Several months ago, we shared that GitLab started officially supporting Amazon Linux 2 as well as providing packages for GitLab and GitLab Runner for x86 and Graviton ARM architectures.
GitLab’s hard working Enablement Engineering team has taken this commitment to the next level by acquiring Amazon’s Service Ready Partner designation for Amazon Linux 2.
The AWS Service Ready program requires that GitLab provide specific evidence in regard to support, compatibility testing and security testing in order to deploy GitLab on Amazon Linux 2 with confidence.
Here is GitLab’s Amazon Linux 2 Service Ready Partner listing.
Amazon Linux 2 support in GitLab 15.0
Amazon Linux 2 is supported in GitLab 15.0 and later. An earlier blog discusses a variety of important points and provides some code in order to plan a smooth transition.
The Service Ready Designation has been received for version 15.3, but there were no changes made to the process from 15.0 to support the designation.
GitLab Runner has had ARM64 binaries since 12.6.0 and now has Amazon Linux 2 RPM packages for those wanting package-based installs.
Inside the distribution team process for distribution support
It would be easy to think that adding support for additional Linux distros is a simple and easy process - but there is actually a lot of effort that goes into it. GitLab’s Distribution Team uses GitLab itself to apply full DevOps disciplines to the continuous building, testing and distribution of packaging for Amazon Linux. Here are just some of the steps in preparing a GitLab release for packaging:
- Create an elastic scaling distro-specific CI build environment.
- Create a distro-specific CI test environment.
- 2380 compatibility tests are performed on the GitLab code base.
- SAST and dependency security scanning are completed and a specific escalation procedure is applied for any vulnerabilities that are found.
- Primary distributions such as distro specific .deb and .rpm packages are prepared specifically for each distribution.
- Secondary distributions are done as well - this is when the official GitLab AMI is created.
- CI builds and testing generally happen multiple times a week for Amazon Linux.
Need-to-know takeaways
- GitLab is now an official Amazon Linux 2 Service Ready Partner.
- Amazon Linux 2 RPM packages are available for GitLab from version 15.0 and for GitLab Runner.
Note This blog post and linked pages contain information related to upcoming products, features, and functionality. It is important to note that the information presented is for informational purposes only. Please do not rely on this information for purchasing or planning purposes. As with all projects, the items mentioned in this blog post and linked pages are subject to change or delay. The development, release, and timing of any products, features, or functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab Inc.
