There are several ways to install GitLab. The best way is to install it using the omnibus installer, a Chef-based configuration package. The installer software is actually a fork from a Chef project at https://github.com/chef/omnibus. The reason for this being the best way to install it is that it takes care of a lot of boilerplate for you. There are a lot of details surrounding a GitLab installation and it is easy to make mistakes. Automating this via Chef omnibus eliminates a lot of complexity and possible errors. The installer can be used to install GitLab on several platforms:

• Ubuntu
• Debian
• CentOS (any Red Hat derivative)
• OpenSUSE
• Raspbian

We will use Debian as an example in the section below 'Running the installer'.