Host Your Own GitLab

Introduction

DevOps has become mainstream and spawned variants like DevSecOps, DataOps and MLOps. To keep private services on a homelab, this series shows how to build a CI/CD environment locally starting with a self‑hosted GitLab via Docker.

Requirements

Hardware

Desktop‑class CPU
At least 8 GB RAM
Disk space according to needs

Software / OS

An operating system capable of running Docker
docker-ce
docker-ce-cli
docker-compose

Generate TLS Certificates

Use openssl to create certificates for HTTPS access:

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openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -keyout gitlab.key -x509 -days 365 -out gitlab.crt

Docker Compose

Define GitLab in a docker-compose.yml:

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version: '3'
services:
  web:
    image: gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
    container_name: gitlab
    restart: always
    hostname: gitlab.example.com
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/gitlab
      - ./logs:/var/log/gitlab
      - ./data:/var/opt/gitlab

Start the service with docker-compose up -d and visit https://gitlab.example.com to finish setup.

Conclusion

With Docker and a few commands you can run a private GitLab instance at home, forming the foundation for a full CI/CD environment.