The GitLab Support Team is here to help. This document defines what we support in terms of our products, services, and applications. Part of providing effective support is defining what is outside of the scope of support.
Scope of support, in the simplest terms, is what we support and what we do not. Ideally, we would support everything. However, without reducing the quality of our support or increasing the price of our products this would be impossible. These "limitations" help us to create a more consistent and efficient support experience.
Please understand that any support that might be offered beyond the scope defined here is done at the discretion of the Support Engineer and is provided as a courtesy.
We will help troubleshoot all components bundled with GitLab Omnibus when used as a packaged part of a GitLab installation. Any assistance with modifications to GitLab, including new functionality, bug-fixes, issues with alpha features or other code changes should go through the GitLab project's issue tracker. Moreover, support is not offered for local modifications to GitLab source code.
We understand that GitLab is often used in complex environments in combination with a variety of tools. We'll do best-effort support in debugging components that work alongside GitLab.
If you obtained an Ultimate license as part of GitLab's Open Source or Education program, Support is not included unless purchased separately. Please see the GitLab OSS License/Subscription Details for additional details.
Unless otherwise specified in your support contract, we support the current major version and previous two major versions only. For example, as 14.x is the current major version, GitLab installations running versions in the 14.x, 13.x and 12.x series are eligible for support.
GitLab only backports fixes, not features and that too on a limited number of prior releases. For more details please visit the maintenance policy.
If you contact support about issues you're experiencing while on an unsupported version, we'll link to this section of this page and invite you to upgrade. If you encounter any issues while upgrading to a supported version, please open a new ticket.
For assistance with first-time installations and the configuration of new features, we highly recommend using our comprehensive documentation:
Alternatively, you can reach out to our Professional Services team who provide training and assistance with the design and implementation of new features and installations.
If you're facing challenges after attempting the installation of a new deployment or implementing new features, a support ticket can be opened using our support portal.
Starting with GitLab version 14.0, support for NFS to store Git repository data will be deprecated.
While the functionality will still be available, it will be provided as-is and with limited support. GitLab will no longer provide proactive fixes or functionality enhancements outside of critical security fixes consistent with our release and maintenance policy.
With the release of GitLab 15.0 (tentative release on June 21st, 2022) using NFS to store Git repository data will be officially at end-of-life. There will be no product changes or troubleshooting provided via Engineering, Security or Paid Support channels.
For those customers still running earlier versions of GitLab, our support eligibility and maintenance policy applies.
Up until the release of GitLab 15.0, we will continue to help with git related tickets from customers running one or more Gitaly servers with its data stored on NFS. Examples may include:
Assistance will be limited to activities like:
500 errors being seen in the environment are caused by slow responses from GitalyGitLab support will be unable to continue with the investigation if:
If the issue is reproducible, or if it happens intermittently but regularly, GitLab Support will investigate providing the issue reproduces without the use of NFS. In order to reproduce without NFS, the affected repositories should be migrated to a different Gitaly shard, such as Gitaly cluster or a standalone Gitaly VM, backed with block storage.
NFS is not well-suited to a workload consisting of many small files, like git repositories. NFS does provide a number of configuration options designed to improve performance. However, over time, a number of these mount options have proven to result in inconsistencies across multiple nodes mounting the NFS volume, up to and including data loss. Addressing these inconsistencies consume extraordinary development and support engineer time that hamper GitLab's ability to develop Gitaly Cluster, our purpose-built solution to addressing the deficiencies of NFS in this environment.
Please note that Gitaly Cluster provides highly-available git repository storage. If this is not a requirement, single-node Gitaly backed by block storage is a suitable substitute.
If you are seeking help with your GitLab Free or Community Edition installation, note that the GitLab Support Team is unable to directly assist with issues with specific installations of these versions. Please use the following resources instead:
GitLab.com has a full team of Site Reliability Engineers and Production Engineers monitoring its status 24/7. This means that often, by the time you notice something is amiss, there's someone already looking into it.
We recommend that all GitLab.com customers follow @gitlabstatus on Twitter and use our status page to keep informed of any incidents.
If you obtained an Ultimate subscription as part of GitLab's Open Source or Education programs, support is not included unless purchased separately. Please see the GitLab OSS License/Subscription Details for additional details.
Technical and general support for those using the Free version of GitLab SaaS is “Community First”. Like many other free SaaS products, users are first directed to find support through community sources such as the following:
However, GitLab Support will assist Free users with the following types of issues:
To receive help for these types of issues please contact support, and be aware that if a Support Engineer determines that your request is more appropriate for community support resources they will direct you to them. Please also note that there are no guaranteed response times associated with support tickets submitted by Free users.
You should follow @gitlabstatus on Twitter for status updates on GitLab.com, or check our status page to see if there is a known service outage and follow the linked issue for more detailed updates.
The following sections outline what is within the scope of support and what is not for GitLab Self-Managed customers, GitLab SaaS customers, and both customers and Free users of either.
| Out of Scope | Example | What's in-scope then? |
|---|---|---|
| Debugging EFS problems | GitLab is slow in my HA setup. I'm using EFS. | EFS and GlusterFS are not recommended for HA setups (see our HA on AWS doc). GitLab Support can help verify that your HA setup is working as intended, but will not be able to investigate EFS or GlusterFS backend storage issues. |
| Debugging git repository issues stored on NFS (from GitLab 14.0) | Commits vanished from our main branch. We're running 3 Gitaly servers, sharing data using NFS. |
NFS related-issues with Gitaly are supported up to GitLab 13.12, but will not be supported from GitLab 14.0. Read more about deprecation of Gitaly support for NFS. |
| Troubleshooting non-GitLab Omnibus components | I'm trying to get GitLab to work with Apache, can you provide some pointers? | GitLab Support will only assist with the specific components and versions that ship with the GitLab Omnibus package, and only when used as a part of a GitLab installation. |
| Local modifications to GitLab | We added a button to ring a bell in our office any time an MR was accepted, but now users can't log in. | GitLab Support would direct you to create a feature request or submit a merge request for code review to incorporate your changes into the GitLab core. |
| Old versions of GitLab | I'm running GitLab 7.0 and X is broken. | GitLab Support will invite you to upgrade your installation to a more current release. Only the current and two previous major versions are supported. |
| Instance migration configuration and troubleshooting | We migrated GitLab to a new instance and cannot SSH into the server. | GitLab Support will assist with issues that arise from the GitLab components. GitLab Support will not be able to assist with any issues stemming from the server or it's configuration (see GitLab Instance Migration on the Support page). |
| Debugging custom scripts and automations | We use custom scripts to automate changes to our GitLab deployment, and it is causing problems or downtime. | GitLab Support will assist in troubleshooting and resolving issues that occur in the course of interacting with an existing GitLab installation. GitLab Support will not be able to assist with debugging or fixing customer-written code used to deploy, upgrade or modify an in-place installation. |
| Installation of GitLab using unofficial, community-contributed methods | We ran into an error installing GitLab using the FreeBSD package. Please help! | GitLab Support can only provide support for installation problems encountered when using an official installation method. |
| Live Upgrade Assistance for GitLab installed using unofficial, community-contributed methods | We installed GitLab using the Arch Linux community package and would like to request live upgrade assistance | GitLab Support can only provide Live Upgrade Assistance when GitLab is installed using an official installation method. |
| Running raw SQL queries that modify the GitLab database | We used an mass update query in the GitLab database to change all of our usernames, and we are now experiencing issues as a result of that change. | GitLab Support will direct you to rollback to a known working backup, and then assist with debugging and resolving the problem via a safer method. |
| Out of Scope | Example | What's in-scope then? |
|---|---|---|
| Troubleshooting non-GitLab components | How do I merge a branch? | .com Support will happily answer any questions and help troubleshoot any of the components of GitLab |
| Consulting on language or environment-specific configuration | I want to set up a YAML linter CI task for my project. How do I do that? | The Support Team will help you find the GitLab documentation for the related feature and can point out common pitfalls when using it. |
GitLab Support is unable to provide training on the use of the underlying technologies that GitLab relies upon. GitLab is a product aimed at technical users, and we expect our users and customers to be versed in the basic usage of the technologies related to features that they're seeking support for.
For example, a customer looking for help with a Kubernetes integration should understand Kubernetes to the extent that they could retrieve log files or perform other basic tasks without in-depth instruction.
We're unable to assist in troubleshooting issues with specific Git commands and cannot provide training for using Git. If the latter is needed, official Git documentation is comprehensive.
GitLab Support cannot assist with debugging specific commands or scripts included in your .gitlab-ci.yml file. We also cannot troubleshoot issues outside of the configuration or setup of private GitLab Runner host machines.
GitLab Support cannot assist with the configuration or troubleshooting of third party applications, integrations, and services that may interact with GitLab. We can ensure that GitLab itself is sending properly formatted data to a third party in the bare-minimum configuration.
For example:
Alpha features are not yet completely tested for quality and stability, may contain bugs or errors, and prone to see breaking changes in the future. As such, support is not provided for these features and issues with them or other code changes should be opened in the GitLab issue tracker.
Your Support Contract will cover support for Beta features. However, because they are not yet completely tested for quality and stability, may contain bugs or errors, and may be prone to see breaking changes in the future, troubleshooting will require more time, usually need assistance from Development, that support will be conducted on a best-effort basis.
