[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":794},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster":3,"navigation-en-us":38,"banner-en-us":437,"footer-en-us":447,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Viktor Nagy":689,"blog-related-posts-en-us-gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster":703,"assessment-promotions-en-us":745,"next-steps-en-us":784},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":26,"isFeatured":12,"meta":27,"navigation":28,"path":29,"publishedDate":20,"seo":30,"stem":34,"tagSlugs":35,"__hash__":37},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster.yml","Gitops With Gitlab Connecting The Cluster",[7],"viktor-nagy",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"GitOps with GitLab: Connect with a Kubernetes cluster","In our third article in our GitOps series, learn how to connect a Kubernetes cluster with GitLab for pull and push-based deployments.",[18],"Viktor Nagy","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749663397/Blog/Hero%20Images/logoforblogpost.jpg","2021-11-18","_It is possible to use GitLab as a best-in-class GitOps tool, and this blog post series is going to show you how. These easy-to-follow tutorials will focus on different user problems, including provisioning, managing a base infrastructure, and deploying various third-party or custom applications on top of them. You can find the entire \"Ultimate guide to GitOps with GitLab\" tutorial series [here](/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-gitops-with-gitlab/)._\n\n## GitOps with GitLab: connecting a Kubernetes cluster\n\nThis [GitOps](/topics/gitops/) with GitLab post shows how to connect a Kubernetes cluster with GitLab for pull and push based deployments and easy security integrations. In order to do so, the following elements are required:\n\n- A Kubernetes cluster that you can access and can create new resources, including `Role` and `RoleBinding` in it. \n- You will need `kubectl` and your local environment configured to access the beforementioned cluster.\n- (Optional, recommended) Terraform and a Terraform project set up as shown [in the previous article](/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-infrastructure-provisioning/) to retrieve an agent registration token from GitLab.\n- (Optional, recommended) `kpt` and `kustomize` to install the Agent into your cluster.\n- (Optional, quickstart) If you prefer a less \"gitopsy\" approach, you will need `docker` (Docker Desktop is not needed). This is simpler to follow, but provides less control to you.\n\n## How to connect a cluster to GitLab\n\nThere are many ways how one can connect a cluster to GitLab:\n\n- you can set up a `$KUBECONTEXT` variable manually, manage all the related connections and use GitLab CI/CD to push changes into your cluster\n- you can use a 3rd party tool, like [ArgoCD](https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) or [Flux](https://fluxcd.io) to get pull based deployments\n- you can use the legacy, certificate-based cluster integration within GitLab in which case GitLab will manage the `$KUBECONTEXT` for you and you can get easy metrics, log and monitoring integrations\n- or you can use the recommended approach, the [GitLab Agent for Kubernetes](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/), to have pull and push based deployment support, network security policy integrations and the possibility of metrics and monitoring too\n\nWe are going to focus on the Agent-based setup here as we believe that it serves and will serve our users best, hopefully you included.\n\n## How does the Agent work\n\nThe Agent has a component that needs to be installed into your cluster. We call this component `agentk`. Once `agentk` is installed it reaches out to GitLab, and authenticates itself with an access token. So, the first step is to get a token from GitLab. We call this step \"the Agent registration.\" If the authentication succeeds, `agentk` sets up a bidirectional GRPC channel between itself and GitLab. The emphasis here is on \"bidirectional.\" This enables requests and messages to be sent by either side and provides the possibility of much deeper integrations than the other approaches while still being a nice citizen within your cluster.\n\nOnce the connection is established, the Agent retrieves its own configuration from GitLab. This configuration is a `config.yaml` file under a repository, and you actually register the location of this configuration file when you register a new Agent. The configuration describes the various capabilities enabled of an Agent.\n\nOn the GitLab side, `agentk` communicates with - what we call - the Kubernetes Agent Server, or `kas`. As most users do not have to deal with setting up `kas`, I won't write about it here. You need to be a GitLab administrator [to set up and manage `kas`](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/clusters/kas.html). If you are on gitlab.com, `kas` is available to you at `kas.gitlab.com`, thanks to our amazing SRE team.\n\nSo the steps we are going to take in this article are the following:\n\n1. Create a configuration file for the Agent\n1. Register the Agent and retrieve its authentication token\n1. Install `agentk` into the cluster together with the token\n\nFinally, we will set up an example pull-based deployment just to test that everything worked as expected. Let's get started!\n\n## How many Agents do you need for a larger setup\n\nWe recommend having a separate Agent registered at least against each of your environments. If you have multiple clusters, have at least one agent registered with each cluster. While it is possible to have many `agentk` deployments with the same authentication token and thus configuration file, this is not supported and might lead to syncronization problems!\n\nThe different agent configurations can use the same Kubernetes manifests for deployments. So maintaining a multi-region cluster where all the clusters should be identical does not require much effort. \n\nWe designed `agentk` to be very lightweight so you should not worry about deploying multiple instances of it into a cluster. \n\nWe know users who use separate `agentk` instances by squad for example. In these situations, the `squad` owns some namespaces in the cluster and each Agent can access only the namespaces available for their squad. This way `agentk` is not just a good citizen in your cluster, but is like a team member in your squad.\n\n## Create a configuration file for the Agent\n\nNote:\nYou can use either the Terraform project from the previous step or start with a new project. I will assume that we build on top of the Terraform setup from the previous article, linked above, that will come in handy when we want to register the Agent using Terraform. I won't go through setting up all the environment variables here for local Terraform run.\n\nDecide about your agent name, and create an empty file in your project under `.gitlab/agents/\u003Cyour agent name>/config.yaml`. Nota bene, that the extension is `yaml` not `yml` and your agent name must follow the [DNS label standard from RFC 1123](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/install/#create-an-agent-configuration-file). I'll call my agent `demo-agent`, so the file is under `.gitlab/demo-agent/config.yaml`.\n\n## Register the Agent\n\nThe next step is to register the Agent with GitLab. You can do this either through the GitLab UI or using Terraform. I will show you both approaches.\n\n### Registering through the UI\n\nOnce the configuration file is in place, visit `Infrastructure/Kubernetes` and add a new cluster using the Agent. A dialog will pop up where you can select your agent.\n\nOnce you hit \"next,\" you will see the registration token and a `docker` command for easy installation. The `docker` command includes the token too and you can run it to quickly set up an `agentk` inside of your cluster. (You might need to create a namespace first!) Feel free to run the command for a quickstart or follow the tutorial for a truly code-based approach.\n\n### Registering through code\n\nWe will use Terraform to register the Agent through code. Let's create the following files:\n\n- Under `terraform/gitlab-agent/main.tf`\n\n```hcl\nterraform {\n  backend \"http\" {\n  }\n  required_version = \">= 0.13\"\n  required_providers {\n    gitlab = {\n      source = \"gitlabhq/gitlab\"\n      version = \"~>3.6.0\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n\nprovider \"gitlab\" {\n    token = var.gitlab_password\n}\n\nmodule \"gitlab_kubernetes_agent_registration\" {\n  source = \"gitlab.com/gitlab-org/kubernetes-agent-terraform-register-agent/local\"\n  version = \"0.0.2\"\n\n  gitlab_project_id = var.gitlab_project_id\n  gitlab_username = var.gitlab_username\n  gitlab_password = var.gitlab_password\n  gitlab_graphql_api_url = var.gitlab_graphql_api_url\n  agent_name = var.agent_name\n  token_name = var.token_name\n  token_description = var.token_description\n}\n```\n\nAs you can see we will use a module here. The module is hosted using the Terraform registry provided by GitLab. You can check out [the module source code here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/configure/examples/kubernetes-agent-terraform-register-agent). You might have guessed correctly that under the hood the module uses the GitLab GraphQL API to register the agent and retrieve a token. We will need to set up variables for it to work.\n\n- Create `terraform/gitlab-agent/variables.tf`\n\n```hcl\nvariable \"gitlab_project_id\" {\n  type = string\n}\n\nvariable \"gitlab_username\" {\n  type = string\n}\n\nvariable \"gitlab_password\" {\n  type = string\n}\n\nvariable \"agent_name\" {\n  type = string\n}\n\nvariable \"token_name\" {\n  type    = string\n  default = \"kas-token\"\n}\n\nvariable \"token_description\" {\n  type    = string\n  default = \"Token for KAS Agent Authentication\"\n}\n\nvariable \"gitlab_graphql_api_url\" {\n  type    = string\n  default = \"https://gitlab.com/api/graphql\"\n}\n```\n\n- Create `terraform/gitlab-agent/outputs.tf`\n\n```hcl\noutput \"agent_id\" {\n  value     = module.gitlab_kubernetes_agent_registration.agent_id\n}\n\noutput \"token_secret\" {\n  value     = module.gitlab_kubernetes_agent_registration.token_secret\n  sensitive = true\n}\n```\n\nOnce the registration is over, you'll be able to retrieve the agent ID and the token using these Terraform outputs.\n\n### Run the Terraform project\n\nOnce the above code is in place, we need to run it to actually register the Agent. Here, I am going to extend the setup from the previous article.\n\n#### Running locally\n\n- Create `terraform/gitlab-agent/.envrc`  as you did for the network project.\n\n```shell\nexport TF_STATE_NAME=${PWD##*terraform/}\nsource_env ../../.main.env\n```\n\nNow run Terraform\n\n```bash\nterraform init\nterraform plan\nterraform apply\n```\n\n#### Running from CI/CD pipeline\n\nExtend the `.gitlab-ci.yml` file with the following 3 jobs:\n\n```hcl\ngitlab-agent:init:\n  extends: .terraform:init\n  stage: init\n  variables:\n    TF_ROOT: terraform/gitlab-agent\n    TF_STATE_NAME: gitlab-agent\n  only:\n    changes:\n      - \"terraform/gitlab-agent/*\"\n\ngitlab-agent:review:\n  extends: .terraform:build\n  stage: build\n  variables:\n    TF_ROOT: terraform/gitlab-agent\n    TF_STATE_NAME: gitlab-agent\n  resource_group: tf:gitlab-agent\n  only:\n    changes:\n      - \"terraform/gitlab-agent/*\"\n\ngitlab-agent:deploy:\n  extends: .terraform:deploy\n  stage: deploy\n  variables:\n    TF_ROOT: terraform/gitlab-agent\n    TF_STATE_NAME: gitlab-agent\n  resource_group: tf:gitlab-agent\n  environment:\n    name: demo-agent\n  when: manual\n  only:\n    changes:\n      - \"terraform/gitlab-agent/*\"\n    variables:\n      - $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH\n\n```\n\nAs you can see these are the same jobs that we saw already, they are just parameterized for the `gitlab-agent` terraform project.\n\nNota bene, even if you use GitLab to register the Agent, you will need your command line to install `agentk` for the first time! As a result, you can not avoid a local setup as you will need to run at least `terraform output` to retrieve the token!\n\n## Install `agentk`\n\nIn this tutorial we are going to follow [the advanced installation instructions](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/install/index.html#advanced-installation) from the GitLab documentation. This approach is highly customizable using `kustomize` and `kpt`.\n\nFirst, let's retrieve the basic Kubernetes resource definitions using `kpt`:\n\n- Create a directory `packages` using `mkdir packages`\n- Run `kpt pkg get https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/gitlab-agent.git/build/deployment/gitlab-agent packages/gitlab-agent`\n\nThis will retrieve the most recent version of the `agentk` installation resources. You can request a tagged version with the well-known `@` syntax, for example by running `kpt pkg get https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/gitlab-agent.git/build/deployment/gitlab-agent@v14.4.0 packages/gitlab-agent`. You can see [all the available versions here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cluster-integration/gitlab-agent/-/tags).\n\n### Why `kpt` - could we make this a box?\n\nThe choice of `kpt` is because it allows sane upstream package management to you. With `kpt` you will be able to regularly update your packages using something like `kpt pkg update packages/gitlab-agent@\u003Cnew version> --strategy=resource-merge`. It basically allows you to modify your package locally, and will try to merge upstream changes into it. Read the `kpt pkg update -h` output for more information and alternative merge strategies.\n\n### Continue with the installation - if it's a box, this is not needed\n\nThe `kpt` packages you retrieved are actually a set up `kustomize` overlays. The `base` defines only the `agentk` deployment and namespace; the `cluster` defines some default RBAC around the deployment. Feel free to add your own overlays and use those. We will extend this package with custom overlays in a part 6 of the series.\n\nTo configure the package, see the available configuration options using:\n\n```bash\nkustomize cfg list-setters packages/gitlab-agent\n        NAME                 VALUE               SET BY                  DESCRIPTION              COUNT   REQUIRED   IS SET  \n  agent-version       stable                 package-default   Image tag for agentk container     1       No         No      \n  kas-address         wss://kas.gitlab.com   package-default   kas address. Use                   1       No         No      \n                                                               grpc://host.docker.internal:8150                              \n                                                               if connecting from within Docker                              \n                                                               e.g. from kind.                                               \n  name-prefix                                                  Prefix for resource names          1       No         No      \n  namespace           gitlab-agent           package-default   Namespace to install GitLab        2       No         No      \n                                                               Kubernetes Agent into                                         \n  prometheus-scrape   true                   package-default   Enable or disable Prometheus       1       No         No      \n                                                               scraping of agentk metrics.                              \n\n```\n\nThe package default will be different if you used a tagged version for getting the package. Let's set the version as using `stable` is not recommended.\n\n```bash\nkustomize cfg set packages/gitlab-agent agent-version v14.4.1\nset 1 field(s) of setter \"agent-version\" to value \"v14.4.1\"\n```\n\nFeel free to adjust the other configuration options too or add you own overlays if that is needed.\n\n### Which agent-version to use - could we make this a box?\n\nIf possible the version of `agentk` should match the major and minor version of your GitLab instance. You can find our the version of your GitLab instance under the Help menu on the UI.\n\nIf there is no agent version with your major and minor version, then pick the agent with the highest major and minor below the version of your GitLab.\n\n### Continue with the installation - if it's a box, this is not needed\n\nWarning:\nBefore the next step, I want to warn you about never, ever committing unencrypted secrets into git, and the agent registration token is a secret!\n\nLet's retrieve the agent registration token from our Terraform project. Run the following command in the `terraform/gitlab-agent` directory:\n\n```bash\nterraform output -raw token_secret > ../../packages/gitlab-agent/base/secrets/agent.token\n```\n\nThis writes the registration token to a file on your local computer. Do not commit these changes to git!\n\nAt this point, we are ready to deploy `agentk` into the cluster, so run:\n\n```bash\nkustomize build packages/gitlab-agent/cluster | kubectl apply -f -\n```\n\nLet's get rid of the secret:\n\n```bash\necho \"Invalid token\" > packages/gitlab-agent/base/secrets/agent.token\n```\n\nYou are good to commit your changes to `git` now!\n\n## Testing the setup\n\nWe have installed the Agent, now what? How can we start using it? In the next article we will see in detail how to deploy a more serious application into the cluster. Still, to check that cluster syncronization actually works, let's deploy a `ConfigMap`.\n\n- Create `kubernetes/test_config.yaml` with the following content:\n\n```yaml\napiVersion: v1\nkind: ConfigMap\nmetadata:\n  name: gitlab-gitops\n  namespace: default\ndata:\n  key: It works!\n\n```\n\n- Modify your Agent configuration file under `.gitlab/demo-agent/config.yaml`, and add the following to it:\n\n```yaml\ngitops:\n  # Manifest projects are watched by the agent. Whenever a project changes,\n  # GitLab deploys the changes using the agent.\n  manifest_projects:\n  - id: path/to/your/project\n    default_namespace: gitlab-agent\n    # Paths inside of the repository to scan for manifest files.\n    # Directories with names starting with a dot are ignored.\n    paths:\n    - glob: 'kubernetes/test_config.yaml'\n    #- glob: 'kubernetes/**/*.yaml'\n\n```\n\nChange the `- id: path/to/your/project` line above to point to your project's path!\n\nThe above configuration tells the Agent to kepp the `kubernetes/test_config.yaml` file in sync with the cluster. I've left a commented line at the end to show how you could use wildcards. This will come handy in future steps of this article. The`default_namespace` is used if no namespace is provided in the Kuberentes manifests. There are many other options to configure as well even for the `gitops` use case. You can read more about these in [the configuration file reference documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/clusters/agent/work_with_agent.html).\n\nOnce you commit the above changes, GitLab notifies `agentk` about the changed files. First, `agentk` updates its configuration; second, it retrieves the `ConfigMap`.\n\nWait a few seconds, and run `kubectl describe configmap gitlab-gitops` to check that the changes got appliedd to your cluster. You should see something similar:\n\n```text\nName:         gitlab-gitops\nNamespace:    default\nLabels:       \u003Cnone>\nAnnotations:  config.k8s.io/owning-inventory: 502-28431043\n              k8s-agent.gitlab.com/managed-object: managed\n\nData\n====\nkey:\n",[23,24,25],"kubernetes","integrations","inside GitLab","yml",{},true,"/en-us/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster",{"title":15,"description":16,"ogTitle":15,"ogDescription":16,"noIndex":12,"ogImage":19,"ogUrl":31,"ogSiteName":32,"ogType":33,"canonicalUrls":31},"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster","https://about.gitlab.com","article","en-us/blog/gitops-with-gitlab-connecting-the-cluster",[23,24,36],"inside-gitlab","U-ePti6FCX_fIVyDhylHfvaRp8GwONZSSKwd-M2v42E",{"data":39},{"logo":40,"freeTrial":45,"sales":50,"login":55,"items":60,"search":367,"minimal":398,"duo":417,"pricingDeployment":427},{"config":41},{"href":42,"dataGaName":43,"dataGaLocation":44},"/","gitlab logo","header",{"text":46,"config":47},"Get free trial",{"href":48,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_source=about.gitlab.com&glm_content=default-saas-trial/","free trial",{"text":51,"config":52},"Talk to sales",{"href":53,"dataGaName":54,"dataGaLocation":44},"/sales/","sales",{"text":56,"config":57},"Sign in",{"href":58,"dataGaName":59,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://gitlab.com/users/sign_in/","sign in",[61,88,183,188,288,348],{"text":62,"config":63,"cards":65},"Platform",{"dataNavLevelOne":64},"platform",[66,72,80],{"title":62,"description":67,"link":68},"The intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps",{"text":69,"config":70},"Explore our Platform",{"href":71,"dataGaName":64,"dataGaLocation":44},"/platform/",{"title":73,"description":74,"link":75},"GitLab Duo Agent Platform","Agentic AI for the entire software lifecycle",{"text":76,"config":77},"Meet GitLab Duo",{"href":78,"dataGaName":79,"dataGaLocation":44},"/gitlab-duo-agent-platform/","gitlab duo agent platform",{"title":81,"description":82,"link":83},"Why GitLab","See the top reasons enterprises choose GitLab",{"text":84,"config":85},"Learn more",{"href":86,"dataGaName":87,"dataGaLocation":44},"/why-gitlab/","why gitlab",{"text":89,"left":28,"config":90,"link":92,"lists":96,"footer":165},"Product",{"dataNavLevelOne":91},"solutions",{"text":93,"config":94},"View all Solutions",{"href":95,"dataGaName":91,"dataGaLocation":44},"/solutions/",[97,121,144],{"title":98,"description":99,"link":100,"items":105},"Automation","CI/CD and automation to accelerate deployment",{"config":101},{"icon":102,"href":103,"dataGaName":104,"dataGaLocation":44},"AutomatedCodeAlt","/solutions/delivery-automation/","automated software delivery",[106,110,113,117],{"text":107,"config":108},"CI/CD",{"href":109,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":107},"/solutions/continuous-integration/",{"text":73,"config":111},{"href":78,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":112},"gitlab duo agent platform - product menu",{"text":114,"config":115},"Source Code Management",{"href":116,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":114},"/solutions/source-code-management/",{"text":118,"config":119},"Automated Software Delivery",{"href":103,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":120},"Automated software delivery",{"title":122,"description":123,"link":124,"items":129},"Security","Deliver code faster without compromising security",{"config":125},{"href":126,"dataGaName":127,"dataGaLocation":44,"icon":128},"/solutions/application-security-testing/","security and compliance","ShieldCheckLight",[130,134,139],{"text":131,"config":132},"Application Security Testing",{"href":126,"dataGaName":133,"dataGaLocation":44},"Application security testing",{"text":135,"config":136},"Software Supply Chain Security",{"href":137,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":138},"/solutions/supply-chain/","Software supply chain security",{"text":140,"config":141},"Software Compliance",{"href":142,"dataGaName":143,"dataGaLocation":44},"/solutions/software-compliance/","software compliance",{"title":145,"link":146,"items":151},"Measurement",{"config":147},{"icon":148,"href":149,"dataGaName":150,"dataGaLocation":44},"DigitalTransformation","/solutions/visibility-measurement/","visibility and measurement",[152,156,160],{"text":153,"config":154},"Visibility & Measurement",{"href":149,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":155},"Visibility and Measurement",{"text":157,"config":158},"Value Stream Management",{"href":159,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":157},"/solutions/value-stream-management/",{"text":161,"config":162},"Analytics & Insights",{"href":163,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":164},"/solutions/analytics-and-insights/","Analytics and insights",{"title":166,"items":167},"GitLab for",[168,173,178],{"text":169,"config":170},"Enterprise",{"href":171,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":172},"/enterprise/","enterprise",{"text":174,"config":175},"Small Business",{"href":176,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":177},"/small-business/","small business",{"text":179,"config":180},"Public Sector",{"href":181,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":182},"/solutions/public-sector/","public sector",{"text":184,"config":185},"Pricing",{"href":186,"dataGaName":187,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataNavLevelOne":187},"/pricing/","pricing",{"text":189,"config":190,"link":192,"lists":196,"feature":275},"Resources",{"dataNavLevelOne":191},"resources",{"text":193,"config":194},"View all resources",{"href":195,"dataGaName":191,"dataGaLocation":44},"/resources/",[197,229,247],{"title":198,"items":199},"Getting started",[200,205,210,215,220,225],{"text":201,"config":202},"Install",{"href":203,"dataGaName":204,"dataGaLocation":44},"/install/","install",{"text":206,"config":207},"Quick start guides",{"href":208,"dataGaName":209,"dataGaLocation":44},"/get-started/","quick setup checklists",{"text":211,"config":212},"Learn",{"href":213,"dataGaLocation":44,"dataGaName":214},"https://university.gitlab.com/","learn",{"text":216,"config":217},"Product documentation",{"href":218,"dataGaName":219,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://docs.gitlab.com/","product documentation",{"text":221,"config":222},"Best practice videos",{"href":223,"dataGaName":224,"dataGaLocation":44},"/getting-started-videos/","best practice videos",{"text":226,"config":227},"Integrations",{"href":228,"dataGaName":24,"dataGaLocation":44},"/integrations/",{"title":230,"items":231},"Discover",[232,237,242],{"text":233,"config":234},"Customer success stories",{"href":235,"dataGaName":236,"dataGaLocation":44},"/customers/","customer success stories",{"text":238,"config":239},"Blog",{"href":240,"dataGaName":241,"dataGaLocation":44},"/blog/","blog",{"text":243,"config":244},"Remote",{"href":245,"dataGaName":246,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/","remote",{"title":248,"items":249},"Connect",[250,255,260,265,270],{"text":251,"config":252},"GitLab Services",{"href":253,"dataGaName":254,"dataGaLocation":44},"/services/","services",{"text":256,"config":257},"Community",{"href":258,"dataGaName":259,"dataGaLocation":44},"/community/","community",{"text":261,"config":262},"Forum",{"href":263,"dataGaName":264,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://forum.gitlab.com/","forum",{"text":266,"config":267},"Events",{"href":268,"dataGaName":269,"dataGaLocation":44},"/events/","events",{"text":271,"config":272},"Partners",{"href":273,"dataGaName":274,"dataGaLocation":44},"/partners/","partners",{"backgroundColor":276,"textColor":277,"text":278,"image":279,"link":283},"#2f2a6b","#fff","Insights for the future of software development",{"altText":280,"config":281},"the source promo card",{"src":282},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1758208064/dzl0dbift9xdizyelkk4.svg",{"text":284,"config":285},"Read the latest",{"href":286,"dataGaName":287,"dataGaLocation":44},"/the-source/","the source",{"text":289,"config":290,"lists":292},"Company",{"dataNavLevelOne":291},"company",[293],{"items":294},[295,300,306,308,313,318,323,328,333,338,343],{"text":296,"config":297},"About",{"href":298,"dataGaName":299,"dataGaLocation":44},"/company/","about",{"text":301,"config":302,"footerGa":305},"Jobs",{"href":303,"dataGaName":304,"dataGaLocation":44},"/jobs/","jobs",{"dataGaName":304},{"text":266,"config":307},{"href":268,"dataGaName":269,"dataGaLocation":44},{"text":309,"config":310},"Leadership",{"href":311,"dataGaName":312,"dataGaLocation":44},"/company/team/e-group/","leadership",{"text":314,"config":315},"Team",{"href":316,"dataGaName":317,"dataGaLocation":44},"/company/team/","team",{"text":319,"config":320},"Handbook",{"href":321,"dataGaName":322,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://handbook.gitlab.com/","handbook",{"text":324,"config":325},"Investor relations",{"href":326,"dataGaName":327,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://ir.gitlab.com/","investor relations",{"text":329,"config":330},"Trust Center",{"href":331,"dataGaName":332,"dataGaLocation":44},"/security/","trust center",{"text":334,"config":335},"AI Transparency Center",{"href":336,"dataGaName":337,"dataGaLocation":44},"/ai-transparency-center/","ai transparency center",{"text":339,"config":340},"Newsletter",{"href":341,"dataGaName":342,"dataGaLocation":44},"/company/contact/#contact-forms","newsletter",{"text":344,"config":345},"Press",{"href":346,"dataGaName":347,"dataGaLocation":44},"/press/","press",{"text":349,"config":350,"lists":351},"Contact us",{"dataNavLevelOne":291},[352],{"items":353},[354,357,362],{"text":51,"config":355},{"href":53,"dataGaName":356,"dataGaLocation":44},"talk to sales",{"text":358,"config":359},"Support portal",{"href":360,"dataGaName":361,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://support.gitlab.com","support portal",{"text":363,"config":364},"Customer portal",{"href":365,"dataGaName":366,"dataGaLocation":44},"https://customers.gitlab.com/customers/sign_in/","customer portal",{"close":368,"login":369,"suggestions":376},"Close",{"text":370,"link":371},"To search repositories and projects, login to",{"text":372,"config":373},"gitlab.com",{"href":58,"dataGaName":374,"dataGaLocation":375},"search login","search",{"text":377,"default":378},"Suggestions",[379,381,385,387,391,395],{"text":73,"config":380},{"href":78,"dataGaName":73,"dataGaLocation":375},{"text":382,"config":383},"Code Suggestions (AI)",{"href":384,"dataGaName":382,"dataGaLocation":375},"/solutions/code-suggestions/",{"text":107,"config":386},{"href":109,"dataGaName":107,"dataGaLocation":375},{"text":388,"config":389},"GitLab on AWS",{"href":390,"dataGaName":388,"dataGaLocation":375},"/partners/technology-partners/aws/",{"text":392,"config":393},"GitLab on Google Cloud",{"href":394,"dataGaName":392,"dataGaLocation":375},"/partners/technology-partners/google-cloud-platform/",{"text":396,"config":397},"Why GitLab?",{"href":86,"dataGaName":396,"dataGaLocation":375},{"freeTrial":399,"mobileIcon":404,"desktopIcon":409,"secondaryButton":412},{"text":400,"config":401},"Start free trial",{"href":402,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":403},"https://gitlab.com/-/trials/new/","nav",{"altText":405,"config":406},"Gitlab Icon",{"src":407,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1758203874/jypbw1jx72aexsoohd7x.svg","gitlab icon",{"altText":405,"config":410},{"src":411,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1758203875/gs4c8p8opsgvflgkswz9.svg",{"text":413,"config":414},"Get Started",{"href":415,"dataGaName":416,"dataGaLocation":403},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_source=about.gitlab.com/compare/gitlab-vs-github/","get started",{"freeTrial":418,"mobileIcon":423,"desktopIcon":425},{"text":419,"config":420},"Learn more about GitLab Duo",{"href":421,"dataGaName":422,"dataGaLocation":403},"/gitlab-duo/","gitlab duo",{"altText":405,"config":424},{"src":407,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},{"altText":405,"config":426},{"src":411,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},{"freeTrial":428,"mobileIcon":433,"desktopIcon":435},{"text":429,"config":430},"Back to pricing",{"href":186,"dataGaName":431,"dataGaLocation":403,"icon":432},"back to pricing","GoBack",{"altText":405,"config":434},{"src":407,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},{"altText":405,"config":436},{"src":411,"dataGaName":408,"dataGaLocation":403},{"title":438,"button":439,"config":444},"See how agentic AI transforms software delivery",{"text":440,"config":441},"Watch GitLab Transcend now",{"href":442,"dataGaName":443,"dataGaLocation":44},"/events/transcend/virtual/","transcend event",{"layout":445,"icon":446},"release","AiStar",{"data":448},{"text":449,"source":450,"edit":456,"contribute":461,"config":466,"items":471,"minimal":678},"Git is a trademark of Software Freedom Conservancy and our use of 'GitLab' is under license",{"text":451,"config":452},"View page source",{"href":453,"dataGaName":454,"dataGaLocation":455},"https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/digital-experience/about-gitlab-com/","page source","footer",{"text":457,"config":458},"Edit this page",{"href":459,"dataGaName":460,"dataGaLocation":455},"https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/digital-experience/about-gitlab-com/-/blob/main/content/","web ide",{"text":462,"config":463},"Please contribute",{"href":464,"dataGaName":465,"dataGaLocation":455},"https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/digital-experience/about-gitlab-com/-/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md/","please contribute",{"twitter":467,"facebook":468,"youtube":469,"linkedin":470},"https://twitter.com/gitlab","https://www.facebook.com/gitlab","https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnMGQ8QHMAnVIsI3xJrihhg","https://www.linkedin.com/company/gitlab-com",[472,519,573,617,644],{"title":184,"links":473,"subMenu":488},[474,478,483],{"text":475,"config":476},"View plans",{"href":186,"dataGaName":477,"dataGaLocation":455},"view plans",{"text":479,"config":480},"Why Premium?",{"href":481,"dataGaName":482,"dataGaLocation":455},"/pricing/premium/","why premium",{"text":484,"config":485},"Why Ultimate?",{"href":486,"dataGaName":487,"dataGaLocation":455},"/pricing/ultimate/","why ultimate",[489],{"title":490,"links":491},"Contact Us",[492,495,497,499,504,509,514],{"text":493,"config":494},"Contact sales",{"href":53,"dataGaName":54,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":358,"config":496},{"href":360,"dataGaName":361,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":363,"config":498},{"href":365,"dataGaName":366,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":500,"config":501},"Status",{"href":502,"dataGaName":503,"dataGaLocation":455},"https://status.gitlab.com/","status",{"text":505,"config":506},"Terms of use",{"href":507,"dataGaName":508,"dataGaLocation":455},"/terms/","terms of use",{"text":510,"config":511},"Privacy statement",{"href":512,"dataGaName":513,"dataGaLocation":455},"/privacy/","privacy statement",{"text":515,"config":516},"Cookie preferences",{"dataGaName":517,"dataGaLocation":455,"id":518,"isOneTrustButton":28},"cookie preferences","ot-sdk-btn",{"title":89,"links":520,"subMenu":529},[521,525],{"text":522,"config":523},"DevSecOps platform",{"href":71,"dataGaName":524,"dataGaLocation":455},"devsecops platform",{"text":526,"config":527},"AI-Assisted Development",{"href":421,"dataGaName":528,"dataGaLocation":455},"ai-assisted development",[530],{"title":531,"links":532},"Topics",[533,538,543,548,553,558,563,568],{"text":534,"config":535},"CICD",{"href":536,"dataGaName":537,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/ci-cd/","cicd",{"text":539,"config":540},"GitOps",{"href":541,"dataGaName":542,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/gitops/","gitops",{"text":544,"config":545},"DevOps",{"href":546,"dataGaName":547,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/devops/","devops",{"text":549,"config":550},"Version Control",{"href":551,"dataGaName":552,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/version-control/","version control",{"text":554,"config":555},"DevSecOps",{"href":556,"dataGaName":557,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/devsecops/","devsecops",{"text":559,"config":560},"Cloud Native",{"href":561,"dataGaName":562,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/cloud-native/","cloud native",{"text":564,"config":565},"AI for Coding",{"href":566,"dataGaName":567,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/devops/ai-for-coding/","ai for coding",{"text":569,"config":570},"Agentic AI",{"href":571,"dataGaName":572,"dataGaLocation":455},"/topics/agentic-ai/","agentic ai",{"title":574,"links":575},"Solutions",[576,578,580,585,589,592,596,599,601,604,607,612],{"text":131,"config":577},{"href":126,"dataGaName":131,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":120,"config":579},{"href":103,"dataGaName":104,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":581,"config":582},"Agile development",{"href":583,"dataGaName":584,"dataGaLocation":455},"/solutions/agile-delivery/","agile delivery",{"text":586,"config":587},"SCM",{"href":116,"dataGaName":588,"dataGaLocation":455},"source code management",{"text":534,"config":590},{"href":109,"dataGaName":591,"dataGaLocation":455},"continuous integration & delivery",{"text":593,"config":594},"Value stream management",{"href":159,"dataGaName":595,"dataGaLocation":455},"value stream management",{"text":539,"config":597},{"href":598,"dataGaName":542,"dataGaLocation":455},"/solutions/gitops/",{"text":169,"config":600},{"href":171,"dataGaName":172,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":602,"config":603},"Small business",{"href":176,"dataGaName":177,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":605,"config":606},"Public sector",{"href":181,"dataGaName":182,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":608,"config":609},"Education",{"href":610,"dataGaName":611,"dataGaLocation":455},"/solutions/education/","education",{"text":613,"config":614},"Financial services",{"href":615,"dataGaName":616,"dataGaLocation":455},"/solutions/finance/","financial services",{"title":189,"links":618},[619,621,623,625,628,630,632,634,636,638,640,642],{"text":201,"config":620},{"href":203,"dataGaName":204,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":206,"config":622},{"href":208,"dataGaName":209,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":211,"config":624},{"href":213,"dataGaName":214,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":216,"config":626},{"href":218,"dataGaName":627,"dataGaLocation":455},"docs",{"text":238,"config":629},{"href":240,"dataGaName":241,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":233,"config":631},{"href":235,"dataGaName":236,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":243,"config":633},{"href":245,"dataGaName":246,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":251,"config":635},{"href":253,"dataGaName":254,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":256,"config":637},{"href":258,"dataGaName":259,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":261,"config":639},{"href":263,"dataGaName":264,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":266,"config":641},{"href":268,"dataGaName":269,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":271,"config":643},{"href":273,"dataGaName":274,"dataGaLocation":455},{"title":289,"links":645},[646,648,650,652,654,656,658,662,667,669,671,673],{"text":296,"config":647},{"href":298,"dataGaName":291,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":301,"config":649},{"href":303,"dataGaName":304,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":309,"config":651},{"href":311,"dataGaName":312,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":314,"config":653},{"href":316,"dataGaName":317,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":319,"config":655},{"href":321,"dataGaName":322,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":324,"config":657},{"href":326,"dataGaName":327,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":659,"config":660},"Sustainability",{"href":661,"dataGaName":659,"dataGaLocation":455},"/sustainability/",{"text":663,"config":664},"Diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB)",{"href":665,"dataGaName":666,"dataGaLocation":455},"/diversity-inclusion-belonging/","Diversity, inclusion and belonging",{"text":329,"config":668},{"href":331,"dataGaName":332,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":339,"config":670},{"href":341,"dataGaName":342,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":344,"config":672},{"href":346,"dataGaName":347,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":674,"config":675},"Modern Slavery Transparency Statement",{"href":676,"dataGaName":677,"dataGaLocation":455},"https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/legal/modern-slavery-act-transparency-statement/","modern slavery transparency statement",{"items":679},[680,683,686],{"text":681,"config":682},"Terms",{"href":507,"dataGaName":508,"dataGaLocation":455},{"text":684,"config":685},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":517,"dataGaLocation":455,"id":518,"isOneTrustButton":28},{"text":687,"config":688},"Privacy",{"href":512,"dataGaName":513,"dataGaLocation":455},[690],{"id":691,"title":18,"body":8,"config":692,"content":694,"description":8,"extension":26,"meta":698,"navigation":28,"path":699,"seo":700,"stem":701,"__hash__":702},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/viktor-nagy.yml",{"template":693},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":695},{"headshot":696,"ctfId":697},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749662918/Blog/Author%20Headshots/nagy-headshot.jpg","nagyvgitlab",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/viktor-nagy",{},"en-us/blog/authors/viktor-nagy","rM3QZ5iaPa1fk9rDH9Dq-owlsuuFm699I03jWP1dUY4",[704,717,729],{"content":705,"config":715},{"title":706,"description":707,"authors":708,"heroImage":710,"date":711,"category":9,"tags":712,"body":714},"How IIT Bombay students are coding the future with GitLab","At GitLab, we often talk about how software accelerates innovation. But sometimes, you have to step away from the Zoom calls and stand in a crowded university hall to remember why we do this.",[709],"Nick Veenhof","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099013/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2814%29_6VTUA8mUhOZNDaRVNPeKwl_1750099012960.png","2026-01-08",[259,611,713],"open source","The GitLab team recently had the privilege of judging the **iHack Hackathon** at **IIT Bombay's E-Summit**. The energy was electric, the coffee was flowing, and the talent was undeniable. But what struck us most wasn't just the code — it was the sheer determination of students to solve real-world problems, often overcoming significant logistical and financial hurdles to simply be in the room.\n\n\nThrough our [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we aim to empower the next generation of developers with tools and opportunity. Here is a look at what the students built, and how they used GitLab to bridge the gap between idea and reality.\n\n## The challenge: Build faster, build securely\n\nThe premise for the GitLab track of the hackathon was simple: Don't just show us a product; show us how you built it. We wanted to see how students utilized GitLab's platform — from Issue Boards to CI/CD pipelines — to accelerate the development lifecycle.\n\nThe results were inspiring.\n\n## The winners\n\n### 1st place: Team Decode — Democratizing Scientific Research\n\n**Project:** FIRE (Fast Integrated Research Environment)\n\nTeam Decode took home the top prize with a solution that warms a developer's heart: a local-first, blazing-fast data processing tool built with [Rust](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/secure-rust-development-with-gitlab/) and Tauri. They identified a massive pain point for data science students: existing tools are fragmented, slow, and expensive.\n\nTheir solution, FIRE, allows researchers to visualize complex formats (like NetCDF) instantly. What impressed the judges most was their \"hacker\" ethos. They didn't just build a tool; they built it to be open and accessible.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** Since the team lived far apart, asynchronous communication was key. They utilized **GitLab Issue Boards** and **Milestones** to track progress and integrated their repo with Telegram to get real-time push notifications. As one team member noted, \"Coordinating all these technologies was really difficult, and what helped us was GitLab... the Issue Board really helped us track who was doing what.\"\n\n![Team Decode](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/epqazj1jc5c7zkgqun9h.jpg)\n\n### 2nd place: Team BichdeHueDost — Reuniting to Solve Payments\n\n**Project:** SemiPay (RFID Cashless Payment for Schools)\n\nThe team name, BichdeHueDost, translates to \"Friends who have been set apart.\" It's a fitting name for a group of friends who went to different colleges but reunited to build this project. They tackled a unique problem: handling cash in schools for young children. Their solution used RFID cards backed by a blockchain ledger to ensure secure, cashless transactions for students.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** They utilized [GitLab CI/CD](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/ci-cd/) to automate the build process for their Flutter application (APK), ensuring that every commit resulted in a testable artifact. This allowed them to iterate quickly despite the \"flaky\" nature of cross-platform mobile development.\n\n![Team BichdeHueDost](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/pkukrjgx2miukb6nrj5g.jpg)\n\n### 3rd place: Team ZenYukti — Agentic Repository Intelligence\n\n**Project:** RepoInsight AI (AI-powered, GitLab-native intelligence platform)\n\nTeam ZenYukti impressed us with a solution that tackles a universal developer pain point: understanding unfamiliar codebases. What stood out to the judges was the tool's practical approach to onboarding and code comprehension: RepoInsight-AI automatically generates documentation, visualizes repository structure, and even helps identify bugs, all while maintaining context about the entire codebase.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** The team built a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline that showcased GitLab's security and DevOps capabilities. They integrated [GitLab's Security Templates](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Security) (SAST, Dependency Scanning, and Secret Detection), and utilized [GitLab Container Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/container_registry/) to manage their Docker images for backend and frontend components. They created an AI auto-review bot that runs on merge requests, demonstrating an \"agentic workflow\" where AI assists in the development process itself.\n\n![Team ZenYukti](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/ymlzqoruv5al1secatba.jpg)\n\n## Beyond the code: A lesson in inclusion\n\nWhile the code was impressive, the most powerful moment of the event happened away from the keyboard.\n\nDuring the feedback session, we learned about the journey Team ZenYukti took to get to Mumbai. They traveled over 24 hours, covering nearly 1,800 kilometers. Because flights were too expensive and trains were booked, they traveled in the \"General Coach,\" a non-reserved, severely overcrowded carriage.\n\nAs one student described it:\n\n*\"You cannot even imagine something like this... there are no seats... people sit on the top of the train. This is what we have endured.\"*\n\nThis hit home. [Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/inclusion/) are core values at GitLab. We realized that for these students, the barrier to entry wasn't intellect or skill, it was access.\n\nIn that moment, we decided to break that barrier. We committed to reimbursing the travel expenses for the participants who struggled to get there. It's a small step, but it underlines a massive truth: **talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.**\n\n![hackathon class together](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380252/o5aqmboquz8ehusxvgom.jpg)\n\n### The future is bright (and automated)\n\nWe also saw incredible potential in teams like Prometheus, who attempted to build an autonomous patch remediation tool (DevGuardian), and Team Arrakis, who built a voice-first job portal for blue-collar workers using [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo/) to troubleshoot their pipelines.\n\nTo all the students who participated: You are the future. Through [GitLab for Education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we are committed to providing you with the top-tier tools (like GitLab Ultimate) you need to learn, collaborate, and change the world — whether you are coding from a dorm room, a lab, or a train carriage. **Keep shipping.**\n\n> :bulb: Learn more about the [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/).\n",{"slug":716,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":718,"config":727},{"title":719,"description":720,"authors":721,"heroImage":722,"date":723,"category":9,"tags":724,"body":726},"Artois University elevates research and curriculum with GitLab Ultimate for Education","Artois University's CRIL leveraged the GitLab for Education program to gain free access to Ultimate, transforming advanced research and computer science curricula.",[709],"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099203/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2820%29_2bJGC5ZP3WheoqzlLT05C5_1750099203484.png","2025-12-10",[611,259,725],"product","Leading academic institutions face a critical challenge: how to provide thousands of students and researchers with industry-standard, **full-featured DevSecOps tools** without compromising institutional control. Many start with basic version control, but the modern curriculum demands integrated capabilities for planning, security, and advanced CI/CD.\n\nThe **GitLab for Education program** is designed to solve this by providing access to **GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying institutions, allowing them to scale their operations and elevate their academic offerings. \n\nThis article showcases a powerful success story from the **Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Lens (CRIL)**, a joint laboratory of **Artois University** and CNRS in France. After years of relying solely on GitLab Community Edition (CE), the university's move to GitLab Ultimate through the GitLab for Education program immediately unlocked advanced capabilities, transforming their teaching, research, and contribution workflows virtually overnight. This story demonstrates why GitLab Ultimate is essential for institutions seeking to deliver advanced computer science and research curricula.\n\n## GitLab Ultimate unlocked: Managing scale and driving academic value\n\n**Artois University's** self-managed GitLab instance is a large-scale operation, supporting nearly **3,000 users** across approximately **19,000 projects**, primarily serving computer science students and researchers. While GitLab Community Edition was robust, the upgrade to GitLab Ultimate provided the sophisticated tooling necessary for managing this scale and facilitating advanced university-level work.\n\n***\"We can see the difference,\" says Daniel Le Berre, head of research at CRIL and the instance maintainer. \"It's a completely different product. Each week reveals new features that directly enhance our productivity and teaching.\"***\n\nThe institution joined the GitLab for Education program specifically because it covers both **instructional and non-commercial research use cases** and offers full access to Ultimate's features, removing significant cost barriers.\n\n### Key GitLab Ultimate benefits for students and researchers\n\n* **Advanced project management at scale:** Master's students now benefit from **GitLab Ultimate's project planning features**. This enables them to structure, track, and manage complex, long-term research projects using professional methodologies like portfolio management and advanced issue tracking that seamlessly roll up across their thousands of projects.\n\n* **Enhanced visibility:** Features like improved dashboards and code previews directly in Markdown files dramatically streamline tracking and documentation review, reducing administrative friction for both instructors and students managing large project loads.\n\n## Comprehensive curriculum: From concepts to continuous delivery\n\nGitLab Ultimate is deeply integrated into the computer science curriculum, moving students beyond simple `git` commands to practical **DevSecOps implementation**.\n\n* **Git fundamentals:** Students begin by visualizing concepts using open-source tools to master Git concepts.\n\n* **Full CI/CD implementation:** Students use GitLab CI for rigorous **Test-Driven Development (TDD)** in their software projects. They learn to build, test, and perform quality assurance using unit and integration testing pipelines—core competency made seamless by the integrated platform.\n\n* **DevSecOps for research and documentation:** The university teaches students that DevSecOps principles are vital for all collaborative work. Inspired by earlier work in Delft, students manage and produce critical research documentation (PDFs from Markdown files) using GitLab, incorporating quality checks like linters and spell checks directly in the CI pipeline. This ensures high-quality, reproducible research output.\n\n* **Future-proofing security skills:** The GitLab Ultimate platform immediately positions the institution to incorporate advanced DevSecOps features like SAST and DAST scanning as their research and development code projects grow, ensuring students are prepared for industry security standards.\n\n## Accelerating open source contributions with GitLab Duo\n\nAccess to the full GitLab platform, including our AI capabilities, has empowered students to make impactful contributions to the wider open source community faster than ever before.\n\nTwo Master's students recently completed direct contributions to the GitLab product, adding the **ORCID identifier** into user profiles. Working on GitLab.com, they leveraged **GitLab Duo's AI chat and code suggestions** to navigate the codebase efficiently.\n\n***\"This would not have been possible without GitLab Duo,\" Daniel Le Berre notes. \"The AI features helped students, who might have lacked deep codebase knowledge, deliver meaningful contributions in just two weeks.\"***\n\nThis demonstrates how providing students with cutting-edge tools **accelerates their learning and impact**, allowing them to translate classroom knowledge into real-world contributions immediately.\n\n## Empowering open research and institutional control\n\nThe stability of the self-managed instance at Artois University is key to its success. This model guarantees **institutional control and stability** — a critical factor for long-term research preservation.\n\nThe institution's expertise in this area was recently highlighted in a major 2024 study led by CRIL, titled: \"[Higher Education and Research Forges in France - Definition, uses, limitations encountered and needs analysis](https://hal.science/hal-04208924v4)\" ([Project on GitLab](https://gitlab.in2p3.fr/coso-college-codes-sources-et-logiciels/forges-esr-en)). The research found that the vast majority of public forges in French Higher Education and Research relied on **GitLab**. This finding underscores the consensus among academic leaders that self-hosted solutions are essential for **data control and longevity**, especially when compared to relying on external, commercial forges.\n\n## Unlock GitLab Ultimate for your institution today\n\nThe success story of **Artois University's CRIL** proves the transformative power of the GitLab for Education program. By providing **free access to GitLab Ultimate**, we enable large-scale institutions to:\n\n1.  **Deliver a modern, integrated DevSecOps curriculum.**\n\n2.  **Support advanced, collaborative research projects with Ultimate planning features.**\n\n3.  **Empower students to make AI-assisted open source contributions.**\n\n4.  **Maintain institutional control and data longevity.**\n\nIf your academic institution is ready to equip its students and researchers with the complete DevSecOps platform and its most advanced features, we invite you to join the program.\n\nThe program provides **free access to GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying instructional and non-commercial research use cases.\n\n**Apply now [online](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/).**\n",{"slug":728,"featured":28,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"content":730,"config":743},{"category":9,"tags":731,"body":734,"date":735,"updatedDate":736,"heroImage":737,"authors":738,"title":741,"description":742},[732,733,107],"tutorial","git","\nEnterprise teams are increasingly migrating from Azure DevOps to GitLab to gain strategic advantages and accelerate secure software delivery. \n\n\n- GitLab comes with integrated controls, policies, and [compliance frameworks](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/compliance/compliance_frameworks/) that allow organizations to implement software delivery standards at scale. This is especially important for regulated industries.\n\n- [Security testing](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/application_security/) is embedded in the pipeline and results show in the developer workflow, including static application security testing (SAST), source code analysis (SCA), dynamic application security testing (DAST), infrastructure-as-code scanning (IaC), container scanning, and API scanning.\n\n- [AI capabilities](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo-agent-platform/) across the full software delivery lifecycle include advanced agent orchestration and customizable flows to support how your organizational teams work.\n\n\nGitLab's open-source, open-core approach, flexible deployment options such as single-tenant dedicated and self-managed, and truly unified platform eliminate integration complexity and security gaps. \n\n\nFor teams facing mounting pressure to accelerate delivery while strengthening security posture and maintaining regulatory compliance, GitLab represents not just a migration but a platform evolution.\n\n\nMigrating from Azure DevOps to GitLab can seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach and tools, it can be a smooth and efficient process. This guide will walk you through the steps needed to successfully migrate your projects, repositories, and pipelines from Azure DevOps to GitLab.\n\n\n## Overview\n\nGitLab provides both [Congregate](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/professional-services-automation/tools/migration/congregate/) (maintained by [GitLab Professional Services](https://about.gitlab.com/professional-services/) organization) and [a built-in Git repository import](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/import/repo_by_url/) for migrating projects from Azure DevOps (ADO). These options support repository-by-repository or bulk migration and preserve git commit history, branches, and tags. With Congregate and professional services tools, we support additional assets such as wikis, work items, CI/CD variables, container images, packages, pipelines, and more (see this [feature matrix](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/professional-services-automation/tools/migration/congregate/-/blob/master/customer/ado-migration-features-matrix.md)). Use this guide to plan and execute your migration and complete post-migration follow-up tasks.\n\n\nEnterprises migrating from ADO to GitLab commonly follow a multi-phase approach:\n\n\n- Migrate repositories from ADO to GitLab using Congregate or GitLab's built-in repository migration.\n\n- Migrate pipelines from Azure Pipelines to GitLab CI/CD.\n\n- Migrate remaining assets such as boards, work items, and artifacts to GitLab Issues, Epics, and the Package and Container Registries.\n\n\nHigh-level migration phases:\n\n\n```mermaid\ngraph LR\n    subgraph Prerequisites\n        direction TB\n        A[\"Set up identity provider (IdP) and\u003Cbr/>provision users\"]\n        A --> B[\"Set up runners and\u003Cbr/>third-party integrations\"]\n        B --> I[\"Users enablement and\u003Cbr/>change management\"]\n    end\n    \n    subgraph MigrationPhase[\"Migration phase\"]\n        direction TB\n        C[\"Migrate source code\"]\n        C --> D[\"Preserve contributions and\u003Cbr/> format history\"]\n        D --> E[\"Migrate work items and\u003Cbr/>map to \u003Ca href=\"https://docs.gitlab.com/topics/plan_and_track/\">GitLab Plan \u003Cbr/>and track work\"]\n    end\n    \n    subgraph PostMigration[\"Post-migration steps\"]\n        direction TB\n        F[\"Create or translate \u003Cbr/>ADO pipelines to GitLab CI\"]\n        F --> G[\"Migrate other assets\u003Cbr/>packages and container images\"]\n        G --> H[\"Introduce \u003Ca href=\"https://docs.gitlab.com/user/application_security/secure_your_application/\">security\u003C/a> and\u003Cbr/>SDLC improvements\"]\n    end\n    \n    Prerequisites --> MigrationPhase\n    MigrationPhase --> PostMigration\n\n    style A fill:#FC6D26\n    style B fill:#FC6D26\n    style I fill:#FC6D26\n    style C fill:#8C929D\n    style D fill:#8C929D\n    style E fill:#8C929D\n    style F fill:#FFA500\n    style G fill:#FFA500\n    style H fill:#FFA500\n```\n\n\n## Planning your migration\n\n\n**To plan your migration, ask these questions:**\n\n\n- How soon do we need to complete the migration?\n\n- Do we understand what will be migrated?\n\n- Who will run the migration?\n\n- What organizational structure do we want in GitLab?\n\n- Are there any constraints, limitations, or pitfalls that need to be taken into account?\n\n\nDetermine your timeline, as it will largely dictate your migration approach. Identify champions or groups familiar with both ADO and GitLab platforms (such as early adopters) to help drive adoption and provide guidance.\n\n\n**Inventory what you need to migrate:**\n\n\n- The number of repositories, pull requests, and contributors\n\n- The number and complexity of work items and pipelines\n\n- Repository sizes and dependency relationships\n\n- Critical integrations and runner requirements (agent pools with specific capabilities)\n\n\nUse GitLab Professional Services's [Evaluate](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/professional-services-automation/tools/utilities/evaluate#beta-azure-devops) tool to produce a complete inventory of your entire Azure DevOps organization, including repositories, PR counts, contributor lists, number of pipelines, work items, CI/CD variables and more. If you're working with the GitLab Professional Services team, share this report with your engagement manager or technical architect to help plan the migration.\n\n\nMigration timing is primarily driven by pull request count, repository size, and amount of contributions (e.g. comments in PR, work items, etc). For example, 1,000 small repositories with few PRs and limited contributors can migrate much faster than a smaller set of repositories containing tens of thousands of PRs and thousands of contributors. Use your inventory data to estimate effort and plan test runs before proceeding with production migrations.\n\n\nCompare inventory against your desired timeline and decide whether to migrate all repositories at once or in batches. If teams cannot migrate simultaneously, batch and stagger migrations to align with team schedules. For example, in Professional Services engagements, we organize migrations into waves of 200-300 projects to manage complexity and respect API rate limits, both in [GitLab](https://docs.gitlab.com/security/rate_limits/) and [ADO](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/integrate/concepts/rate-limits?view=azure-devops).\n\n\nGitLab's built-in [repository importer](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/import/repo_by_url/) migrates Git repositories (commits, branches, and tags) one-by-one. Congregate is designed to preserve pull requests (known in GitLab as merge requests), comments, and related metadata where possible; the simple built-in repository import focuses only on the Git data (history, branches, and tags).\n\n\n**Items that typically require separate migration or manual recreation:**\n\n\n- Azure Pipelines - create equivalent GitLab CI/CD pipelines (consult with [CI/CD YAML](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/) and/or with [CI/CD components](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/components/)). Alternatively, consider using AI-based pipeline conversion available in Congregate.\n\n- Work items and boards - map to GitLab Issues, Epics, and Issue Boards.\n\n- Artifacts, container images (ACR) - migrate to GitLab Package Registry or Container Registry.\n\n- Service hooks and external integrations - recreate in GitLab.\n\n- [Permissions models](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/permissions/) differ between ADO and GitLab; review and plan permissions mapping rather than assuming exact preservation.\n\n\nReview what each tool (Congregate vs. built-in import) will migrate and choose the one that fits your needs. Make a list of any data or integrations that must be migrated or recreated manually.\n\n\n**Who will run the migration?**\n\n\nMigrations are typically run by a GitLab group owner or instance administrator, or by a designated migrator who has been granted the necessary permissions on the destination group/project. Congregate and the GitLab import APIs require valid authentication tokens for both Azure DevOps and GitLab.\n\n\n- Decide whether a group owner/admin will perform the migrations or whether you will grant a specific team/person delegated access.\n\n- Ensure the migrator has correctly configured personal access tokens (Azure DevOps and GitLab) with the scopes required by your chosen migration tool (for example, api/read_repository scopes and any tool-specific requirements). \n\n- Test tokens and permissions with a small pilot migration.\n\n**Note:** Congregate leverages file-based import functionality for ADO migrations and requires instance administrator permissions to run ([see our documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/settings/import_export/#migrate-projects-by-uploading-an-export-file)). If you are migrating to GitLab.com, consider engaging Professional Services. For more information, see the [Professional Services Full Catalog](https://about.gitlab.com/professional-services/catalog/). Non-admin account cannot preserve contribution attribution!\n\n\n**What organizational structure do we want in GitLab?**\n\nWhile it's possible to map ADO structure directly to GitLab structure, it's recommended to rationalize and simplify the structure during migration. Consider how teams will work in GitLab and design the structure to facilitate collaboration and access management. Here is a way to think about mapping ADO structure to GitLab structure:\n\n\n```mermaid\ngraph TD\n    subgraph GitLab\n        direction TB\n        A[\"Top-level Group\"]\n        B[\"Subgroup (optional)\"]\n        C[\"Projects\"]\n        A --> B\n        A --> C\n        B --> C\n    end\n\n    subgraph AzureDevOps[\"Azure DevOps\"]\n        direction TB\n        F[\"Organizations\"]\n        G[\"Projects\"]\n        H[\"Repositories\"]\n        F --> G\n        G --> H\n    end\n\n    style A fill:#FC6D26\n    style B fill:#FC6D26\n    style C fill:#FC6D26\n    style F fill:#8C929D\n    style G fill:#8C929D\n    style H fill:#8C929D\n```\n\nRecommended approach:\n\n\n- Map each ADO organization to a GitLab group (or a small set of groups), not to many small groups. Avoid creating a GitLab group for every ADO team project. Use migration as an opportunity to rationalize your GitLab structure.\n\n- Use subgroups and project-level permissions to group related repositories.\n\n- Manage access to sets of projects by using GitLab groups and group membership (groups and subgroups) rather than one group per team project.\n\n- Review GitLab [permissions](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/permissions.html) and consider [SAML Group Links](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/group/saml_sso/group_sync/) to implement an enterprise RBAC model for your GitLab instance (or a GitLab.com namespace).\n\n\n**ADO Boards and work items: State of migration**\n\n\nIt's important to understand how work items migrate from ADO into GitLab Plan (issues, epics, and boards).\n\n\n- ADO Boards and work items map to GitLab Issues, Epics, and Issue Boards. Plan how your workflows and board configurations will translate.\n\n- ADO Epics and Features become GitLab Epics.\n\n- Other work item types (e.g., user stories, tasks, bugs) become project-scoped issues.\n\n- Most standard fields are preserved; selected custom fields can be migrated when supported.\n\n- Parent-child relationships are retained so Epics reference all related issues.\n\n- Links to pull requests are converted to merge request links to maintain development traceability.\n\n\nExample: Migration of an individual work item to a GitLab Issue, including field accuracy and relationships:\n\n\n![Example: Migration of an individual work item to a GitLab Issue](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1764769188/ztesjnxxfbwmfmtckyga.png)\n\n\nBatching guidance:\n\n\n- If you need to run migrations in batches, use your new group/subgroup structure to define batches (for example, by ADO organization or by product area).\n\n- Use inventory reports to drive batch selection and test each batch with a pilot migration before scaling.\n\n\n**Pipelines migration**\n\n\nCongregate [recently introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/professional-services-automation/tools/migration/congregate/-/merge_requests/1298) AI-powered conversion for multi-stage YAML pipelines from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD. This automated conversion works best for simple, single-file pipelines and is designed to provide a working starting point rather than a production-ready `.gitlab-ci.yml` file. The tool generates a functionally equivalent GitLab pipeline that you can then refine and optimize for your specific needs.\n\n\n- Converts Azure Pipelines YAML to `.gitlab-ci.yml` format automatically.\n\n- Best suited for straightforward, single-file pipeline configurations.\n\n- Provides a boilerplate to accelerate migration, not a final production artifact.\n\n- Requires review and adjustment for complex scenarios, custom tasks, or enterprise requirements.\n\n- Does not support Azure DevOps classic release pipelines — [convert these to multi-stage YAML](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/from-classic-pipelines?view=azure-devops) first.\n\n\nRepository owners should review the [GitLab CI/CD documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/) to further optimize and enhance their pipelines after the initial conversion.\n\n\nExample of converted pipelines:\n\n\n```yml \n\n# azure-pipelines.yml\n\ntrigger:\n  - main\n\nvariables:\n  imageName: myapp\n\nstages:\n  - stage: Build\n    jobs:\n      - job: Build\n        pool:\n          vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'\n        steps:\n          - checkout: self\n\n          - task: Docker@2\n            displayName: Build Docker image\n            inputs:\n              command: build\n              repository: $(imageName)\n              Dockerfile: '**/Dockerfile'\n              tags: |\n                $(Build.BuildId)\n\n  - stage: Test\n    jobs:\n      - job: Test\n        pool:\n          vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'\n        steps:\n          - checkout: self\n\n          # Example: run tests inside the container\n          - script: |\n              docker run --rm $(imageName):$(Build.BuildId) npm test\n            displayName: Run tests\n\n  - stage: Push\n    jobs:\n      - job: Push\n        pool:\n          vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'\n        steps:\n          - checkout: self\n\n          - task: Docker@2\n            displayName: Login to ACR\n            inputs:\n              command: login\n              containerRegistry: '\u003Cyour-acr-service-connection>'\n\n          - task: Docker@2\n            displayName: Push image to ACR\n            inputs:\n              command: push\n              repository: $(imageName)\n              tags: |\n                $(Build.BuildId)\n\n```\n\n```yaml\n\n# .gitlab-ci.yml\n\nvariables:\n  imageName: myapp\n\nstages:\n  - build\n  - test\n  - push\n\nbuild:\n  stage: build\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  script:\n    - docker build -t $imageName:$CI_PIPELINE_ID -f $(find . -name Dockerfile) .\n  only:\n    - main\n\ntest:\n  stage: test\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  script:\n    - docker run --rm $imageName:$CI_PIPELINE_ID npm test\n  only:\n    - main\n\npush:\n  stage: push\n  image: docker:latest\n  services:\n    - docker:dind\n  before_script:\n    - docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY\n  script:\n    - docker tag $imageName:$CI_PIPELINE_ID $CI_REGISTRY/$CI_PROJECT_PATH/$imageName:$CI_PIPELINE_ID\n    - docker push $CI_REGISTRY/$CI_PROJECT_PATH/$imageName:$CI_PIPELINE_ID\n  only:\n    - main\n\n```\n\n**Final checklist:**\n\n\n- Decide timeline and batch strategy.\n\n- Produce a full inventory of repositories, PRs, and contributors.\n\n- Choose Congregate or the built-in import based on scope (PRs and metadata vs. Git data only).\n\n- Decide who will run migrations and ensure tokens/permissions are configured.\n\n- Identify assets that must be migrated separately (pipelines, work items, artifacts, and hooks) and plan those efforts.\n\n- Run pilot migrations, validate results, then scale according to your plan.\n\n\n## Running your migrations\n\n\nAfter planning, execute migrations in stages, starting with trial runs. Trial migrations help surface org-specific issues early and let you measure duration, validate outcomes, and fine-tune your approach before production.\n\n\nWhat trial migrations validate:\n\n\n- Whether a given repository and related assets migrate successfully (history, branches, tags; plus MRs/comments if using Congregate)\n\n- Whether the destination is usable immediately (permissions, runners, CI/CD variables, integrations)\n\n- How long each batch takes, to set schedules and stakeholder expectations\n\n\nDowntime guidance:\n\n\n- GitLab's built-in Git import and Congregate do not inherently require downtime.\n\n- For production waves, freeze changes in ADO (branch protections or read-only) to avoid missed commits, PR updates, or work items created mid-migration.\n\n- Trial runs do not require freezes and can be run anytime.\n\n\nBatching guidance:\n\n\n- Run trial batches back-to-back to shorten elapsed time; let teams validate results asynchronously.\n\n- Use your planned group/subgroup structure to define batches and respect API rate limits.\n\n\nRecommended steps:\n\n\n1. Create a test destination in GitLab for trials:\n\n\n  - GitLab.com: create a dedicated group/namespace (for example, my-org-sandbox)\n\n  - Self-managed: create a top-level group or a separate test instance if needed\n\n\n2. Prepare authentication:\n\n\n  - Azure DevOps PAT with required scopes.\n\n  - GitLab Personal Access Token with api and read_repository (plus admin access for file-based imports used by Congregate).\n\n\n3. Run trial migrations:\n\n\n  - Repos only: use GitLab's built-in import (Repo by URL)\n\n  - Repos + PRs/MRs and additional assets: use Congregate\n\n\n4. Post-trial follow-up:\n\n\n  - Verify repo history, branches, tags; merge requests (if migrated), issues/epics (if migrated), labels, and relationships.\n\n  - Check permissions/roles, protected branches, required approvals, runners/tags, variables/secrets, integrations/webhooks.\n\n  - Validate pipelines (`.gitlab-ci.yml`) or converted pipelines where applicable.\n\n\n5. Ask users to validate functionality and data fidelity.\n\n6. Resolve issues uncovered during trials and update your runbooks.\n\n7. Network and security:\n\n\n  - If your destination uses IP allow lists, add the IPs of your migration host and any required runners/integrations so imports can succeed.\n\n\n8. Run production migrations in waves:\n\n\n  - Enforce change freezes in ADO during each wave.\n\n  - Monitor progress and logs; retry or adjust batch sizes if you hit rate limits.\n\n\n9. Optional: remove the sandbox group or archive it after you finish.\n\n\n\u003Cfigure class=\"video_container\">\n  \u003Ciframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/ibIXGfrVbi4?si=ZxOVnXjCF-h4Ne0N\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">\u003C/iframe>\n\u003C/figure>\n\n\n## Terminology reference for GitLab and Azure DevOps\n\n| GitLab                                                           | Azure DevOps                                 | Similarities & Key Differences                                                                                                                                          |\n| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| Group                                                            | Organization                                 | Top-level namespace, membership, policies. ADO org contains Projects; GitLab Group contains Subgroups and Projects.                                                   |\n| Group or Subgroup                                                | Project                                      | Logical container, permissions boundary. ADO Project holds many repos; GitLab Groups/Subgroups organize many Projects.                                                |\n| Project (includes a Git repo)                                    | Repository (inside a Project)                | Git history, branches, tags. In GitLab, a \"Project\" is the repo plus issues, CI/CD, wiki, etc. One repo per Project.                                                  |\n| Merge Request (MR)                                               | Pull Request (PR)                            | Code review, discussions, approvals. MR rules include approvals, required pipelines, code owners.                                                                     |\n| Protected Branches, MR Approval Rules, Status Checks             | Branch Policies                              | Enforce reviews and checks. GitLab combines protections + approval rules + required status checks.                                                                    |\n| GitLab CI/CD                                                     | Azure Pipelines                              | YAML pipelines, stages/jobs, logs. ADO also has classic UI pipelines; GitLab centers on .gitlab-ci.yml.                                                               |\n| .gitlab-ci.yml                                                   | azure-pipelines.yml                          | Defines stages/jobs/triggers. Syntax/features differ; map jobs, variables, artifacts, and triggers.                                                                   |\n| Runners (shared/specific)                                        | Agents / Agent Pools                         | Execute jobs on machines/containers. Target via demands (ADO) vs tags (GitLab). Registration/scoping differs.                                                         |\n| CI/CD Variables (project/group/instance), Protected/Masked       | Pipeline Variables, Variable Groups, Library | Pass config/secrets to jobs. GitLab supports group inheritance and masking/protection flags.                                                                          |\n| Integrations, CI/CD Variables, Deploy Keys                       | Service Connections                          | External auth to services/clouds. Map to integrations or variables; cloud-specific helpers available.                                                                 |\n| Environments & Deployments (protected envs)                      | Environments (with approvals)                | Track deploy targets/history. Approvals via protected envs and manual jobs in GitLab.                                                                                 |\n| Releases (tag + notes)                                           | Releases (classic or pipelines)              | Versioned notes/artifacts. GitLab Release ties to tags; deployments tracked separately.                                                                               |\n| Job Artifacts                                                    | Pipeline Artifacts                           | Persist job outputs. Retention/expiry configured per job or project.                                                                                                  |\n| Package Registry (NuGet/npm/Maven/PyPI/Composer, etc.)           | Azure Artifacts (NuGet/npm/Maven, etc.)      | Package hosting. Auth/namespace differ; migrate per package type.                                                                                                     |\n| GitLab Container Registry                                        | Azure Container Registry (ACR) or others     | OCI images. GitLab provides per-project/group registries.                                                                                                             |\n| Issue Boards                                                     | Boards                                       | Visualize work by columns. GitLab boards are label-driven; multiple boards per project/group.                                                                         |\n| Issues (types/labels), Epics                                     | Work Items (User Story/Bug/Task)             | Track units of work. Map ADO types/fields to labels/custom fields; epics at group level.                                                                              |\n| Epics, Parent/Child Issues                                       | Epics/Features                               | Hierarchy of work. Schema differs; use epics + issue relationships.                                                                                                   |\n| Milestones and Iterations                                        | Iteration Paths                              | Time-boxing. GitLab Iterations (group feature) or Milestones per project/group.                                                                                       |\n| Labels (scoped labels)                                           | Area Paths                                   | Categorization/ownership. Replace hierarchical areas with scoped labels.                                                                                              |\n| Project/Group Wiki                                               | Project Wiki                                 | Markdown wiki. Backed by repos in both; layout/auth differ slightly.                                                                                                  |\n| Test reports via CI, Requirements/Test Management, integrations  | Test Plans/Cases/Runs                        | QA evidence/traceability. No 1:1 with ADO Test Plans; often use CI reports + issues/requirements.                                                                     |\n| Roles (Owner/Maintainer/Developer/Reporter/Guest) + custom roles | Access levels + granular permissions         | Control read/write/admin. Models differ; leverage group inheritance and protected resources.                                                                          |\n| Webhooks                                                         | Service Hooks                                | Event-driven integrations. Event names/payloads differ; reconfigure endpoints.                                                                                        |\n| Advanced Search                                                  | Code Search                                  | Full-text repo search. Self-managed GitLab may need Elasticsearch/OpenSearch for advanced features.                                                                   |\n","2025-12-03","2026-01-16","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749658924/Blog/Hero%20Images/securitylifecycle-light.png",[739,740],"Evgeny Rudinsky","Michael Leopard","Guide: Migrate from Azure DevOps to GitLab","Learn how to carry out the full migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab using GitLab Professional Services migration tools — from planning and execution to post-migration follow-up tasks.",{"featured":28,"template":13,"slug":744},"migration-from-azure-devops-to-gitlab",{"promotions":746},[747,761,772],{"id":748,"categories":749,"header":751,"text":752,"button":753,"image":758},"ai-modernization",[750],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":754,"config":755},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":756,"dataGaName":757,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":759},{"src":760},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":762,"categories":763,"header":764,"text":752,"button":765,"image":769},"devops-modernization",[725,557],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":766,"config":767},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":768,"dataGaName":757,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":770},{"src":771},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":773,"categories":774,"header":776,"text":752,"button":777,"image":781},"security-modernization",[775],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":778,"config":779},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":780,"dataGaName":757,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":782},{"src":783},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":785,"blurb":786,"button":787,"secondaryButton":792},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":788,"config":789},"Get your free trial",{"href":790,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":791},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":493,"config":793},{"href":53,"dataGaName":54,"dataGaLocation":791},1772652072016]