GitLab Pages administration

{{< details >}}

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

{{< /details >}}

GitLab Pages provides static site hosting for GitLab projects and groups. Server administrators must configure Pages before users can access this feature. With GitLab Pages, administrators can:

• Host static websites securely with custom domains and SSL/TLS certificates.
• Enable authentication to control access to Pages sites through GitLab permissions.
• Scale deployments using object storage or network storage in multi-node environments.
• Monitor and manage traffic with rate limiting and custom headers.
• Support IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for all Pages sites.

The GitLab Pages daemon runs as a separate process and can be configured either on the same server as GitLab or on its own dedicated infrastructure. For user documentation, see GitLab Pages.

[!note] This guide is for Linux package installations. For self-compiled installations, see GitLab Pages administration for self-compiled installations.

GitLab Pages daemon

GitLab Pages uses the GitLab Pages daemon, a basic HTTP server written in Go that can listen on an external IP address and provide support for custom domains and custom certificates. It supports dynamic certificates through Server Name Indication (SNI) and exposes pages using HTTP2 by default.

For more information, see the README.

When used with custom domains, the Pages daemon must listen on ports 80 or 443. This is not required for wildcard domains.

You can run the Pages daemon:

• On the same server as GitLab, listening on a secondary IP.
• On a separate server. The Pages path must also be present on the server where the Pages daemon is installed, so you must share it over the network.
• On the same server as GitLab, listening on the same IP but on different ports. In this case, you must proxy the traffic with a load balancer. For HTTPS, use TCP load balancing. If you use TLS termination (HTTPS load balancing), pages cannot be served with user-provided certificates. For HTTP, either HTTP or TCP load balancing is acceptable.

The following sections assume the first option. If you are not supporting custom domains, a secondary IP is not needed.

Prerequisites

This section describes the prerequisites for configuring GitLab Pages.

[!note] If your GitLab instance and the Pages daemon are deployed in a private network or behind a firewall, your GitLab Pages websites are only accessible to devices and users with access to the private network.

Wildcard domains

Each site gets its own subdomain (for example, <namespace>.example.io/<project_slug>). This subdomain requires a wildcard DNS record (*.example.io) and is the recommended setup for most instances.

Before configuring Pages for wildcard domains, you must:

1. Have a domain for Pages that is not a subdomain of your GitLab instance domain.

   GitLab domain	Pages domain	Does it work?
   example.com	example.io	{{< icon name="check-circle" >}} Yes
   example.com	pages.example.com	{{< icon name="dotted-circle" >}} No <sup>1</sup>
   gitlab.example.com	pages.example.com	{{< icon name="check-circle" >}} Yes

   Footnotes:

   1. If the Pages domain is a subdomain of your GitLab instance domain, all deployed Pages sites can access GitLab session cookies.

2. Configure a wildcard DNS record.

3. Optional. Have a wildcard certificate for that domain if you decide to serve Pages under HTTPS.

4. Optional but recommended. Enable instance runners so that your users do not have to bring their own.

5. For custom domains, have a secondary IP.

Single-domain sites

All sites share one domain, with the namespace and project slug as path segments (for example, example.io/<namespace>/<project_slug>). This domain requires only a single DNS A record.

Before configuring Pages for single-domain sites, you must:

1. Have a domain for Pages that is not a subdomain of your GitLab instance domain.

   GitLab domain	Pages domain	Supported
   example.com	example.io	{{< icon name="check-circle" >}} Yes
   example.com	pages.example.com	{{< icon name="dotted-circle" >}} No <sup>1</sup>
   gitlab.example.com	pages.example.com	{{< icon name="check-circle" >}} Yes

   Footnotes:

   1. If the Pages domain is a subdomain of your GitLab instance domain, all deployed Pages sites can access GitLab session cookies.

2. Configure a DNS record.

3. Optional. If you decide to serve Pages under HTTPS, have a TLS certificate for that domain.

4. Optional but recommended. Enable instance runners so that your users do not have to bring their own.

5. For custom domains, have a secondary IP.

Add the domain to the Public Suffix List

The Public Suffix List is used by browsers to decide how to treat subdomains. If your GitLab instance allows members of the public to create GitLab Pages sites, it also allows those users to create subdomains on the pages domain (example.io). Adding the domain to the Public Suffix List prevents browsers from accepting supercookies, among other things.

To submit your GitLab Pages subdomain, see submit amendments to the Public Suffix List. For example, if your domain is example.io, you should request that example.io is added to the Public Suffix List. GitLab.com added gitlab.io in 2016.

DNS configuration

GitLab Pages run on their own virtual host. In your DNS server or provider, add a wildcard DNS A record pointing to the host that GitLab runs on. For example:

*.example.io. 1800 IN A    192.0.2.1
*.example.io. 1800 IN AAAA 2001:db8::1

Where example.io is the domain GitLab Pages is served from, 192.0.2.1 is the IPv4 address of your GitLab instance, and 2001:db8::1 is the IPv6 address. If you do not have IPv6, you can omit the AAAA record.

DNS configuration for single-domain sites

{{< history >}}

• Introduced as an experiment in GitLab 16.7.
• Moved to beta in GitLab 16.11.
• Changed implementation from NGINX to the GitLab Pages codebase in GitLab 17.2.
• Generally available in GitLab 17.4.

{{< /history >}}

To configure GitLab Pages DNS for single-domain sites without wildcard DNS:

1. Enable the GitLab Pages flag for this feature by adding gitlab_pages['namespace_in_path'] = true to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb.

2. In your DNS provider, add entries for example.io. Replace example.io with your domain name, and 192.0.0.0 with the IPv4 address of your instance:

   plaintextCopy

   example.io          1800 IN A    192.0.0.0
   

3. Optional. If your GitLab instance has an IPv6 address, add entries for it. Replace example.io with your domain name, and 2001:db8::1 with the IPv6 address of your instance:

   plaintextCopy

   example.io          1800 IN AAAA 2001:db8::1
   

   example.io is the domain GitLab Pages is served from.

DNS configuration for custom domains

If you need custom domain support, all subdomains of the Pages root domain must point to the secondary IP dedicated to the Pages daemon. Without this configuration, users cannot use CNAME records to point their custom domains to their GitLab Pages.

For example:

example.com   1800 IN A    192.0.2.1
*.example.io. 1800 IN A    192.0.2.2

This example contains:

• example.com: The GitLab domain.
• example.io: The domain GitLab Pages is served from.
• 192.0.2.1: The primary IP of your GitLab instance.
• 192.0.2.2: The secondary IP dedicated to GitLab Pages. It must differ from the primary IP.

[!note] Do not use the GitLab domain to serve user pages. For more information, see the security section.

Configuration

You can set up GitLab Pages in several ways. The following examples are listed from the simplest setup to the most advanced.

Wildcard domains

This configuration is the minimum setup to use GitLab Pages and serves as the foundation for all other setups. In this configuration:

• NGINX proxies all requests to the GitLab Pages daemon.
• The GitLab Pages daemon does not listen directly to the public internet.

Prerequisites:

• You have configured wildcard DNS.

To configure GitLab Pages to use wildcard domains:

1. Set the external URL for GitLab Pages in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "http://example.com" # external_url here is only for reference
   pages_external_url 'http://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be http://pages.example.com
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

The resulting URL scheme is http://<namespace>.example.io/<project_slug>.

<i class="fa-youtube-play" aria-hidden="true"></i> For an overview, see the enable GitLab Pages for GitLab CE and EE video.

Single-domain sites

{{< history >}}

• Introduced as an experiment in GitLab 16.7.
• Moved to beta in GitLab 16.11.
• Changed implementation from NGINX to the GitLab Pages codebase in GitLab 17.2.
• Generally available in GitLab 17.4.

{{< /history >}}

This configuration is the minimum setup to use single-domain sites and serves as the foundation for all other single-domain setups. In this configuration:

• NGINX proxies all requests to the GitLab Pages daemon.
• The GitLab Pages daemon does not listen directly to the public internet.

Prerequisites:

• You have configured DNS for single-domain sites.

To configure GitLab Pages to use single-domain sites:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, set the external URL for GitLab Pages, and enable the feature:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "http://example.com" # Swap out this URL for your own
   pages_external_url 'http://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be http://pages.example.com
   
   # Set this flag to enable this feature
   gitlab_pages['namespace_in_path'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

The resulting URL scheme is http://example.io/<namespace>/<project_slug>.

[!warning] GitLab Pages supports only one URL scheme at a time: wildcard domains or single-domain sites. If you enable namespace_in_path, existing GitLab Pages websites are accessible only as single-domain sites.

Wildcard domains with TLS support

NGINX proxies all requests to the daemon. The Pages daemon does not listen to the public internet.

Only one wildcard can be assigned to an instance.

Prerequisites:

• You have configured wildcard DNS.
• You have a TLS certificate. It can be a wildcard certificate or any other type meeting the requirements.

To configure wildcard domains with TLS support:

1. Place the wildcard TLS certificate for *.example.io and the key inside /etc/gitlab/ssl.

2. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, specify the following configuration:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "https://example.com" # external_url here is only for reference
   pages_external_url 'https://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be https://pages.example.com
   
   pages_nginx['redirect_http_to_https'] = true
   

3. If your certificate and key are not named example.io.crt and example.io.key, add the full paths:

   rubyCopy

   pages_nginx['ssl_certificate'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/pages-nginx.crt"
   pages_nginx['ssl_certificate_key'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/pages-nginx.key"
   

4. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

5. If you're using access control, update the redirect URI in the GitLab Pages system OAuth application to use the HTTPS protocol.

The resulting URL scheme is https://<namespace>.example.io/<project_slug>.

[!warning] GitLab Pages does not update the OAuth application if changes are made to the redirect URI. Before you reconfigure, remove the gitlab_pages section from /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json, then run gitlab-ctl reconfigure. For more information, see GitLab Pages does not regenerate OAuth.

Single-domain sites with TLS support

{{< history >}}

• Introduced as an experiment in GitLab 16.7.
• Moved to beta in GitLab 16.11.
• Changed implementation from NGINX to the GitLab Pages codebase in GitLab 17.2.
• Generally available in GitLab 17.4.

{{< /history >}}

In this configuration, NGINX proxies all requests to the daemon. The GitLab Pages daemon does not listen to the public internet.

Prerequisites:

• You have configured DNS for single-domain sites.
• You have a TLS certificate that covers your domain (like example.io).

To configure single-domain sites with TLS support:

1. Add your TLS certificate and key to /etc/gitlab/ssl.

2. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, set the external URL for GitLab Pages and enable the feature:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "https://example.com" # Swap out this URL for your own
   pages_external_url 'https://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be https://pages.example.com
   
   pages_nginx['redirect_http_to_https'] = true
   
   # Set this flag to enable this feature
   gitlab_pages['namespace_in_path'] = true
   

3. If your TLS certificate or key files have different names than example.io.crt and example.io.key, add the full paths:

   rubyCopy

   pages_nginx['ssl_certificate'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/pages-nginx.crt"
   pages_nginx['ssl_certificate_key'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/pages-nginx.key"
   

4. If you're using access control, update the redirect URI in the GitLab Pages system OAuth application to use the HTTPS protocol.

   [!note] GitLab Pages does not update the OAuth application, and the default auth_redirect_uri is updated to https://example.io/projects/auth. Before you reconfigure, remove the gitlab_pages section from /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json, then run gitlab-ctl reconfigure. For more information, see GitLab Pages does not regenerate OAuth.

5. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

The resulting URL scheme is https://example.io/<namespace>/<project_slug>.

[!warning] GitLab Pages supports only one URL scheme at a time: wildcard domains or single-domain sites. If you enable namespace_in_path, existing GitLab Pages websites are accessible only as single-domain sites.

Wildcard domains with TLS-terminating load balancer

Use this setup when installing a GitLab POC on Amazon Web Services. This setup includes a TLS-terminating classic load balancer that listens for HTTPS connections, manages TLS certificates, and forwards HTTP traffic to the instance.

Prerequisites:

• Configured wildcard DNS.
• A TLS-terminating load balancer.

To configure wildcard domains with a TLS-terminating load balancer:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, specify the following configuration:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "https://example.com" # external_url here is only for reference
   pages_external_url 'https://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be https://pages.example.com
   
   pages_nginx['enable'] = true
   pages_nginx['listen_port'] = 80
   pages_nginx['listen_https'] = false
   pages_nginx['redirect_http_to_https'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

The resulting URL scheme is https://<namespace>.example.io/<project_slug>.

Global settings

The following table explains all configuration settings known to Pages in a Linux package installation. These options can be adjusted in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, and take effect after you reconfigure GitLab.

Most of these settings do not have to be configured manually unless you need more granular control over how the Pages daemon runs and serves content in your environment.

Footnotes:

1. When you use an external Sidekiq node, you must add pages_external_url to your configuration. Without this setting, the external Sidekiq node cannot process deploy jobs.

Advanced configuration

In addition to wildcard domains, you can configure GitLab Pages to work with custom domains, with or without TLS certificates. In either case, you need a secondary IP. If you have both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses, you can use them both.

Custom domains

By default, GitLab Pages sites are served on a subdomain of the Pages root domain, for example, namespace.example.io/project. To configure a custom domain for a Pages site, add a CNAME DNS record that points your own domain (for example, example-custom-site-here.com) to GitLab Pages.

If you only need the default *.example.io subdomain URLs, you don't need to configure custom domain support.

In this configuration, the Pages daemon is running and NGINX proxies requests to it, but the daemon can also receive requests from the public internet. Custom domains are supported without TLS.

Prerequisites:

• Configured wildcard DNS.
• A secondary IP.

To configure custom domains:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, specify the following configuration:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "http://example.com" # external_url here is only for reference
   pages_external_url 'http://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be http://pages.example.com
   nginx['listen_addresses'] = ['192.0.2.1'] # The primary IP of the GitLab instance
   pages_nginx['enable'] = false
   gitlab_pages['external_http'] = ['192.0.2.2:80', '[2001:db8::2]:80'] # The secondary IPs for the GitLab Pages daemon
   gitlab_pages['custom_domain_mode'] = 'http' # Enable custom domain
   

   If you do not have IPv6, omit the IPv6 address.

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

The resulting URL schemes are http://<namespace>.example.io/<project_slug> and http://custom-domain.com.

Custom domains with TLS support

In this configuration, the Pages daemon is running and NGINX proxies requests to it, but the daemon can also receive requests from the public internet. Custom domains and TLS are supported.

Prerequisites:

• Configured wildcard DNS.
• A TLS certificate. It can be a wildcard certificate or any other type meeting the requirements.
• A secondary IP.

To configure custom domains with TLS support:

1. Place the wildcard TLS certificate for *.example.io and the key inside /etc/gitlab/ssl.

2. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, specify the following configuration:

   rubyCopy

   external_url "https://example.com" # external_url here is only for reference
   pages_external_url 'https://example.io' # Important: not a subdomain of external_url, so cannot be https://pages.example.com
   nginx['listen_addresses'] = ['192.0.2.1'] # The primary IP of the GitLab instance
   pages_nginx['enable'] = false
   gitlab_pages['external_http'] = ['192.0.2.2:80', '[2001:db8::2]:80'] # The secondary IPs for the GitLab Pages daemon
   gitlab_pages['external_https'] = ['192.0.2.2:443', '[2001:db8::2]:443'] # The secondary IPs for the GitLab Pages daemon
   gitlab_pages['custom_domain_mode'] = 'https' # Enable custom domain
   # Redirect pages from HTTP to HTTPS
   gitlab_pages['redirect_http'] = true
   

   If you do not have IPv6, omit the IPv6 address.

3. If your certificate and key are not named example.io.crt and example.io.key, add the full paths:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['cert'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/example.io.crt"
   gitlab_pages['cert_key'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/example.io.key"
   

4. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

5. If you're using access control, edit the redirect URI in the GitLab Pages system OAuth application to use the HTTPS protocol.

Custom domain verification

To prevent malicious users from hijacking domains that do not belong to them, GitLab supports custom domain verification. When adding a custom domain, users must prove they own it by adding a GitLab-controlled verification code to the DNS records for that domain.

[!warning] Disabling domain verification is unsafe and can lead to various vulnerabilities. If you disable it, ensure that the Pages root domain itself does not point to the secondary IP, or add the root domain as a custom domain to a project. Otherwise, any user can add this domain as a custom domain to their project.

If your user base is private or otherwise trusted, you can disable the verification requirement:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Clear the Require users to prove ownership of custom domains checkbox. This setting is enabled by default.

Let's Encrypt integration

GitLab Pages' Let's Encrypt integration allows users to add Let's Encrypt SSL certificates for GitLab Pages sites served under a custom domain.

To enable it:

1. Choose an email address to receive notifications about expiring domains.
2. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
3. Select Settings > Preferences.
4. Expand Pages.
5. Enter the email address for receiving notifications and accept the Terms of Service for Let's Encrypt.
6. Select Save changes.

Access control

GitLab Pages access control can be configured per-project, and allows access to a Pages site to be controlled based on a user's membership to that project.

Access control works by registering the Pages daemon as an OAuth application with GitLab. Whenever an unauthenticated user requests access to a private Pages site, the Pages daemon redirects the user to GitLab. If authentication is successful, the user is redirected back to Pages with a token, which is persisted in a cookie. The cookies are signed with a secret key, so tampering can be detected.

Each request to view a resource in a private site is authenticated by Pages using that token. For each request it receives, Pages makes a request to the GitLab API to check that the user is authorized to read that site.

Pages access control is disabled by default. To enable it:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['access_control'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

3. Users can now configure it in their projects' settings.

[!note] For this setting to be effective with multi-node setups, apply it to all App nodes and Sidekiq nodes.

Using Pages with reduced authentication scope

You can configure the scope the Pages daemon uses to authenticate. By default, it uses the api scope.

For example, this reduces the scope to read_api in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

gitlab_pages['auth_scope'] = 'read_api'

The scope to use for authentication must match the GitLab Pages OAuth application settings. Users of pre-existing applications must modify the GitLab Pages OAuth application.

Prerequisites:

• You have enabled access control.

To change the scope Pages uses:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Applications.
3. Expand GitLab Pages.
4. Clear the api scope's checkbox and select the desired scope's checkbox (for example, read_api).
5. Select Save changes.

Disable public access to all Pages sites

You can enforce access control for all GitLab Pages websites hosted on your GitLab instance. When you enable this setting, only authenticated users can access Pages websites. All projects lose the Everyone visibility level option and are restricted to project members or everyone with access, depending on the project's visibility setting.

Use this setting to restrict information published with Pages to the users of your instance only.

Prerequisites:

• Administrator access to the instance.
• Access control enabled for the setting to show in the Admin area.

To disable public access to all Pages sites:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Select the Disable public access to Pages sites checkbox.
5. Select Save changes.

Disable unique domains by default

{{< history >}}

• Introduced in GitLab 18.3.

{{< /history >}}

By default, all newly created GitLab Pages sites use unique domain URLs (for example, my-project-1a2b3c.example.com), which prevents cookie sharing between different sites under the same namespace.

You can disable this default behavior so that new Pages sites use path-based URLs (for example, my-namespace.example.com/my-project) instead. However, this approach has the risk of cookie sharing between different sites under the same namespace.

This setting controls the default behavior for new sites only. Users can still override this setting for individual projects.

Prerequisites:

• You must have administrator access to the instance.

To disable unique domains by default:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Clear the Enable unique domains by default checkbox.
5. Select Save changes.

This setting only affects new Pages sites. Existing sites maintain their current unique domain configuration.

Running behind a proxy

You can use GitLab Pages in environments where external internet connectivity is gated by a proxy.

To use a proxy for GitLab Pages:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['env']['http_proxy'] = 'http://example:8080'
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using a custom Certificate Authority (CA)

When using certificates issued by a custom CA, access control and the online view of HTML job artifacts fail to work if the custom CA is not recognized.

This usually results in this error:

Post /oauth/token: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority

To resolve this:

• For Linux package installations, install a custom CA.
• For self-compiled installations, install the custom CA in the system certificate store.

Support mutual TLS when calling the GitLab API

{{< history >}}

• Introduced in GitLab 17.1.

{{< /history >}}

If GitLab is configured to require mutual TLS, you must add client certificates to your GitLab Pages configuration.

Certificates have these requirements:

• The certificate must specify the hostname or IP address as a Subject Alternative Name.
• The full certificate chain is required, including the end-user certificate, intermediate certificates, and the root certificate, in that order.

The certificate's Common Name field is ignored.

Prerequisites:

• Your instance uses the Linux package installation method.

To configure the certificates in your GitLab Pages server:

1. On the GitLab Pages nodes, create the /etc/gitlab/ssl directory and copy your key and full certificate chain there:

   shellCopy

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/gitlab/ssl
   sudo chmod 755 /etc/gitlab/ssl
   sudo cp key.pem cert.pem /etc/gitlab/ssl/
   sudo chmod 644 key.pem cert.pem
   

2. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['client_cert'] = ['/etc/gitlab/ssl/cert.pem']
   gitlab_pages['client_key'] = ['/etc/gitlab/ssl/key.pem']
   

3. If you used a custom CA, copy the root CA certificate to /etc/gitlab/ssl and edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['client_ca_certs'] = ['/etc/gitlab/ssl/ca.pem']
   

   File paths for multiple custom Certificate Authorities are separated by commas.

4. If you have a multi-node GitLab Pages installation, repeat these steps on all nodes.

5. Save a copy of the full certificate chain files in the /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs directory on all your GitLab nodes.

ZIP serving and cache configuration

[!warning] The recommended default values are set inside GitLab Pages. Change these settings only if absolutely necessary.

GitLab Pages can serve content from ZIP archives through object storage. It uses an in-memory cache to increase the performance when serving content from a ZIP archive. You can modify the cache behavior by changing the following configuration flags.

ZIP cache refresh example

Archives are refreshed in the cache (extending the time they are held in memory) if they're accessed before zip_cache_expiration, and the time left before expiring is less than or equal to zip_cache_refresh. For example, if archive.zip is accessed at time 0s, it expires in 60s (the default for zip_cache_expiration). If the archive is opened again after 15s, it is not refreshed because the time left for expiry (45s) is greater than zip_cache_refresh (default 30s). However, if the archive is accessed again after 45s (from the first time it was opened), it's refreshed. This extends the time the archive remains in memory from 45s + zip_cache_expiration (60s), for a total of 105s.

After an archive reaches zip_cache_expiration, it's marked as expired and removed on the next zip_cache_cleanup interval.

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) support

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) can be enabled through the gitlab_pages['headers'] configuration option. HSTS informs browsers that the website should always be accessed over HTTPS, preventing attackers from forcing unencrypted connections. It can also improve page loading speed by preventing browsers from attempting an unencrypted HTTP connection before being redirected to HTTPS.

gitlab_pages['headers'] = ['Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000']

Pages project redirect limits

GitLab Pages has default limits for the _redirects file to minimize performance impact.

To adjust the limits:

gitlab_pages['redirects_max_config_size'] = 131072
gitlab_pages['redirects_max_path_segments'] = 50
gitlab_pages['redirects_max_rule_count'] = 2000

Use environment variables

You can pass an environment variable to the Pages daemon to enable or disable a feature flag.

To disable the configurable directory feature:

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

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['env'] = {
     'FF_CONFIGURABLE_ROOT_DIR' => "false"
   }
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Activate verbose logging for daemon

To configure verbose logging of the GitLab Pages daemon:

1. By default the daemon only logs with INFO level. To log events with level DEBUG, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['log_verbose'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Propagating the correlation ID

Setting propagate_correlation_id to true allows installations behind a reverse proxy to generate and set a correlation ID on requests sent to GitLab Pages. When a reverse proxy sets the header value X-Request-ID, the value propagates in the request chain. Users can find the correlation ID in the logs.

To enable the propagation of the correlation ID:

1. In /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['propagate_correlation_id'] = true
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Change storage path

To change the default path where GitLab Pages content is stored:

1. Pages are stored by default in /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/pages. To use a different location, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_rails['pages_path'] = "/mnt/storage/pages"
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Configure listener for reverse proxy requests

To configure the proxy listener of GitLab Pages:

1. By default the listener is configured to listen for requests on localhost:8090.

   To disable it, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['listen_proxy'] = nil
   

   To change the port, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['listen_proxy'] = "localhost:10080"
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Set global maximum size of each GitLab Pages site

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

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Prerequisites:

• You must have administrator access to the instance.

To set the global maximum pages size for a project:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. In Maximum size of pages, enter a value. The default is 100.
5. Select Save changes.

Set maximum size of each GitLab Pages site in a group

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

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Prerequisites:

• You must have administrator access to the instance.

To set the maximum size of each GitLab Pages site in a group, overriding the inherited setting:

1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Enter a value under Maximum size in MB.
5. Select Save changes.

Set maximum size of GitLab Pages site in a project

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

{{< /details >}}

Prerequisites:

• You must have administrator access to the instance.

To set the maximum size of a GitLab Pages site in a project, overriding the inherited setting:

1. In the top bar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Deploy > Pages.
3. In Maximum size of pages, enter the size in MB.
4. Select Save changes.

Set maximum number of GitLab Pages custom domains for a project

Prerequisites:

• You must have administrator access to the instance.

To set the maximum number of GitLab Pages custom domains for a project:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Enter a value for Maximum number of custom domains per project. Use 0 for unlimited domains.
5. Select Save changes.

Configure the default expiry for parallel deployments

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• Introduced in GitLab 17.4.

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Prerequisites:

• Administrator access to the instance.

To configure the default duration after parallel deployments are deleted:

1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > Preferences.
3. Expand Pages.
4. Enter a value for Default expiration for parallel deployments in seconds. Use 0 if parallel deployments should not expire by default.
5. Select Save changes.

Set maximum number of files per GitLab Pages website

The total number of file entries (including directories and symlinks) is limited to 200,000 for each GitLab Pages website.

You can update the limit in your GitLab Self-Managed instance using the GitLab Rails console.

For more information, see GitLab application limits.

Running GitLab Pages on a separate server

You can run the GitLab Pages daemon on a separate server to decrease the load on your main application server.

[!warning] The following procedure includes steps to back up and edit the gitlab-secrets.json file. This file contains secrets that control database encryption. Proceed with caution.

To configure GitLab Pages on a separate server:

1. Optional. To enable access control, add the following to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and reconfigure the GitLab server:

   [!warning] If you plan to use GitLab Pages with access control, enable it on the GitLab server before copying gitlab-secrets.json. Enabling access control generates a new OAuth application, and information about it propagates to gitlab-secrets.json. If this is not done in the correct order, you may face issues with access control.

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['access_control'] = true
   

2. Create a backup of the secrets file on the GitLab server:

   shellCopy

   cp /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json.bak
   

3. On the GitLab server, to enable Pages, add the following to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   rubyCopy

   pages_external_url "http://<pages_server_URL>"
   

4. Set up object storage by either:

   • Configuring the object storage and migrating GitLab Pages data to it.
   • Configuring network storage.

5. Reconfigure the GitLab server for the changes to take effect. The gitlab-secrets.json file is now updated with the new configuration.

6. Set up a new server. This becomes the Pages server.

7. On the Pages server, install GitLab by using the Linux package and modify /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb to include:

   rubyCopy

   roles ['pages_role']
   
   pages_external_url "http://<pages_server_URL>"
   
   gitlab_pages['gitlab_server'] = 'http://<gitlab_server_IP_or_URL>'
   
   ## If access control was enabled
   gitlab_pages['access_control'] = true
   

8. If you have custom UID/GID settings on the GitLab server, add them to the Pages server /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb as well. Otherwise, running gitlab-ctl reconfigure on the GitLab server can change file ownership and cause Pages requests to fail.

9. Create a backup of the secrets file on the Pages server:

   shellCopy

   cp /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json.bak
   

10. To enable custom domains for individual GitLab Pages sites, set up the Pages server using either:

    • Custom domains.
    • Custom domains with TLS support.

11. Copy the /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json file from the GitLab server to the Pages server:

    shellCopy

    # On the GitLab server
    cp /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json /mnt/pages/gitlab-secrets.json
    
    # On the Pages server
    mv /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/pages/gitlab-secrets.json /etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json
    

12. Reconfigure the Pages server for the changes to take effect.

13. On the GitLab server, make the following changes to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

    rubyCopy

    pages_external_url "http://<pages_server_URL>"
    gitlab_pages['enable'] = false
    pages_nginx['enable'] = false
    

14. To enable custom domains for individual GitLab Pages sites, on the GitLab server, make the following changes to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

    • Custom domains:

      rubyCopy

         gitlab_pages['custom_domain_mode'] = 'http'
      

    • Custom domains with TLS support:

      rubyCopy

         gitlab_pages['custom_domain_mode'] = 'https'
      

15. Reconfigure the GitLab server for the changes to take effect.

To distribute the load, you can run GitLab Pages on multiple servers using standard load balancing practices, such as configuring your DNS server to return multiple IPs or using an IP-level load balancer. To set up GitLab Pages on multiple servers, repeat the previous procedure for each Pages server.

Domain source configuration

When the GitLab Pages daemon serves a request, it first identifies which project should serve the requested URL and how its content is stored.

By default, GitLab Pages uses the internal GitLab API every time a new domain is requested. Pages fails to start if it cannot connect to the API. Domain information is also cached by the Pages daemon to speed up subsequent requests.

For common issues, see the troubleshooting section.

GitLab API cache configuration

API-based configuration uses a caching mechanism to improve performance and reliability. You can modify the cache behavior by changing the following settings, though the recommended defaults should only be changed if needed. Incorrect configuration may result in intermittent or persistent errors, or the Pages daemon serving stale content.

[!note] Expiry, interval, and timeout flags use Go duration formatting. A duration string is a possibly signed sequence of decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as 300ms, 1.5h, or 2h45m. Valid time units are ns, us (or µs), ms, s, m, h.

Examples:

• Increasing gitlab_cache_expiry allows items to exist in the cache longer. Use this setting if the communication between GitLab Pages and GitLab Rails is not stable.
• Increasing gitlab_cache_refresh reduces the frequency at which GitLab Pages requests a domain's configuration from GitLab Rails. Use this setting if GitLab Pages generates too many requests to the GitLab API and content does not change frequently.
• Decreasing gitlab_cache_cleanup removes expired items from the cache more frequently, reducing memory usage on your Pages node.
• Decreasing gitlab_retrieval_timeout stops requests to GitLab Rails more quickly. Increasing it allows more time to receive a response from the API. Use this setting for slow network environments.
• Decreasing gitlab_retrieval_interval makes requests to the API more frequently, only when there is an error response from the API, such as a connection timeout.
• Decreasing gitlab_retrieval_retries reduces the number of times a domain's configuration is retried before reporting an error.

Object storage settings

The following object storage settings are:

• Nested under pages: and then object_store: on self-compiled installations.
• Prefixed by pages_object_store_ on Linux package installations.

[!note] If you want to stop using and disconnect the NFS server, you must explicitly disable local storage.

S3-compatible connection settings

You should use the consolidated object storage settings.

See the available connection settings for different providers.

Migrate Pages deployments to object storage

Existing Pages deployment objects (ZIP archives) can be stored in either local storage or object storage.

To migrate your existing Pages deployments from local storage to object storage:

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:pages:deployments:migrate_to_object_storage

You can track progress and verify that all Pages deployments migrated successfully using the PostgreSQL console:

• sudo gitlab-rails dbconsole --database main for Linux package installations.
• sudo -u git -H psql -d gitlabhq_production for self-compiled installations.

Verify that objectstg (where store=2) has a count of all Pages deployments:

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 pages_deployments;

total | filesystem | objectstg
------+------------+-----------
   10 |          0 |        10

After verifying everything is working correctly, disable Pages local storage.

Rolling Pages deployments back to local storage

After migrating to object storage, you can move your Pages deployments back to local storage:

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:pages:deployments:migrate_to_local

Disable Pages local storage

If you use object storage, you can disable local storage to avoid unnecessary disk usage or writes:

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

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_rails['pages_local_store_enabled'] = false
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Enable Pages network storage in multi-node environments

Object storage is the preferred configuration for most environments. However, if your requirements call for network storage and you want to configure Pages to run on a separate server, you should:

1. Ensure the shared storage volume is already mounted and available on both the primary server and your intended Pages server.

2. Update /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb on each node to include:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['enable_disk'] = true
   gitlab_rails['pages_path'] = "/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/pages" # Path to your network storage
   

3. Switch over Pages to your separate server.

After you successfully configure Pages on your separate server, only that server needs access to the shared storage volume. Consider keeping the shared storage volume mounted on your primary server in case you need to migrate back to a single-node environment.

ZIP storage

The underlying storage format of GitLab Pages is a single ZIP archive per project. These archives can be stored either locally or on object storage. A new archive is stored every time a Pages site is updated.

Backup

GitLab Pages are part of the regular backup, so there is no separate backup to configure.

Security

You should strongly consider running GitLab Pages under a different hostname than GitLab to prevent XSS attacks.

Rate limits

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• Changed in GitLab 17.3: You can exclude subnets from Pages rate limits.

{{< /history >}}

You can enforce rate limits to help minimize the risk of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. GitLab Pages uses a token bucket algorithm to enforce rate limiting. By default, requests or TLS connections that exceed the specified limits are reported and rejected.

GitLab Pages supports the following types of rate limiting:

• For each source_ip: Limits requests or TLS connections from a single client IP address.
• For each domain: Limits requests or TLS connections per domain hosted on GitLab Pages. This can be a custom domain like example.com, or a group domain like group.gitlab.io.

HTTP request-based rate limits are enforced using the following settings:

• rate_limit_source_ip: Maximum requests per client IP per second. Set to 0 to disable.
• rate_limit_source_ip_burst: Maximum requests allowed in an initial burst per client IP, for example when a page loads multiple resources simultaneously.
• rate_limit_domain: Maximum requests per hosted Pages domain per second. Set to 0 to disable.
• rate_limit_domain_burst: Maximum requests allowed in an initial burst per hosted Pages domain.

TLS connection-based rate limits are enforced using the following settings:

• rate_limit_tls_source_ip: Maximum TLS connections per client IP per second. Set to 0 to disable.
• rate_limit_tls_source_ip_burst: Maximum TLS connections allowed in an initial burst per client IP.
• rate_limit_tls_domain: Maximum TLS connections per hosted Pages domain per second. Set to 0 to disable.
• rate_limit_tls_domain_burst: Maximum TLS connections allowed in an initial burst per hosted Pages domain.

To allow certain IP ranges (subnets) to bypass all rate limits, use rate_limit_subnets_allow_list. For example, ['1.2.3.4/24', '2001:db8::1/32']. An example GitLab Pages chart is available.

If the client's IP address is IPv6, the limit is applied to the IPv6 prefix with a length of 64, rather than the entire address.

Enable HTTP requests rate limits by source IP

To set rate limits in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

1. Add the following:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_source_ip'] = 20.0
   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_source_ip_burst'] = 600
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Enable HTTP requests rate limits by domain

To set rate limits in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

1. Add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_domain'] = 1000
   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_domain_burst'] = 5000
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Enable TLS connections rate limits by source IP

To set rate limits in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

1. Add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_tls_source_ip'] = 20.0
   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_tls_source_ip_burst'] = 600
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Enable TLS connections rate limits by domain

To set rate limits in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

1. Add:

   rubyCopy

   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_tls_domain'] = 1000
   gitlab_pages['rate_limit_tls_domain_burst'] = 5000
   

2. Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Related topics

• Troubleshooting GitLab Pages administration
• GitLab Pages user documentation
• Custom domains and SSL/TLS certificates
• Pages access control
• Job artifacts
• OAuth provider integration
• GitLab application limits
• Object storage
• Parallel deployments
• Customize the default folder
• Pages redirects