GitLab Git Large File Storage (LFS) Administration

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• Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
• Offering: GitLab Self-Managed

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Use Git Large File Storage (LFS) to store large files in a Git repository without increasing its size or affecting performance. You can enable or disable LFS, configure local or remote storage for LFS objects, and migrate objects between storage types.

For user documentation, see Git Large File Storage (LFS).

Prerequisites:

• Users must install Git LFS client version 1.1.0 and later, or 1.0.2.

Enable or disable LFS

LFS is enabled by default. To disable it:

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{{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   # Change to true to enable lfs - enabled by default if not defined
   gitlab_rails['lfs_enabled'] = false
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   

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{{< tab title="Helm chart (Kubernetes)" >}}

1. Export the Helm values:

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   helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml
   

2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml:

   yamlCopy

   global:
     appConfig:
       lfs:
         enabled: false
   

3. Save the file and apply the new values:

   shellCopy

   helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
   

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{{< tab title="Docker" >}}

1. Edit docker-compose.yml:

   yamlCopy

   version: "3.6"
   services:
     gitlab:
       environment:
         GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
           gitlab_rails['lfs_enabled'] = false
   

2. Save the file and restart GitLab:

   shellCopy

   docker compose up -d
   

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{{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml:

   yamlCopy

   production: &base
     lfs:
       enabled: false
   

2. Save the file and restart GitLab:

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   # For systems running systemd
   sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target
   
   # For systems running SysV init
   sudo service gitlab restart
   

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Change local storage path

Git LFS objects can be large in size. By default, they are stored on the server GitLab is installed on.

[!note] For Docker installations, you can change the path where your data is mounted. For the Helm chart, use object storage.

To change the default local storage path location:

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{{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

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   # /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/lfs-objects by default.
   gitlab_rails['lfs_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/lfs-objects"
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   

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{{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

1. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml:

   yamlCopy

   # /home/git/gitlab/shared/lfs-objects by default.
   production: &base
     lfs:
       storage_path: /mnt/storage/lfs-objects
   

2. Save the file and restart GitLab:

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   # For systems running systemd
   sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target
   
   # For systems running SysV init
   sudo service gitlab restart
   

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Storing LFS objects in remote object storage

You can store LFS objects in remote object storage. This allows you to reduce reads and writes to the local disk, and free up disk space significantly.

You should use the consolidated object storage settings.

Migrating to object storage

You can migrate the LFS objects from local storage to object storage. The processing is done in the background and requires no downtime.

1. Configure the object storage.

2. Migrate the LFS objects:

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   {{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

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   sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:lfs:migrate
   

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   {{< tab title="Docker" >}}

   shellCopy

   sudo docker exec -t <container name> gitlab-rake gitlab:lfs:migrate
   

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   {{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

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   sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:lfs:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
   

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3. Optional. Track the progress and verify that all job LFS objects migrated successfully using the PostgreSQL console.

   1. Open a PostgreSQL console:

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      {{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

      shellCopy

      sudo gitlab-psql
      

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      {{< tab title="Docker" >}}

      shellCopy

      sudo docker exec -it <container_name> /bin/bash
      gitlab-psql
      

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      {{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

      shellCopy

      sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production
      

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   2. Verify that all LFS files migrated to object storage with the following SQL query. The number of objectstg should be the same as total:

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      gitlabhq_production=# SELECT count(*) AS total, sum(case when file_store = '1' then 1 else 0 end) AS filesystem, sum(case when file_store = '2' then 1 else 0 end) AS objectstg FROM lfs_objects;
      
      total | filesystem | objectstg
      ------+------------+-----------
       2409 |          0 |      2409
      

4. Verify that there are no files on disk in the lfs-objects directory:

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   {{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

   shellCopy

   sudo find /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/lfs-objects -type f | grep -v tmp | wc -l
   

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   {{< tab title="Docker" >}}

   Assuming you mounted /var/opt/gitlab to /srv/gitlab:

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   sudo find /srv/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/lfs-objects -type f | grep -v tmp | wc -l
   

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   {{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

   shellCopy

   sudo find /home/git/gitlab/shared/lfs-objects -type f | grep -v tmp | wc -l
   

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Migrating back to local storage

[!note] For the Helm chart, you should use object storage.

To migrate back to local storage:

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{{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

1. Migrate the LFS objects:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:lfs:migrate_to_local
   

2. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and disable object storage for LFS objects:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['lfs']['enabled'] = false
   

3. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   

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{{< tab title="Docker" >}}

1. Migrate the LFS objects:

   shellCopy

   sudo docker exec -t <container name> gitlab-rake gitlab:lfs:migrate_to_local
   

2. Edit docker-compose.yml and disable object storage for LFS objects:

   yamlCopy

   version: "3.6"
   services:
     gitlab:
       environment:
         GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
           gitlab_rails['object_store']['objects']['lfs']['enabled'] = false
   

3. Save the file and restart GitLab:

   shellCopy

   docker compose up -d
   

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{{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

1. Migrate the LFS objects:

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   sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:lfs:migrate_to_local RAILS_ENV=production
   

2. Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and disable object storage for LFS objects:

   yamlCopy

   production: &base
     object_store:
       objects:
         lfs:
           enabled: false
   

3. Save the file and restart GitLab:

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   # For systems running systemd
   sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target
   
   # For systems running SysV init
   sudo service gitlab restart
   

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Pure SSH transfer protocol

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• Introduced in GitLab 17.2.
• Introduced for Helm chart (Kubernetes) in GitLab 17.3.

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[!warning] This feature is affected by a known issue (resolved in Git LFS 3.6.0). If you clone a repository with multiple Git LFS objects using the pure SSH protocol, the client might crash due to a nil pointer reference.

git-lfs 3.0.0 released support for using SSH as the transfer protocol instead of HTTP. SSH is handled transparently by the git-lfs command line tool.

When pure SSH protocol support is enabled and git is configured to use SSH, all LFS operations happen over SSH. For example, when the Git remote is [email protected]:gitlab-org/gitlab.git. You can't configure git and git-lfs to use different protocols. From version 3.0, git-lfs attempts to use the pure SSH protocol initially and, if support is not enabled or available, it falls back to using HTTP.

Prerequisites:

• The git-lfs version must be v3.5.1 or higher.

To switch Git LFS to use pure SSH protocol:

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{{< tab title="Linux package (Omnibus)" >}}

1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_shell['lfs_pure_ssh_protocol'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   

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{{< tab title="Helm chart (Kubernetes)" >}}

1. Export the Helm values:

   shellCopy

   helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml
   

2. Edit gitlab_values.yaml:

   yamlCopy

   gitlab:
     gitlab-shell:
       config:
         lfs:
           pureSSHProtocol: true
   

3. Save the file and apply the new values:

   shellCopy

   helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab
   

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{{< tab title="Docker" >}}

1. Edit docker-compose.yml:

   yamlCopy

   services:
     gitlab:
       environment:
         GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
           gitlab_shell['lfs_pure_ssh_protocol'] = true
   

2. Save the file and restart GitLab and its services:

   shellCopy

   docker compose up -d
   

{{< /tab >}}

{{< tab title="Self-compiled (source)" >}}

1. Edit /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml:

   yamlCopy

   lfs:
      pure_ssh_protocol: true
   

2. Save the file and restart GitLab Shell:

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   # For systems running systemd
   sudo systemctl restart gitlab-shell.target
   
   # For systems running SysV init
   sudo service gitlab-shell restart
   

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Storage statistics

You can see the total storage used for LFS objects for groups and projects in:

• The Admin area
• The groups and projects APIs

[!note] The storage statistics count each LFS object for every project linking to it.

Related topics

• Blog post: Getting started with Git LFS
• User documentation: Git Large File Storage (LFS)

Troubleshooting

Missing LFS objects

An error about a missing LFS object may occur in either of these situations:

• When migrating LFS objects from disk to object storage, with error messages like:

  plaintextCopy

  ERROR -- : Failed to transfer LFS object
  006622269c61b41bf14a22bbe0e43be3acf86a4a446afb4250c3794ea47541a7
  with error: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen -
  /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/lfs-objects/00/66/22269c61b41bf14a22bbe0e43be3acf86a4a446afb4250c3794ea47541a7
  

  (Line breaks have been added for legibility.)

• When running the integrity check for LFS objects with the VERBOSE=1 parameter.

The database can have records for LFS objects which are not on disk. The database entry may prevent a new copy of the object from being pushed. To delete these references:

1. Start a rails console.

2. Query the object that's reported as missing in the rails console, to return a file path:

   rubyCopy

   lfs_object = LfsObject.find_by(oid: '006622269c61b41bf14a22bbe0e43be3acf86a4a446afb4250c3794ea47541a7')
   lfs_object.file.path
   

3. Check on disk or object storage if it exists:

   shellCopy

   ls -al /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/lfs-objects/00/66/22269c61b41bf14a22bbe0e43be3acf86a4a446afb4250c3794ea47541a7
   

4. If the file is not present, remove the database records with the Rails console:

   rubyCopy

   # First delete the parent records and then destroy the record itself
   lfs_object.lfs_objects_projects.destroy_all
   lfs_object.destroy
   

Remove multiple missing LFS objects

To remove references to multiple missing LFS objects at once:

1. Open the GitLab Rails console.

2. Run the following script:

   rubyCopy

   lfs_files_deleted = 0
   LfsObject.find_each do |lfs_file|
     next if lfs_file.file.file.exists?
     lfs_files_deleted += 1
     p "LFS file with ID #{lfs_file.id} and path #{lfs_file.file.path} is missing."
     # lfs_file.lfs_objects_projects.destroy_all     # Uncomment to delete parent records
     # lfs_file.destroy                              # Uncomment to destroy the LFS object reference
   end
   p "Count of identified/destroyed invalid references: #{lfs_files_deleted}"
   

This script identifies all missing LFS objects in the database. Before deleting any records:

• It first prints information about missing files for verification.
• The commented lines prevent accidental deletion. If you uncomment them, the script deletes the identified records.
• The script automatically prints a final count of deleted records for comparison.

LFS commands fail on TLS v1.3 server

If you configure GitLab to disable TLS v1.2 and only enable TLS v1.3 connections, LFS operations require a Git LFS client version 2.11.0 or later. If you use a Git LFS client earlier than version 2.11.0, GitLab displays an error:

batch response: Post https://username:***@gitlab.example.com/tool/releases.git/info/lfs/objects/batch: remote error: tls: protocol version not supported
error: failed to fetch some objects from 'https://username:[MASKED]@gitlab.example.com/tool/releases.git/info/lfs'

When using GitLab CI over a TLS v1.3 configured GitLab server, you must upgrade to GitLab Runner 13.2.0 or later to receive an updated Git LFS client version with the included GitLab Runner Helper image.

To check an installed Git LFS client's version, run this command:

git lfs version

Connection refused errors

If you push or mirror LFS objects and receive errors like the following:

• dial tcp <IP>:443: connect: connection refused
• Connection refused - connect(2) for \"<target-or-proxy-IP>\" port 443

a firewall or proxy rule may be terminating the connection.

If connection checks with standard Unix tools or manual Git pushes are successful, the rule may be related to the size of the request.

Error viewing a PDF file

When LFS has been configured with object storage and proxy_download set to false, you might see an error when previewing a PDF file from the Web browser:

An error occurred while loading the file. Please try again later.

This occurs due to Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) restrictions: the browser attempts to load the PDF from object storage, but the object storage provider rejects the request because the GitLab domain differs from the object storage domain.

To fix this issue, configure your object storage provider's CORS settings to allow the GitLab domain. See the following documentation for more details:

1. AWS S3
2. Google Cloud Storage
3. Azure Storage.

Fork operation stuck on Forking in progress message

If you are forking a project with multiple LFS files, the operation might get stuck with a Forking in progress message. If you encounter this, follow these steps to diagnose and resolve the issue:

1. Check your exceptions_json.log file for the following error message:

   plaintextCopy

   "error_message": "Unable to fork project 12345 for repository
   @hashed/11/22/encoded-path -> @hashed/33/44/encoded-new-path:
   Source project has too many LFS objects"
   

   This error indicates that you've reached the default limit of 100,000 LFS files, as described in issue 476693.

2. Increase the value of the GITLAB_LFS_MAX_OID_TO_FETCH variable:

   1. Open the configuration file /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb.

   2. Add or update the variable:

      rubyCopy

      gitlab_rails['env'] = {
         "GITLAB_LFS_MAX_OID_TO_FETCH" => "NEW_VALUE"
      }
      

      Replace NEW_VALUE with a number based on your requirements.

3. Apply the changes. Run:

   shellCopy

   sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
   

   For more information, see reconfigure a Linux package installation.

4. Repeat the fork operation.

[!note] For the GitLab Helm chart, use extraEnv to configure the environment variable GITLAB_LFS_MAX_OID_TO_FETCH.