

Railway provides the persistent volume, HTTPS domain and TCP proxy GitLab needs, so a complete GitLab with SSH access and a working CI runner comes up from one template without managing a server. You pay for the resources GitLab actually uses and can give it more memory as your team grows.