Installing and running Gitea 1.20.4 in Docker on Ubuntu Server 22.04.3

https://gitea.com

List of contents

• Technologies and software used
• Detailed instructions on how to deploy to VPS/VDS server
  • Step 0: Preparation
  • Step 1: Connecting to the server
  • Step 2: Upgrade packages
  • Step 3: Configuring SSH access
  • Step 4: Install Git
  • Step 5: Install Nginx
  • Step 6: Install Certbot
  • Step 7: Installing Docker and Docker Compose
  • Step 8: Installing and Configuring MySQL
  • Step 9: Installing Gitea
  • Step 10: Configuring Nginx
  • Step 11: Restarting the server
  • Step 12: Checking
• Additionally
  • Installing and configuring Act runner
  • Installing and Configuring Ubuntu UFW
  • Obtaining an SSL certificate

Technologies and software used

Technologie or software name	Link
Ubuntu Server 22.04.3	Download
Nano	Website
Git	Website
Nginx	Website
UFW Ubuntu	Documentation
SSH	wikipedia
PuTTY	Download
Certbot for Ubuntu	Website
Docker	Website
MySQL	Website
Gitea 1.20.4	Website
Act runner 0.2.5	Documentation

Detailed instructions on how to deploy to VPS/VDS server

Step 0: Preparation

Server rent

You need to rent a VPS/VDS server and install Ubuntu Server 22.04.3 (preferably the minimalized version).

Minimum server system requirements:

• CPU 1x
• RAM 1024Mb
• SSD 20Gb
• Network 100Mb/s

Usually hosting providers themselves install the operating system and give root access via SSH (We will consider the variant with already installed Ubuntu Server 22.04.3 minimalized + OpenSSH).

SSH key pair creation

SSH key pair creation (Documentation)

How to work with the console Ubuntu Server 22.04.3

• To clear the console:

clear

• To navigate to a directory:

cd folder

or to navigate from the current folder

cd folder/folder

or to route from the user's root folder

cd /folder/folder

or to route from the server root folder

cd ~/folder/folder

Step 1: Connecting to the server

First connection

Let's consider a situation where your hosting provider has given you roor access to the server by login and password.
You need to start PuTTY* and connect to the server.
*It is assumed that you know how to do this and have read it: instruction.

You should see it:

login as:

Type in root

password:

Type in root password

You should see it:

root@your_server_name:~#

After executing step 3 of this instruction

WARNING!!! Access to the server will be possible only by SSH key.

Step 2: Upgrade packages

Commands need to be executed:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

This should be done each time before installing packages

Step 3: Configuring SSH access

To work with configuration files, we will need any text editor.
I prefer to use Nano

Let's install this text editor, run the command:

apt install nano -y

Once Nano is installed, we need to configure OpenSSH, instruction:

• Run the command

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• In this file you need to find the lines:

1. #Port 22 - for security reasons, change the port number, e.g. to 4646 and uncomment the line;
2. Make sure PermitRootLogin is set to yes (This will give root password access to the server in case something goes wrong [temporary measure]);
3. PubkeyAuthentication is set to yes and uncommented;
4. You need to exit and save the changes by pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + x" press "y" and "Enter".

Next, you need to add SSH to autoloader - this should be done with the command:

systemctl enable --now ssh

Next, you need to create a directory with access keys by executing the command:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh

The next step is to write the public key to a file - this should be done with the command:

echo your_public_key >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

*Example of a key: ssh-rsa AAAAAkkkkatstyasflRlkqksaJJAUSufisafiIISAFI1gGasfah123/asfasFSAfafsqUUv rsa-key-20230924

Set permissions on the files in the ./ssh directory:

chmod -R go= ~/.ssh

Change the owner and group for all files and subdirectories in the ./ssh directory to the system user "root" and its group "root":

chown -R root:root ~/.ssh

Restart the SSH service

service ssh restart

Try connecting to server via PuTTY using the key
If everything worked, let's close access by password:.
To do this, follow the familiar steps:

• Run the command

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• In this file you need set:
  PermitRootLogin to prohibit-password

• Exit and save the changes:
  Pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + x" press "y" and "Enter"

• Restart the SSH service:

service ssh restart

Now ALWAYS use only your ssh key to connect to the server Here we have configured ssh key access to the server and disabled password access

Step 4: Install Git

Now we need to install Git, that's easy:

apt install git-all -y

Step 5: Install Nginx

The next step is to install Nginx, our actions:

1. Install:

apt install nginx -y

We'll configurate it later

2. Add Nginx to autoloader:

systemctl enable --now nginx

3. To start Nginx after initializing the network connection, replace in the configuration file:

nano /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nginx.service

Change the "After=network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target" line to "After=network-online.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target"

4. Restart Nginx:

service nginx restart

5. Status check:

service nginx status

I think you can guess where to look. :)

Step 6: Install Certbot

In order for us to be able to get a free SSL certificate for a domain name, we need to install Certbot:

1. Install Certbot:

snap install --classic certbot

2. Check if it's installed Certbot:

ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

command executed without error

Step 7: Installing Docker and Docker Compose

1. Set up Docker's Apt repository Detailed information

• Step 7.1.1:

apt install ca-certificates curl gnupg

• Step 7.1.2:

install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

• Step 7.1.3:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

• Step 7.1.4:

chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

• Step 7.1.5:

echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

• Step 7.1.6:

apt update -y

2. Install the Docker packages

apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin -y

Add Docker to autoloader:

systemctl enable --now docker

We'll issue launch privileges:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Step 8: Installing and Configuring MySQL

We will be configuring MySQL to work with Gitea

1. Let's start creating the directory system:

mkdir /home/mysql && mkdir /home/mysql/giteadb && /home/mysql/giteadb/volume

2. Let's go to the created directory:

cd /home/mysql/giteadb

3. Create a docker-compose.yaml file to create and run MySQL in the docker container:

nano docker-compose.yaml

Opening in the Nano text editor

4. A script needs to be created. Here is its code:

# WARNING: Use a complex passwords
version: '3.1'

networks:
  gitea:
    external: false

services:
  gitea_db_mysql:
    container_name: gitea_db_mysql      
    image: mysql:8.0
    ports:
      - "3310:3310"
    restart: always
    networks:
      - gitea
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: giteadb
      MYSQL_USER: gitea
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: gitea
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
    volumes:
      - /home/apps/gitea_docker/volumes/mysql:/var/lib/mysql
    command: ["--character-set-server=utf8mb4", "--collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci"]

• Exit and save the changes:
  Pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + x" press "y" and "Enter"

5. Let's get our container up and running:

docker-compose up -d

6. Let's verify that the container is running:

docker ps

I think you'll know where to look :)

We've prepared a database for Gitea

Step 9: Installing Gitea

1. Let's start creating the directory system:

mkdir /home/applications && mkdir /home/applications/gitea && /home/applications/gitea/volume

2. Let's go to the created directory:

cd /home/applications/gitea

3. Let's create a new user:

adduser --system --shell /bin/bash --gecos 'Git Version Control' --group --disabled-password --home /home/gitea gitea

REMEMBER UID and GID

4. Create a docker-compose.yaml file to create and run Gitea in the docker container:

nano docker-compose.yaml

Opening in the Nano text editor

5. A script needs to be created. Here is its code:

# Note: USER_UID and USER_GID from point 3
# Note: GITEA__database__USER and GITEA__database__PASSWD from Step 8 point 4
version: "3.1"

networks:
  gitea:
    external: false

services:
  server:
    image: gitea/gitea:1.20.4
    container_name: gitea
    environment:
      - USER_UID=109
      - USER_GID=113
      - GITEA__database__DB_TYPE=mysql
      - GITEA__database__HOST=gitea_db_mysql:3306
      - GITEA__database__NAME=giteadb
      - GITEA__database__USER=gitea
      - GITEA__database__PASSWD=gitea
    restart: always
    networks:
      - gitea
    volumes:
      - /home/apps/gitea_docker/volumes/gitea:/data
      - /home/apps/gitea_docker/volumes/.ssh/:/data/gitea/.ssh
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "2222:22"
    depends_on:
      - gitea_db_mysql

• Exit and save the changes:
  Pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + x" press "y" and "Enter"

5. Let's get our container up and running:

docker-compose up -d

6. Let's verify that the container is running:

docker ps

I think you'll know where to look :)

Step 10: Configuring Nginx

1. Now we need to specify in the Nginx settings that the address of our Gitea:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Opening in the Nano text editor

2. You need to add this lines:

server {
  listen 3000;
  listen [::]:3000;    

  location / {
      client_max_body_size 512M;
      proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  }
}

3. Exit and save the changes:
   Pressing the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + x" press "y" and "Enter"

4. Restart Nginx:

service nginx restart

5. Status check:

service nginx status

I think you can guess where to look. :)

You now have the ability to log into your Gitea:
Open in your browser http://your_server_ip:3000
Configure Gitea in the web interface

Step 11. Restarting the server

shutdown -r now

After restarting the server, you can proceed to the next step

Step 12. Checking

Open in your browser http://your_server_ip:3000

Additionally

Installing and configuring Act runner

Creating instruction in the process ...

Installing and Configuring Ubuntu UFW

Creating instruction in the process ...

Obtaining an SSL certificate

Creating instruction in the process ...