[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":790},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/secure-gitlab-pages-with-startssl":3,"navigation-en-us":33,"banner-en-us":433,"footer-en-us":443,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Marcia Ramos":685,"blog-related-posts-en-us-secure-gitlab-pages-with-startssl":699,"assessment-promotions-en-us":741,"next-steps-en-us":780},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":22,"isFeatured":12,"meta":23,"navigation":24,"path":25,"publishedDate":20,"seo":26,"stem":30,"tagSlugs":31,"__hash__":32},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/secure-gitlab-pages-with-startssl.yml","Secure Gitlab Pages With Startssl",[7],"marcia-ramos",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"secure-gitlab-pages-with-startssl",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9},"Secure GitLab Pages with StartSSL","A quick overview on SSL/TLS certificates and StartCom CA and a comparison between StartSSL Class 1 and Let's Encrypt.",[18],"Marcia Ramos","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749684890/Blog/Hero%20Images/startssl-gitlab-pages-cover.jpg","2016-06-24","**StartCom** certificates have recently been **distrusted** by [Mozilla Firefox](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2016/10/24/distrusting-new-wosign-and-startcom-certificates/) and [Google Chrome](https://security.googleblog.com/2016/10/distrusting-wosign-and-startcom.html). Certs issued prior to October 21st, 2016 don't seem to have been affected and are therefore still trusted.\u003Cbr>\nIn response to my contact, StartCom affirmed they're working hard to revert this situation and hope to have a resolution by the end of January, 2017.\u003Cbr>\n\u003Cspan class=\"note\">Update by Marcia Ramos, on 2016/12/20.\u003C/span>\n\nWith [GitLab Pages][pages] you can host your static website under your custom domain.\nWith a [StartSSL] digital certificate you can secure it. And that's all for **free**!\n\nIn this post, first we'll give you a quick overview on SSL/TLS certificates and StartCom CA, then\nwe will show you a comparison between [StartSSL Class 1][startssl-class-1] and [Let's Encrypt][lets]\nto facilitate your decision to choose one over another.\n\nFinally, we will guide you through the process of securing your GitLab Pages site\nwith **[StartSSL Class 1 free certificates][startssl-class-1]**.\n\n**Note:** We assume you are familiar with web development and web hosting.\n\n\u003C!-- more -->\n## HTTPS: a quick overview\n\n### Why should I care about HTTPS?\n\nPerhaps this might be your first question. If our sites are hosted by [GitLab Pages][pages],\ntherefore they are [static][ssg-post], hence we are not dealing with server-side scripts\nnor credit card transactions, so why do we need secure connections? \n\nBack in the 1990s, where HTTPS came out, [SSL]\u003Csup>[1](#1)\u003C/sup> was considered a \"special\"\nsecurity measure, necessary just for big folks, like banks and shoppings sites with financial transactions.\nNow we have a different picture. [According to Josh Aas][lets-quote], [ISRG] Executive Director:\n\n> _We’ve since come to realize that HTTPS is important for almost all websites. It’s important for any website that allows people to log in with a password, any website that [tracks its users][lets-ref1] in any way, any website that [doesn’t want its content altered][lets-ref2], and for any site that offers content people might not want others to know they are consuming. We’ve also learned that any site not secured by HTTPS [can be used to attack other sites][lets-ref3]._\n\nHow about taking Josh's advice and protecting our sites too? We will be well supported,\nand we'll contribute to a safer internet.\n\n### Organizations supporting HTTPS\n\nThere is a huge movement in favor of securing all the web. W3C fully [supports the cause][w3c-https]\nand explains very well the reasons for that. Richard Barnes, a writer for Mozilla Security Blog,\nsuggested that [Firefox would deprecate HTTP][moz-http-deprecate], and would no longer accept\nunsecured connections. Recently, Mozilla published a [communicate][moz-comm] reiterating the importance of HTTPS.\n\n### Free SSL/TLS Certificates\n\nAs individuals, dealing with small sites for promoting ourselves and our work, we might not be\ninterested in buying a premium\u003Csup>[2](#2)\u003C/sup> [TLS]\u003Csup>[1](#1)\u003C/sup> certificate issued by\na robust [Certification Authority (CA)][wiki-ca], like [Comodo] or [Symantec]. But now we have a\nchoice! We can use free certificates, like the ones issued by [Let's Encrypt][lets] and [StartCom][startssl].\n\n----\n\n**Note 1:** [SSL] stands for **Secure Sockets Layer**, which is the predecessor of **Transport Layer Security** ([TLS]).\n\n**Note 2:** Premium certificates examples: [Comodo SSL/TLS][comodo-ssl], [StartSSL SSL Class 2][startssl-class-2],\n[Symantec SSL][symantec-ssl]. They offer support for e-commerce and grant a huge warranty to their customers.\n\n----\n\n## StartCom\n\n[Start Commercial Ltd. (StartCom)][startssl] was [founded][startssl-about] by [Eddy Nigg] in 2005,\nwho wanted to engage in a \"revolution\" of the digital certification industry, making certificates\nmore affordable and with better quality. StartCom has become the world's sixth largest Certificate\nAuthority, covering nearly one million registered subscribers, and more than 400,000 websites.\n\n[StartSSL™][startssl-class-1] is the [StartCom][startssl] service brand of its digital certificates\nissuing division, it offers [free SSL certificates][startssl-about] and free email encryption certificates\nfor worldwide subscribers. Thus, on this post, **StartCom** refers to the **Certificate Authority**,\nwhile **StartSSL** is attributed to **certificates** issued by **StartCom**.\n\nAmong four classes of StartSSL certificates, there is one **free**, called [Class 1][startssl-class-1].\nThis is the one will be referencing to in this post. But, of course, you are free to choose their premium products too.\nOn their website, you can find a [comparison chart][startssl-compare] for their certificates.\n\n[StartCom Certificate Policy & Practice Statements][startssl-policy] covers a lot of procedures to make\nsure they can trust their customers information. That document states rules, obligations, validations, etc.\nGeneral information can be found through their [documentation][startssl-docs].\n\n### StartSSL Class 1 Features\n\n- Certificates can be [issued in minutes][startssl-class-1]\n- There are two methods of domain verification: email, or code file validation\u003Csup>[3](#3)\u003C/sup> \n- [Certificates are valid for 1 year][startssl-one-year], with [unlimited renewal allowance][startssl-renewal]\n- The [CSR (Certificate Signing Request)][csr] can be generated from any O.S. (Linux, Mac or Windows)\n- S/MIME Client\u003Csup>[4](#4)\u003C/sup> + Authentication\n- Supported by [all browsers and servers][startssl]\n- Live chat support 24/7\n\n----\n\n**Note 3:** Code file validation is a file provided by an institution, which needs to be uploaded\nto the site root. It's a simple HTML file containing a token to verify that we hold that particular\ndomain. It's not used just by CAs. For example, it is also used by Google,\nas a [method for site ownership verification][google-verif].\n\n**Note 4:** [S/MIME][wiki-smime] client certificates are used for client authentication to\nwebsites and for the signing, encryption and decryption of personal data. Most commonly they\nare used for email signing and encryption, but also PDF and office documents. Higher validated\ncertificates can be used to sign contracts in digital format. Source:\n[StartCom UI - Certificates][startssl-certs] (you'll need to be logged into StartCom to have access to this link).\n\n----\n\n### StartSSL Class 1 Limitations\n\n**StartSSL Class 1** certificates cover a lot of attractive features, but have some [limitations][startssl-compare]:\n\n- There is no support for [wildcard DNS record][wildcard], `*.example.com` \n- We are limited to issue certificates for up to 5 domains\n- We can't use commercial \"sensitive\" names for our domains or subdomains (e.g, \"store\", \"buy\", \"shop\", etc)\n- [Revocations carry a handling fee][startssl-revocation] of currently US$ 9.90. Though we may\nuse a different subdomain in order to create additional certificates without the need to\nrevoke a previously created certificate\n\n### StartSSL **vs** Let's Encrypt\n\n[Let's Encrypt][lets] is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority (CA), provided by\n[Internet Security Research Group (ISRG)][isrg]. They are the first CA to offer exclusively\nfree certificates. They are great, their product is awesome. However, they have some limitations\ntoo. To facilitate our overview and compare Let's Encrypt to StartSSL Class 1 certificates,\nlet's take a look at the table below.\n\n| Feature | StartSSL Class 1 | Let's Encrypt |\n| ---- | :---- | :---- |\n| **Cost** | Free | Free |\n| **Expiration** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [In 1 year][startssl-class-1-features] (365 days) | [In 3 months][lets-renewal] (90 days) |\n| **Client Install / CSR** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> All OSs | Complicated on [Windows][lets-win] |\n| **CSR method** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> Desktop App or command line | Command line only |\n| **Browser Support** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [All][startssl-about] | [Most of them][lets-browser-support] |\n| **Server Support** | [All][startssl-about] | All, with [plugins][lets-plugins] |\n| **Revocation** | [Paid][startssl-revocation] | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [Free][lets-features] |\n| **S/MIME Client Auth** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [Supported][startssl-class-1-features] | [Not supported][lets-smime] |\n| **Insurance** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [$10,000 USD][startssl-class-1-features] | [None][lets-features] |\n| **Customer support** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [Live Chat, Phone][startssl-support], Ticket | [Forum][lets-forum] |\n| **Hash Algorithm** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 | [SHA-256][lets-sha-256] |\n| **Domain validation** | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> Email or Code file Validation | [Code file validation][lets-domain-validation] |\n| **Domains limit** | [5 domains][startssl-class-1-features] | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> [Limited][lets-limits] |\n| **Subdomains** | Supported | Supported |\n| **Free domains** | Supported | Supported |\n| **Domain name** | Non-commercial names | \u003Ci class=\"fas fa-check\" style=\"color: green;\">\u003C/i> Unrestricted |\n| **Wildcard support** | No | No |\n| **Support EV certificates** | [Upgrading (paid)][start-ssl-ev] | No |\n\n\nThe information gathered within the table above is available across [StartCom][startssl] website,\ntheir [FAQ][startssl-faq] and their [Policy][startssl-policy]. \n\nFor additional info on Let's Encrypt, you can read their [Certificate Policy][lets-cp],\ntheir [documentation][lets-docs], and this post [Tutorial: Securing your GitLab Pages\nwith TLS and Let's Encrypt][gitlab-post-lets].\n\n## StartSSL with GitLab Pages\n\nDigital certificates are applicable to your [GitLab Pages][pages] project only when you \nse a **custom domain**, as all standard `https://namespace.gitlab.io` urls are secure by default.\n\nWith GitLab Pages we can host our static website, use custom domains (and aliases), and secure our\ndomains with SSL/TLS certificates **for free**. Cost zero, no credit card, no hidden fees! This is\ndetailed in the tutorial \"[Hosting on GitLab.com with GitLab Pages][gitlab-post-pages]\". Also, you can\nread the [quick start guide][pages], and the [documentation][pages-doc] for GitLab Pages.\n\nGitLab Pages supports [PEM] certificates issued by any [CA][wiki-ca], though we need to make sure\nthat the certificate is compatible with [NGINX], the server [where GitLab runs on][gitlab-nginx].\n\nStartCom certificates are retrievable from their [User Interface (UI)][startssl], where you have\naccess to your own information, certificates requests, expiration dates, etc. \n\n### Before getting started\n\nFor the following steps, we assume:\n\n- You already have your custom domain\n- Your project is configured for GitLab Pages \n- Your site is accessible under `http://example.com` or `http://your.example.com` \n\nIf you don't know how to do that, please check this tutorial first: [Hosting on GitLab.com with GitLab Pages][gitlab-post-pages].\n\n## Step-by-step\n\nThe scheme below illustrates the steps we'll take to secure our GitLab Pages sites with StartSSL Class 1 certificates:\n\n![StartSSL with GitLab Pages - step-by-step scheme](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-scheme.png)\n\n### Step 1: Getting started with StartCom\n\n#### Sign up\n\nStartCom login is certificate-based, which is considered a [high-security user authentication][pki-google-book] method.\nUnlike other mechanisms for web-based authentication, certificates ensure the person or machine is who they claim to be.\n[Certificate-based authentication][startssl-user-auth] also provides data encryption capabilities between the client and the server.\n\n- Navigate to StartCom and [sign up][startssl-sign-up]\n- Enter your country and email address to the respective fields\n- Verify your e-mail (follow their instructions, which are very simple)\n- The system will issue a certificate for your email and save it locally, which will be your\nuser authentication to log in. Choose \"The system generate private key and CSR\", enter your\npassword, and download the file\n- [Import the certificate to your browser][import-cert-browser]. This will allow you to log\ninto your account in one click from then on \n\nOn the next screen, StartCom will present all their certificate options. Choose the box \"Free - Class 1 SSL\".\n\n#### Domain Validation \n\nDomain validation is necessary to make sure that the domain you are issuing the certificate for, is really yours.\n\n- Open the tab **Validation Wizard** -> **Domain Validation** -> add your domain to the field -> **Continue**. \n- Choose the method for domain validation (**a** or **b**): \n   - (a) **e-mail**: take a look at the default emails presented on the box and see if you\n   have access to one of them. If you don't, jump to \"method **b**\". Otherwise, first open\n   your email account and keep it opened. Then, choose one of the radio buttons correspondent\n   to your email and click on **Send verification code**. The code will be sent to your email,\n   and it will be valid for only **60 seconds**. Switch to your email, copy the code, switch\n   back to StartCom, and paste it to the field **Verification code** -> **Validation**. Done!\n   - (b) **code file**: choose  **website control validation** -> download the code file and\n   leave StartCom opened. Push the code file to your site root in your GitLab Pages project.\n   Wait until the build succeeds. Go back to StartCom and click on **the verification file is ready on website, Continue**. Done!\n- Once your domain was verified, click on the link **To \"Order SSL Certificate\"**\n\n#### Certificate Request\n\n- In the box **Please enter the full hostname for SSL certificate**, enter your domain name. There are a few options:\n   - you can enter only the root domain \n   - enter the root domain and some subdomains \n   - enter multiple domains (up to 5). \n\n   Suggestion? Issue one different certificate per domain or subdomain; if something goes wrong, it will be just one to fix.\n- Choose the first option: the radio button for PEM certificates **Generate by myself**.\nIt will open a text area where you'll add the CSR we'll generate next. Leave the tab opened\u003Ca name=\"tab-step-1\">\u003C/a>.\n\n![StartCom - Certificate Wizard - CSR](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-gen-csr.png)\n\n### Step 2: Generate the CSR\n\nFor this particular step, we have two different approaches: [Linux and Mac](#unix) (Unix), or [Windows](#win).\n\n#### On Linux and Mac\n\n- Open the terminal and check if you have [OpenSSL] installed: `$ openssl version`.\nIf the response is not `OpenSSL x.x.x date`, install it before continue\n- Run the command recommended by StartCom:\n\n      openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout yourkeyname.key -out yourkeyname.csr\n\n  Use `sudo` if needed. Alternatively, you can keep the key length at `rsa:2048`.\n  The file name (`yourkeyname`) can be chosen at your will\n- Enter the PEM passphrase (it's like a password)\n- Verify it by typing the same passphrase again. Memorize it or make a note.\n- The terminal will ask you questions. Answer the first, then you can leave the others\nblank if you want (hit Enter/Return). Done!\n\nThe files you'll need next will be in the `~home` directory. Open in a text editor both `yourkeyname.key`\nand `yourkeyname.csr`. The first is your private encrypted key. The last is the CSR. The `.key` file will\nbe necessary for [Step 5](#step-5-decrypt-your-private-key) ahead. \n\n#### On Windows\n\n**Note:** the numbers in the parentheses correspond to the numbers on the image below.\n\n- Download the binary file **StartComTool.exe** and launch it \n- Go to the tab **CSR** (1)\n- On the top right, click a small link **Professional mode** (2)\n- Choose the radio button **SSL Certificate** (3)\n- Enter the **Domain name** to its field and fill the country information (4)\n- Choose the radio button **Generate private key** (5)\n- Enter a password (passphrase) and repeat it below (6). Memorize or make a note\n- Choose the hash algorithm and the key length (7)\n- Click **Generate CSR** (8)\n- You will be prompted to choose a file name, and a directory to store both `yourkeyname.key` and\n`yourkeyname.csr`. The `.key` file will be necessary for [Step 5](#step-5-decrypt-your-private-key) ahead.\n\nThe CSR will be shown in the box on the right of the application. Copy all the content (use the button **Copy**) (9).\n\nThe image below illustrates how the desktop application looks like:\n\n![StartCom Tool - Windows](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-windows.png)\n\nAlternatively, you can follow [these instructions][google-gen-csr] to generate the CSR via command line on Windows.\n\n### Step 3: Issue your certificate\n\n- Go back to [StartCom][startssl-csr-enter]\n- Copy the content of the file `yourkeyname.csr`\n- Paste it into the text-area we [had left opened](#tab-step-1) on Step 1\n- Click **Submit**\n- Done! Your certificate must have been issued!\n\n### Step 4: Retrieve your certificate\n\nWhen you download your certificate, you'll notice that it comes within a zipped folder with 4\noptions for you to use: Apache, Nginx, IIS, Other. The certificate you'll use for **GitLab Pages**\nis the one in the `NginxServer` directory.\n\n- On your StartCom UI, go to **Tool Box** -> **Certificate List** -> **Retrieve**\n- Download and unzip the file\n- Unzip the folder named `NginxServer`, your certificate will be there. It has a `.cf_bundle` extension\n- Open the certificate with a text-editor and leave it opened. We'll need it for\n[Step 6](#step-6-add-domain-and-certificate-to-your-project) ahead\n\nThe certificate looks like the code below.\n\n```text\n-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMQswCKIhggfrOJmJJTDEWjkfhMNU3RhcndfjdfnuNJFHUnjfhjEGJSNSInjsnxLg\n... \nnEFH63o+ycNl2jR29jd8c8c+MBIWrYGH8TPy0GCIguwTEzY=\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n\n-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMQswjsdbsfbdsfnKJHUNAIHoihushdiKHJUhcnRDsjdhJBSD786523987JHSDxLg\n... \n3KSjh872631903rjfefy47fh49fjjqjdjqd9e8fuufe8MbLm==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n```\n\n### Step 5: Decrypt your private key\n\nThe key we'd generated on [Step 2](#step-2-generate-the-csr), `yourkeyname.key`, is our private **encrypted** key.\nThis key should **not** be used nor exposed. It's necessary to **decrypt** it before using. To make it easier to\nrecognize theses keys, observe that the code for an **encrypted** private key will always begin with\n`BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY`, while a **decrypted** private key will always begin with `BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY`.\n\nThere are two ways to proceed in this case: [via command line (option A)](#cmd) and via [StartCom UI (option b)](#ui).\nChoose whichever option you feel more comfortable with.\n\n#### Option A: Via command line\n\nIn your terminal, type \n\n```shell\nopenssl rsa -in yourkeyname.key -out yourkeyname-decrypted.key\n```\n\nwhere `yourkeyname` is the name of the encrypted key and `yourkeyname-decrypted.key` will be the name of the decrypted key.\nUse the same password you set up before (on Step 2) when prompted. Your new key will be in your `~home` directory.\n\nOn Windows, proceed likewise, but `cd path/to/folder` before beginning. The decrypted key will be stored in the same\ndirectory you've just navigated to.\n\n#### Option B: Via StartCom UI\n\n- On your [StartCom UI][startssl], navigate to the **Tool Box** tab and click **Decrypt Private Key**\n- Locally, open the private encrypted key in a text-editor. Copy all its content.\n- Back to the UI, paste the content to the text-area and type your passphrase (used on Step 2)\n- Click **Decrypt**\n- Copy the decrypted key from the new box\n- Paste the key in a new document and save it. Leave it opened, we'll need it for the next step\n- Done!\n\nThe image below illustrates the result of the steps above.\n\n![StartCom - decrypt private key](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-decrypt-key.png)\n\n### Step 6: Add domain and certificate to your project\n\nFinally, let's add the key and the certificate to our project:\n\n- On your GitLab UI, open your **Project's Settings** (\u003Ci class=\"fas fa-cog\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003C/i>) and navigate to **Pages**\n- If your domain (the one you just issued the certificate for) is already added to that project,\n**remove** it. Don't worry, we'll add it back\n- Click **+ New Domain**\n- Add the domain to the first field\n- Copy the certificate from [Step 4](#step-4-retrieve-your-certificate), and paste it to the second field\n- Copy the **decrypted** private key from [Step 5](#step-5-decrypt-your-private-key), and paste it to the third field\n- Click **Create New Domain**\n- Done!\n\n![StartCom - add key and certificate to GitLab project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-demo.png)\n\nIf we've set up everything correctly, this is the screen we'll see on our GitLab UI:\n\n![StartSSL + GitLab - valid certificate](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/startssl-gitlab-pages/startssl-gitlab-pages-certificate-valid.png)\n\nNow your domain will be accessed under secure HTTPS protocol and will display on the browser the\ngreen lock we were looking forward to see! You can perform a test to check your certificate\nwith [Site 24x7][site-24-7], if you want.\n\nDo you want to see a working example of a GitLab Pages Project secure with StartSSL Class 1?\nVisit \u003Chttps://gitlab.virtuacreative.com.br> and click on the green lock\n(\u003Ci class=\"fas fa-lock\" style=\"color:rgb(0,192,29)\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u003C/i>) to check the certificate.\nThis URL is an alias for \u003Chttps://virtuacreative.gitlab.io>.\n\n## Getting Help\n\nIf you need some help regarding GitLab Pages on GitLab.com,\nfeel free to use one of [our channels][get-help]. You can also\nopen an issue on the [Pages][pages-issues] group.\n\n## Conclusion\n\n\u003C!-- TO BE IMPROVED -->\n\nHopefully, now you understand why HTTPS protocol is important even for static sites, and you know how to issue a free\ncertificate from [StartCom][startssl]. With secure urls, we are contributing to a better and safer internet!\n\nDon't you have an account on [GitLab.com][sign-up] yet? Let's create one!\nRemember, we can use GitLab Pages to [build any SSG][gitlab-post-pages] for us, and host any static site for free!\n\nFollow [@GitLab][twitter] on Twitter and stay tuned for updates!\n\n\u003C!-- Green lock, public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Move_protect.svg -->\n\n\u003C!-- Cover image, Creative Commons Zero: http://gratisography.com/ -->\n\n\u003C!-- IDENTIFIERS --> \n\n\u003C!-- Alphabetical, miscellaneous -->\n\n[comodo]: https://www.comodo.com/\n[comodo-ssl]: https://ssl.comodo.com/?key5sk1=8721b4e5835982357f2a40802cc408ec59a88e2b\n[csr]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_signing_request\n[Eddy Nigg]: https://twitter.com/eddy_nigg\n[google-verif]: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35179?hl=en\n[google-gen-csr]: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/encrypt-in-transit/generating-keys-and-csr#generate-a-csr\n[import-cert-browser]: http://help-icc.untangle.com/Content/User%20Guide/UI_Tabs/SSLCertificateGPO_v4/Appendix%20B%20Installing%20the.htm\n[isrg]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Security_Research_Group\n[lets]: https://letsencrypt.org/\n[lets-browser-support]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/which-browsers-and-operating-systems-support-lets-encrypt/4394\n[lets-cp]: https://letsencrypt.org/repository/\n[lets-docs]: https://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/intro.html\n[lets-domain-validation]: https://letsencrypt.org/how-it-works/#domain-validation\n[lest-faq]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/frequently-asked-questions-faq/26\n[lets-features]: http://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/intro.html?highlight=revoke#current-features\n[lets-forum]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/\n[lets-limits]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/rate-limits-for-lets-encrypt/6769\n[lets-quote]: https://letsencrypt.org/2015/10/29/phishing-and-malware.html\n[lets-plugins]: https://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/using.html#plugins\n[lets-ref1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/12/10/nsa-uses-google-cookies-to-pinpoint-targets-for-hacking/\n[lets-ref2]: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/why-comcasts-javascript-ad-injections-threaten-security-net-neutrality/\n[lets-ref3]: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/04/dont-be-fodder-for-chinas-great-cannon/\n[lets-renewal]: http://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/using.html#renewal\n[lets-requirements]: http://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/intro.html?highlight=revoke#system-requirements\n[lets-sha-256]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/does-the-certificate-offer-a-sha-2-signature/8914\n[lets-smime]: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/s-mime-certificates/153\n[lets-win]: https://cultiv.nl/blog/lets-encrypt-on-windows/\n[moz-http-deprecate]: https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2015/04/30/deprecating-non-secure-http/\n[moz-comm]: 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statement",{"items":675},[676,679,682],{"text":677,"config":678},"Terms",{"href":503,"dataGaName":504,"dataGaLocation":451},{"text":680,"config":681},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":513,"dataGaLocation":451,"id":514,"isOneTrustButton":24},{"text":683,"config":684},"Privacy",{"href":508,"dataGaName":509,"dataGaLocation":451},[686],{"id":687,"title":18,"body":8,"config":688,"content":690,"description":8,"extension":22,"meta":694,"navigation":24,"path":695,"seo":696,"stem":697,"__hash__":698},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/marcia-ramos.yml",{"template":689},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":691},{"headshot":692,"ctfId":693},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749659488/Blog/Author%20Headshots/gitlab-logo-extra-whitespace.png","Marcia-Ramos",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/marcia-ramos",{},"en-us/blog/authors/marcia-ramos","UrFu-iLS1mEkxVCheaz27cAjfZXeLI9U1n5dGSOHXY4",[700,713,725],{"content":701,"config":711},{"title":702,"description":703,"authors":704,"heroImage":706,"date":707,"category":9,"tags":708,"body":710},"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.",[705],"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",[255,607,709],"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":712,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":714,"config":723},{"title":715,"description":716,"authors":717,"heroImage":718,"date":719,"category":9,"tags":720,"body":722},"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.",[705],"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",[607,255,721],"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":724,"featured":24,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"content":726,"config":739},{"category":9,"tags":727,"body":730,"date":731,"updatedDate":732,"heroImage":733,"authors":734,"title":737,"description":738},[728,729,102],"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",[735,736],"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":24,"template":13,"slug":740},"migration-from-azure-devops-to-gitlab",{"promotions":742},[743,757,768],{"id":744,"categories":745,"header":747,"text":748,"button":749,"image":754},"ai-modernization",[746],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":750,"config":751},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":752,"dataGaName":753,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":755},{"src":756},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":758,"categories":759,"header":760,"text":748,"button":761,"image":765},"devops-modernization",[721,553],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":762,"config":763},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":764,"dataGaName":753,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":766},{"src":767},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":769,"categories":770,"header":772,"text":748,"button":773,"image":777},"security-modernization",[771],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":774,"config":775},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":776,"dataGaName":753,"dataGaLocation":237},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":778},{"src":779},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":781,"blurb":782,"button":783,"secondaryButton":788},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":784,"config":785},"Get your free trial",{"href":786,"dataGaName":44,"dataGaLocation":787},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":489,"config":789},{"href":48,"dataGaName":49,"dataGaLocation":787},1772652083746]