This blog post is continuation of previous one: Self-hosted GitLab runner for CI/CD pipelines. Here I will show how to create a simple deployment using GitLab and GitLab Runner.
OS used: Debian 12
Software used: GitLab Community Edition 17.11.1, Ansible 2.14.3
In this post I will continue explaining how to get more functionality out of GitLab. One way to automate homelab is to use CI/CD pipelines, and GitLab provides good tools for that. To utilize these CI/CD pipelines we need a GitLab Runner - a program that can be run on a server or even your own computer. However for security reasons, it's best to create a new virtual machine specifically for this task. This post will go into detail how to prepare VM with GitLab Runner.
OS used: Debian 12
Software used: GitLab Community Edition 17.11.1
When we expand homelab infrastructure we often get to the point when custom solutions are necessary. A common example is creating custom Docker images to run containers. To develop images on one machine and then deploy them to others container registry is needed. In this post I will show how to run self-hosted container registry using GitLab.
OS used: Debian 12
Software used: GitLab Community Edition 17.11.1
Having Git repository in your homelab is a good idea for storing code for various projects. For a lightweight option similar to GitHub, consider the Gitea project. GitLab is another option, offering a more feature rich experience, though it is more resource intensive. This post will concentrate on installing GitLab Community Edition.
UPDATE 2026-04-26: Added instruction how to automatically reload nginx configuration after obtaining new SSL certificate.
OS used: Debian 12
Software used: GitLab Community Edition 17.4.2