[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":799},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/from-code-to-production-a-guide-to-continuous-deployment-with-gitlab":3,"navigation-en-us":42,"banner-en-us":441,"footer-en-us":451,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Benjamin Skierlak|James Wormwell":692,"blog-related-posts-en-us-from-code-to-production-a-guide-to-continuous-deployment-with-gitlab":718,"assessment-promotions-en-us":750,"next-steps-en-us":789},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":9,"categorySlug":10,"config":11,"content":15,"description":9,"extension":29,"isFeatured":13,"meta":30,"navigation":31,"path":32,"publishedDate":22,"seo":33,"stem":37,"tagSlugs":38,"__hash__":41},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/from-code-to-production-a-guide-to-continuous-deployment-with-gitlab.yml","From Code To Production A Guide To Continuous Deployment With Gitlab",[7,8],"benjamin-skierlak","james-wormwell",null,"product",{"slug":12,"featured":13,"template":14},"from-code-to-production-a-guide-to-continuous-deployment-with-gitlab",false,"BlogPost",{"title":16,"description":17,"authors":18,"heroImage":21,"date":22,"body":23,"category":10,"tags":24},"From code to production: A guide to continuous deployment with GitLab","Learn how to get started building a robust continuous deployment pipeline in GitLab. Follow these step-by-step instructions, practical examples, and best practices.",[19,20],"Benjamin Skierlak","James Wormwell","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749659478/Blog/Hero%20Images/REFERENCE_-_Use_this_page_as_a_reference_for_thumbnail_sizes.png","2025-01-28","Continuous deployment is a game-changing practice that enables teams to deliver value faster, with higher confidence. However, diving into advanced deployment workflows — such as GitOps, container orchestration with Kubernetes, or dynamic environments — can be intimidating for teams just starting out.\n\nAt GitLab, we're committed to making delivery seamless and scalable. By enabling teams to focus on the fundamentals, we empower them to build a strong foundation that supports growth into more complex strategies over time. This guide provides essential steps to begin implementing continuous deployment with GitLab, laying the foundation for your long-term success.\n\n## Start with a workflow plan\n\nBefore diving into the technical implementation, take time to map out your deployment workflow. Success lies in careful planning and a methodical approach.\n\n### Artifact management strategy\n\nIn the context of continuous deployment, artifacts are the packaged outputs of your build process that need to be stored, versioned, and deployed. These could be:\n\n- container images for your applications\n- packages\n- compiled binaries or executables\n- libraries\n- configuration files\n- documentation packages\n- other artifacts\n\nEach type of artifact plays a specific role in your deployment process. For example, a typical web application might generate:\n\n- a container image for the backend service\n- a ZIP archive of compiled frontend assets\n- SQL files for database changes\n- environment-specific configuration files\n\nManaging these artifacts effectively is crucial for successful deployments. Here's how to approach artifact management.\n\n#### Artifacts and releases versioning strategies\n\nA best practice to get you started with a clean structure is to establish a clear versioning strategy for your artifacts. When creating releases:\n\n- Use semantic versioning (major.minor.patch) for release tags\n  - Example: `myapp:1.2.3` for a stable release\n  - Major version changes (2.0.0) for breaking changes\n  - Minor version changes (1.3.0) for new features\n  - Patch version changes (1.2.4) for bug fixes\n- Maintain a 'latest' tag for the most recent stable version\n  - Example: `myapp:latest` for automated deployments\n- Include commit SHA for precise version tracking\n  - Example: `myapp:1.2.3-abc123f` for debugging\n- Consider branch-based tags for development environments\n  - Example: `myapp:feature-user-auth` for feature testing\n\n#### Build artifacts retention\n\nImplement defined retention rules:\n\n- Set explicit expiration timeframes for temporary artifacts\n- Define which artifacts need permanent retention\n- Configure cleanup policies to manage storage\n\n#### Registry access and authentication\n\nSecure your artifacts with proper access controls:\n\n- Implement Personal Access Tokens for developer access\n- Configure CI/CD variables for pipeline authentication\n- Set up proper access scopes\n\n### Environment strategy\n\nConsider your environments early, as they shape your entire deployment pipeline:\n\n- Development, staging, and production environment configurations\n- Environment-specific variables and secrets\n- Access controls and protection rules\n- Deployment tracking and monitoring approach\n\n### Deployment targets\n\nBe intentional as to where and how you'll deploy, these decisions matter and the benefits and drawbacks of each should be consider:\n\n- Infrastructure requirements (VMs, containers, cloud services)\n- Network access and security configurations\n- Authentication mechanisms (SSH keys, access tokens)\n- Resource allocation and scaling considerations\n\nWith our strategy defined and foundational decisions made, we can now translate these plans into a working pipeline. We'll build a practical example that demonstrates these concepts, starting with a simple application and progressively adding deployment capabilities.\n\n## Implementing your CD pipeline\n\n### A step-by-step example\n\nLet's walk through implementing a basic continuous deployment pipeline for a web application. We'll use a simple HTML application as an example, but these principles apply to any type of application. We’re also going to deploy our application as a Docker image on a simple virtual machine. This will allow us to lean on a curated image with minimum dependencies, and to ensure no environment specific requirements are unintentionally brought in. By working on a virtual machine, we won’t be leveraging GitLab’s native integrations, allowing us to work on an easier but less scalable setup to begin with.\n\n#### Prerequisites\n\nIn this example, we’ll aim to containerize an application that we’ll run on a virtual machine hosted on a cloud provider. We’ll also test this application locally on our machine. This list of prerequisites is only needed for this scenario.\n\n##### Virtual machine setup\n\n- Provision a VM in your preferred cloud provider (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure)\n- Configure network rules to allow access on ports 22, 80, and 443\n- Record the machine's public IP address for deployment\n\n##### Set up SSH authentication:\n\n- Generate a public/private key pair for the machine\n- In GitLab, go to **Settings > CI/CD > Variables**\n- Create a variable called `GITLAB_KEY`\n- Set Type to \"File\" (required for SSH authentication)\n- Paste the private key in the Value field\n- Define a USER variable, this is the user logging in and running the scripts on your VM\n\n##### Configure deployment variables\n\n- Create variables for your deployment targets:\n  - `STAGING_TARGET`: Your staging server IP/domain\n  - `PRODUCTION_TARGET`: Your production server IP/domain\n\n##### Local development setup\n\n- Install Docker on your local machine for testing deployments\n\n##### GitLab Container Registry access\n\n- Locate your registry path:\n  - Navigate to **Deploy > Container Registry**\n  - Copy the registry path (e.g., registry.gitlab.com/group/project)\n- Set up authentication:\n  - Go to **Settings > Access Tokens**\n  - Create a new token with registry access\n  - Token expiration: Maximum 1 year\n  - Save the token securely\n- Configure local registry access:\n\n```shell\ndocker login registry.gitlab.com\n# The username if you are using a PAT is gitlab-ci-token\n# Password: your-access-token\n```\n\n#### 1. Create your application\n\nStart with a basic web application. For our example, we're using a simple HTML page:\n\n```xml\n\u003C!-- index.html -->\n\u003Chtml>\n  \u003Chead>\n    \u003Cstyle>\n      body {\n        background-color: #171321; /* GitLab dark */\n      }\n    \u003C/style>\n  \u003C/head>\n  \u003Cbody>\n    \u003C!-- Your content here -->\n  \u003C/body>\n\u003C/html>\n```\n\n#### 2. Containerize your application\n\nCreate a Dockerfile to package your application:\n\n```text\nFROM nginx:1.26.2\nCOPY index.html /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html\n```\n\nThis Dockerfile:\n\n- Uses nginx as a base image for serving web content\n- Copies your HTML file to the correct location in the nginx directory structure\n\n#### 3. Set up your CI/CD pipeline\n\nCreate a `.gitlab-ci.yml` file to define your pipeline stages:\n\n```yaml\nvariables:\n  TAG_LATEST: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:latest\n  TAG_COMMIT: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:$CI_COMMIT_SHA\n\nstages:\n  - publish\n  - deploy\n\n```\n\nLet's break it down:\n\n`TAG_LATEST` is made up of three parts:\n\n- `$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE` is the path to your project's container registry in GitLab\n\nFor example: `registry.gitlab.com/your-group/your-project`\n\n- `$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME` is the name of your branch or tag\n\nFor example, if you're on main branch: `/main`, and if you're on a feature branch: `/feature-login`\n\n- `:latest` is a fixed suffix\n\nSo if you're on the main branch, `TAG_LATEST` becomes: `registry.gitlab.com/your-group/your-project/main:latest`.\n\n`TAG_COMMIT` is almost identical, but instead of `:latest`, it uses: `$CI_COMMIT_SHA` which is the commit identifier, for example: `:abc123def456`.\n\nSo for that same commit on main branch, `TAG_COMMIT` becomes:` registry.gitlab.com/your-group/your-project/main:abc123def456`.\n\nThe reason for having both is `TAG_LATEST` gives you an easy way to always get the newest version, and `TAG_COMMIT` gives you a specific version you can return to if needed.\n\n#### 4. Publish to the container registry\n\nAdd the publish job to your pipeline:\n\n```yaml\npublish:\n  stage: publish\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  script:\n    - docker build -t $TAG_LATEST -t $TAG_COMMIT .\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - docker push $TAG_LATEST\n    - docker push $TAG_COMMIT\n\n```\n\nThis job:\n\n- Uses Docker-in-Docker to build images\n- Creates two tagged versions of your image\n- Authenticates with the GitLab registry\n- Pushes both versions to the registry \n\nNow that our images are safely stored in the registry, we can focus on deploying them to our target environments. Let's start with local testing to validate our setup before moving to production deployments.\n\n#### 5. Deploy to your environment\n\nBefore deploying to production, you can test locally. We just published our image to the GitLab repository, which we’ll pull locally. If you’re unsure of the exact path, navigate to **Deploy > Container Registry**, and you should see an icon to copy the path of your image at the end of the line for the container image you want to test.\n\n```shell\ndocker login registry.gitlab.com \ndocker run -p 80:80 registry.gitlab.com/your-project-path/main:latest\n```\n\nBy doing so you should be able to access your application locally on your localhost address through your web browser.\n\nYou can now add a deployment job to your pipeline:\n\n```yaml\ndeploy:\n  stage: deploy\n  image: alpine:latest\n  script:\n    - chmod 400 $GITLAB_KEY\n    - apk add openssh-client\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - ssh -i $GITLAB_KEY -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $USER@$TARGET_SERVER \n      docker pull $TAG_COMMIT &&\n      docker rm -f myapp || true &&\n      docker run -d -p 80:80 --name myapp $TAG_COMMIT\n\n```\n\nThis job:\n\n- Sets up SSH access to your deployment target\n- Pulls the latest image\n- Removes any existing container\n- Deploys the new version\n\n#### 6. Track deployments\n\nEnable deployment tracking by adding environment configuration:\n\n```yaml\ndeploy:\n  environment:\n    name: production\n    url: https://your-application-url.com \n\n```\n\nThis creates an environment object in GitLab's **Operate > Environments** section, providing:\n\n- Deployment history\n- Current deployment status\n- Quick access to your application\n\nWhile a single environment pipeline is a good starting point, most teams need to manage multiple environments for proper testing and staging. Let's expand our pipeline to handle this more realistic scenario.\n\n#### 7. Set up multiple environments\n\nFor a more robust pipeline, configure staging and production deployments:\n\n```yaml\nstages:\n  - publish\n  - staging\n  - release\n  - version\n  - production\n\nstaging:\n  stage: staging\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\" && $CI_COMMIT_TAG == null\n  environment:\n    name: staging\n    url: https://staging.your-app.com\n  # deployment script here\n\nproduction:\n  stage: production\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n  environment:\n    name: production\n    url: https://your-app.com\n  # deployment script here\n\n```\n\nThis setup:\n\n- Deploys to staging from your main branch\n- Uses GitLab tags to trigger production deployments\n- Provides separate tracking for each environment\n\nHere and in our next step, we’re leveraging a very useful GitLab feature: tags. By manually creating a tag in the **Code > Tags** section, the `$CI_COMMIT_TAG` gets created, which allows us to trigger jobs accordingly.\n\n#### 8. Create automated release notes\n\nWe'll be using GitLab's release capabilities through our CI/CD pipeline. First, update your stages in `.gitlab-ci.yml`:\n\n```yaml\nstages:\n\n- publish\n- staging\n- release # New stage for releases\n- version\n- production\n```\n\nNext, add the release job:\n\n```yaml\nrelease_job:\n  stage: release\n  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG                  # Only run when a tag is created\n  script:\n    - echo \"Creating release for $CI_COMMIT_TAG\"\n  release:                                # Release configuration\n    name: 'Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n    description: 'Release created from $CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n    tag_name: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'           # The tag to create\n    ref: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'                # The tag to base release on\n\n```\n\nYou can enhance this by adding links to your container images:\n\n```yaml\nrelease:\n  name: 'Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n  description: 'Release created from $CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n  tag_name: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n  ref: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n  assets:\n    links:\n      - name: 'Container Image'\n        url: '$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n        link_type: 'image'\n\n```\n\nFor meaningful automated release notes:\n\n- Use conventional commits (feat:, fix:, etc.)\n- Include issue numbers (#123)\n- Separate subject from body with blank line\n\nIf you want custom release notes with deployment info:\n\n```text\nrelease_job:\n  script:\n    - |\n      DEPLOY_TIME=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')\n      CHANGES=$(git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 @^)..@ --pretty=format:\"- %s\")\n      cat > release_notes.md \u003C\u003C EOF\n      ## Deployment Info\n      - Deployed on: $DEPLOY_TIME\n      - Environment: Production\n      - Version: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n\n      ## Changes\n      $CHANGES\n\n      ## Artifacts\n      - Container Image: \\`$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG\\`\n      EOF\n  release:\n    description: './release_notes.md'\n\n```\n\nOnce configured, releases will be created automatically when you create a Git tag. You can view them in GitLab under **Deploy > Releases**.\n\n#### 9. Put it all together\n\nThis is what our final YAML file looks like:\n\n```text\nvariables:\n  TAG_LATEST: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:latest\n  TAG_COMMIT: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME:$CI_COMMIT_SHA\n  STAGING_TARGET: $STAGING_TARGET    # Set in CI/CD Variables\n  PRODUCTION_TARGET: $PRODUCTION_TARGET  # Set in CI/CD Variables\n\nstages:\n  - publish\n  - staging\n  - release\n  - version\n  - production\n\n# Build and publish to registry\npublish:\n  stage: publish\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\" && $CI_COMMIT_TAG == null\n  script:\n    - docker build -t $TAG_LATEST -t $TAG_COMMIT .\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - docker push $TAG_LATEST\n    - docker push $TAG_COMMIT\n\n# Deploy to staging\nstaging:\n  stage: staging\n  image: alpine:latest\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == \"main\" && $CI_COMMIT_TAG == null\n  script:\n    - chmod 400 $GITLAB_KEY\n    - apk add openssh-client\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - ssh -i $GITLAB_KEY -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $USER@$STAGING_TARGET \"\n        docker pull $TAG_COMMIT &&\n        docker rm -f myapp || true &&\n        docker run -d -p 80:80 --name myapp $TAG_COMMIT\"\n  environment:\n    name: staging\n    url: http://$STAGING_TARGET\n\n# Create release\nrelease_job:\n  stage: release\n  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n  script:\n    - |\n      DEPLOY_TIME=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')\n      CHANGES=$(git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 @^)..@ --pretty=format:\"- %s\")\n      cat > release_notes.md \u003C\u003C EOF\n      ## Deployment Info\n      - Deployed on: $DEPLOY_TIME\n      - Environment: Production\n      - Version: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n\n      ## Changes\n      $CHANGES\n\n      ## Artifacts\n      - Container Image: \\`$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG\\`\n      EOF\n  release:\n    name: 'Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n    description: './release_notes.md'\n    tag_name: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n    ref: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n    assets:\n      links:\n        - name: 'Container Image'\n          url: '$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG'\n          link_type: 'image'\n\n# Version the image with release tag\nversion_job:\n  stage: version\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n  script:\n    - docker pull $TAG_COMMIT\n    - docker tag $TAG_COMMIT $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG\n\n# Deploy to production\nproduction:\n  stage: production\n  image: alpine:latest\n  rules:\n    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG\n  script:\n    - chmod 400 $GITLAB_KEY\n    - apk add openssh-client\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n    - ssh -i $GITLAB_KEY -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $USER@$PRODUCTION_TARGET \"\n        docker pull $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG &&\n        docker rm -f myapp || true &&\n        docker run -d -p 80:80 --name myapp $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/main:$CI_COMMIT_TAG\"\n  environment:\n    name: production\n    url: http://$PRODUCTION_TARGET\n\n```\n\nThis complete pipeline:\n\n- Publishes images to the registry (main branch)\n- Deploys to staging (main branch)\n- Creates releases (on tags)\n- Versions images with release tags\n- Deploys to production (on tags)\n\nKey benefits:\n\n- Clean reproducible, local development and testing environment\n- Clear path to production environments with structure to build confidence in what is deployed\n- Pattern to recover from unexpected failures, etc.\n- Ready to scale/adopt more complex deployment strategies\n\n### Best practices\n\nThroughout implementation, maintain these principles:\n\n- Document everything, from variable usage to deployment procedures\n- Use GitLab's built-in features (environments, releases, registry)\n- Implement proper access controls and security measures\n- Plan for failure with robust rollback procedures\n- Keep your pipeline configurations DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)\n\n## Scale your deployment strategy\n\nWhat next? Here are some aspects to consider as your continuous deployment strategy matures.\n\n### Advanced security measures\n\nEnhance security through:\n\n- Protected environments with restricted access\n- Required approvals for production deployments\n- Integrated security scanning\n- Automated vulnerability assessments\n- Branch protection rules for deployment-related changes\n\n### Progressive delivery strategies\n\nImplement advanced deployment strategies:\n\n- Feature flags for controlled rollouts\n- Canary deployments for risk mitigation\n- Blue-green deployment strategies\n- A/B testing capabilities\n- Dynamic environment management\n\n### Monitoring and optimization\n\nEstablish robust monitoring practices:\n\n- Track deployment metrics\n- Set up performance monitoring\n- Configure deployment alerts\n- Establish deployment SLOs\n- Regular pipeline optimization\n\n## Why GitLab?\n\nGitLab's continuous deployment capabilities make it a standout choice for modern deployment workflows. The platform excels in streamlining the path from code to production, offering built-in container registry, environment management, and deployment tracking all within a single interface. GitLab's environment-specific variables, deployment approval gates, and rollback capabilities provide the security and control needed for production deployments, while features like review apps and feature flags enable progressive delivery approaches. As part of GitLab's complete DevSecOps platform, these CD capabilities seamlessly integrate with your entire software lifecycle.\n\n## Get started today\n\nThe journey to continuous deployment is an evolution, not a revolution. Start with the fundamentals, build a solid foundation, and gradually incorporate advanced features as your team's needs grow. GitLab provides the tools and flexibility to support you at every stage of this journey, from your first automated deployment to complex, multi-environment delivery pipelines.\n\n> Sign up for a [free trial of GitLab Ultimate](https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/devsecops/) to get started with continous deployment 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GitLab metrics and registry features help reduce CI/CD bottlenecks","See how CI/CD Job Performance Metrics and Container Virtual Registry, currently in beta, help platform teams quickly spot slow jobs and simplify multi-registry container pulls.",[724],"Talia Armato-Helle","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1771438388/t6sts5qw4z8561gtlxiq.png","Platform and DevOps engineers spend too much time piecing together visibility across fragmented tools and managing infrastructure that should just work.\n\nTwo new GitLab features currently in beta tackle this from different angles but share the same goal: giving practitioners direct control over the CI/CD infrastructure they depend on, without adding another third-party tool. One surfaces job-level performance data right where you monitor pipelines. The other simplifies how you pull container images from multiple registries with built-in caching.\n\nBoth features are open for feedback now. Your input will help shape what ships next.\n\n## CI/CD Job Performance Metrics\n\n* **Available tiers:** GitLab Premium, GitLab Ultimate\n* **Status:** Limited-availability beta on GitLab.com; available on GitLab Self-Managed and GitLab Dedicated when ClickHouse is configured\n\nToday, there’s no simple way to see when a particular job’s duration starts increasing or which jobs are quietly dragging down your pipeline runtimes. Most teams either build custom dashboards or manually dig through logs to answer basic questions like:\n\n* Which jobs are slowest?  \n* Where are failure rates climbing?  \n* Which stage is the real bottleneck?\n\nCI/CD Job Performance Metrics changes that by adding a new job-focused panel to the CI/CD analytics page at the project level.\n\nFor each job in your pipelines, you can see:\n\n* Typical (P50, median) and worst‑case (P95) job duration, so you can quickly view normal versus slowest runs  \n* Failure rate, so you can spot fragile or flaky jobs  \n* Job name and stage, covering the last 30 days by default\n\nThe table is sortable, searchable by job name, and paginated, so platform teams get a single view to answer questions that previously required separate tools or custom reporting.\n\n**Try it now**\n\n* Navigate to your project and select **Analyze \\> CI/CD analytics**.  \n* Look for the CI/CD job performance metrics panel and sort by duration or failure rate to find your slowest or least reliable jobs.\n\n**Documentation**\n\n* [CI/CD analytics – CI/CD job performance metrics](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/analytics/ci_cd_analytics/#cicd-job-performance-metrics)\n\n**What’s coming next**\n\nWe’re working on stage-level grouping, so you can view aggregated metrics across your build, test, and deploy stages, and quickly understand where to focus optimization work.\n\n**Share your feedback:**\n\n* [CI/CD job performance metrics epic](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/work_items/18548)\n\n## Container Virtual Registry\n\n**Tier:** GitLab Premium, GitLab Ultimate\n**Status:** Beta, API-ready in 18.9\n\nMost organizations pulling container images into CI/CD pipelines rely on multiple registries: Docker Hub, Harbor, Quay, and internal registries, to name a few. Managing authentication, availability, and caching across all of them is operational overhead that slows pipelines down and introduces fragility.\n\nThe Container Virtual Registry lets you create a single GitLab endpoint that pulls from multiple upstream container sources with built-in caching.\n\nInstead of configuring credentials and availability for each registry individually in your pipeline configuration, you can:\n\n* Point your pipelines at one GitLab virtual registry endpoint  \n* Configure multiple upstream registries (Docker Hub, Harbor, Quay, and others using long-lived token authentication)  \n* Let GitLab resolve image pulls automatically, with pull-through caching to reduce bandwidth costs and improve reliability\n\nFor teams evaluating GitLab as a container registry replacement, this closes a critical capability gap. For teams already managing multi-registry container workflows, it centralizes image management into GitLab and cuts down on repeated pulls.\n\n**What the beta supports today**\n\n* Upstream registries using long-lived token authentication: Docker Hub, Harbor, Quay, and other compatible registries  \n* Pull-through caching so commonly used images are served from GitLab after the first pull  \n* API-first configuration, with UI management in progress++\n\nCloud provider registries requiring IAM authentication (such as Amazon Elastic Container Registry, Google Artifact Registry, and Azure Container Registry) are being considered for future iterations.\n\n**Test it today**\n\n* The Container Virtual Registry is API-ready in 18.9.  \n* SaaS (GitLab.com): Request access through your CSM or by commenting on the feedback issue below to have the feature flag enabled for your group.  \n* Self-managed: Enable the feature flag and configure the virtual registry using the API.\n\n**Documentation**\n\n* [Container Virtual Registry API](https://docs.gitlab.com/api/container_virtual_registries/)  \n* [Pull container images from the virtual registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/#pull-container-images-from-the-virtual-registry)\n\n\n Watch this walkthrough of the Container Virtual Registry Beta:\n   \n\n  \u003Ciframe src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/1167512082?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" title=\"20260223_Container Virtual Registry Beta_V1\">\u003C/iframe>\u003C\u003Cscript src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js\">\u003C/script>\n\n  \u003Cbr>\u003C/br>\n\n\n\n**Share your feedback:**\n\n* [Container virtual registry feedback issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/589630)\n\n## Help us build what matters\n\nEveryone in the GitLab community is a contributor. We built these betas based on community requests.\n\n* **CI/CD Job Performance Metrics** came from teams who had no easy way to see when build times started trending in the wrong direction, or which jobs were hurting pipeline reliability.  \n* **Container Virtual Registry** came from enterprise customers managing multiple registries and looking to reduce tool sprawl and bandwidth costs while evaluating GitLab as a central registry.\n\nYour feedback shapes what we create next. Try one or both of these betas, and share your experience in the linked feedback issues.\n\nThis is the first in a series of Core DevOps betas we plan to highlight. More are coming throughout the year, and we hope you’ll help us make them as useful as possible.\n","2026-02-25",[26,10,27],{"featured":31,"template":14,"slug":730},"new-gitlab-metrics-and-registry-features-help-reduce-ci-cd-bottlenecks",{"content":732,"config":739},{"title":733,"description":734,"heroImage":735,"date":727,"category":10,"tags":736},"GitLab Patch Release: 18.9.1, 18.8.5, 18.7.5","Learn more about this patch release for GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition.","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749661926/Blog/Hero%20Images/security-patch-blog-image-r2-0506-700x400-fy25_2x.jpg",[737,738],"patch releases","security releases",{"featured":13,"template":14,"externalUrl":740},"https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2026/02/25/patch-release-gitlab-18-9-1-released/",{"content":742,"config":748},{"title":743,"description":744,"heroImage":725,"date":745,"tags":746,"category":10},"GitLab 18.9 released","Read about GitLab Duo Agent Platform self-hosted models now available for cloud licenses, vulnerability resolution with GitLab Duo Agent Platform, and more.","2026-02-19",[10,747],"releases",{"featured":13,"template":14,"externalUrl":749},"https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2026/02/19/gitlab-18-9-released/",{"promotions":751},[752,766,777],{"id":753,"categories":754,"header":756,"text":757,"button":758,"image":763},"ai-modernization",[755],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":759,"config":760},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":761,"dataGaName":762,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":764},{"src":765},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":767,"categories":768,"header":769,"text":757,"button":770,"image":774},"devops-modernization",[10,560],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":771,"config":772},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":773,"dataGaName":762,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":775},{"src":776},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":778,"categories":779,"header":781,"text":757,"button":782,"image":786},"security-modernization",[780],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":783,"config":784},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":785,"dataGaName":762,"dataGaLocation":245},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":787},{"src":788},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":790,"blurb":791,"button":792,"secondaryButton":797},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":793,"config":794},"Get your free trial",{"href":795,"dataGaName":53,"dataGaLocation":796},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":497,"config":798},{"href":57,"dataGaName":58,"dataGaLocation":796},1772652061290]