GitHub Enterprise on the AWS Cloud
Quick Start Reference Deployment
March 2021
Lee Faus, Daniel Hwang, Cory Vander Jagt, and Christian Weber, GitHub, Inc.
Erin McGill, Tony Vattathil, and Dave May, Amazon Web Services
| Visit our GitHub repository for source files and to post feedback, report bugs, or submit feature ideas for this Quick Start. |
This Quick Start was created by GitHub, Inc. in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Quick Starts are automated reference deployments that use AWS CloudFormation templates to deploy key technologies on AWS, following AWS best practices.
Overview
This guide provides instructions for deploying the GitHub Enterprise Quick Start reference architecture on the AWS Cloud. Quick Starts are automated reference deployments that use AWS CloudFormation templates to launch, configure, and run the AWS compute, network, storage, and other services required to deploy a specific workload on AWS.
This Quick Start is for system administrators and IT professionals who want to deploy GitHub Enterprise on a virtual machine hosted in the AWS Cloud. Deploying GitHub Enterprise on AWS provides a configurable infrastructure for your coding and deployment tasks. Additional details about GitHub Enterprise are available at https://github.com/business.
| Amazon may share user-deployment information with the AWS Partner that collaborated with AWS on the Quick Start. |
GitHub Enterprise on AWS
GitHub Enterprise is a development and collaboration platform that enables developers to build and share software easily and effectively. Development teams of all sizes, from small startups to teams of thousands, use GitHub Enterprise to facilitate their software development and deployment tasks.
GitHub Enterprise provides the following features:
-
The GitHub Flow: Developers can use the same asynchronous workflow created by the open source community to collaborate on projects. This workflow encourages a culture of experimentation without risk. For more information about the GitHub Flow, see the GitHub Enterprise website.
-
Integrated platform: At GitHub, we use GitHub Enterprise across the entire development process, which enables us to release and deploy our code dozens of times per day. This platform for continuous integration and deployment enables you to build and ship better software faster.
-
Transparent collaboration: Pull requests let developers interactively learn from one another during the development process. Whether they’re discussing the whole project or a single line of code, GitHub Enterprise displays the relevant information in a clean, timeline-style interface.
-
Advanced monitoring: You can use GitHub Pulse to see a snapshot of everything that’s happened in your project repository during the past week, or visit the Activity Dashboard to view graphs that illustrate work across projects. Advanced monitoring can include Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), collectd, and log forwarding on the appliance as well. For details, see the GitHub Enterprise documentation.
-
Auditing and compliance: Over time, your organization might have developed crucial policies around permissions and security auditing. You can use the Commit Amazon Web Services – GitHub Enterprise on the AWS Cloud June 2017 Status API in GitHub Enterprise to specify the unique merge conditions necessary for your organization’s compliance requirements. GitHub Enterprise also provides in-depth monitoring and auditing for administrators. For details, see the GitHub Enterprise documentation.
-
Smarter version control: GitHub Enterprise is built on Git, which is a distributed version control system that supports non-linear workflows on projects of all sizes.
AWS costs
You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services and any third-party licenses used while running this Quick Start. There is no additional cost for using the Quick Start.
The AWS CloudFormation templates for Quick Starts include configuration parameters that you can customize. Some of the settings, such as the instance type, affect the cost of deployment. For cost estimates, see the pricing pages for each AWS service you use. Prices are subject to change.
| After you deploy the Quick Start, create AWS Cost and Usage Reports to deliver billing metrics to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket in your account. These reports provide cost estimates based on usage throughout each month and aggregate the data at the end of the month. For more information, see What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports? |
Software licenses
This Quick Start requires a trial version of GitHub Enterprise, which is available for free from GitHub.
Architecture
Deploying this Quick Start for a new virtual private cloud (VPC) with default parameters builds the following GitHub Enterprise environment in the AWS Cloud.
As shown in Figure 1, the Quick Start sets up the following:
-
A virtual private cloud (VPC) with a single Availability Zone and one public subnet.*
-
An Internet gateway to allow access to the Internet.*
-
In the public subnet, a GitHub Enterprise EC2 instance with an attached, customizable EBS volume.
-
An Amazon CloudWatch monitoring resource that will automatically restore the GitHub Enterprise EC2 instance if it becomes unresponsive.
-
An IAM role with the necessary permissions to manage access to resources.
-
A security group to enable communication within the VPC and to interact with the GitHub Enterprise EC2 instance.
-
A sample Github organization and repository you can use to test the deployment.
*The template that deploys the Quick Start into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.
Planning the deployment
Specialized knowledge
This deployment requires a moderate level of familiarity with AWS services. If you’re new to AWS, see Getting Started Resource Center and AWS Training and Certification. These sites provide materials for learning how to design, deploy, and operate your infrastructure and applications on the AWS Cloud.
Before you deploy this Quick Start, we recommend that you become familiar with the following AWS services. (If you are new to AWS, see Getting Started with AWS.)
AWS account
If you don’t already have an AWS account, create one at https://aws.amazon.com by following the on-screen instructions. Part of the sign-up process involves receiving a phone call and entering a PIN using the phone keypad.
Your AWS account is automatically signed up for all AWS services. You are charged only for the services you use.
Technical requirements
Before you launch the Quick Start, review the following information and ensure that your account is properly configured. Otherwise, deployment might fail.
Resource quotas
If necessary, request service quota increases for the following resources. You might request quota increases to avoid exceeding the default limits for any resources that are shared across multiple deployments. The Service Quotas console displays your usage and quotas for some aspects of some services. For more information, see What is Service Quotas? and AWS service quotas.
| Resource | This deployment uses |
|---|---|
VPCs |
1 |
CloudWatch alarms |
1 |
Elastic IP addresses |
1 |
Security groups |
1 |
m3.xlarge instances |
1 |
Supported Regions
This Quick Start supports the following Regions:
-
us-east-1 (N. Virginia)
-
us-east-2 (Ohio)
-
us-west-1 (N. California)
-
us-west-2 (Oregon)
-
ca-central-1 (Canada Central)
-
eu-central-1 (Frankfurt)
-
eu-west-1 (Ireland)
-
eu-west-2 (London)
-
eu-west-3 (Paris)
-
ap-southeast-1 (Singapore)
-
ap-southeast-2 (Sydney)
-
ap-south-1 (Mumbai)
-
ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo)
-
ap-northeast-2 (Seoul)
-
sa-east-1 (South America)
-
eu-north-1 (Stockholm)
-
ap-east-1 (Hong Kong)
-
me-south-1 (Bahrain)
-
af-south-1 (Cape Town)
-
eu-south-1 (Milan)
| Certain Regions are available on an opt-in basis. For more information, see Managing AWS Regions. |
EC2 key pairs
Make sure that at least one Amazon EC2 key pair exists in your AWS account in the Region where you plan to deploy the Quick Start. Make note of the key pair name. You need it during deployment. To create a key pair, see Amazon EC2 key pairs and Linux instances.
For testing or proof-of-concept purposes, we recommend creating a new key pair instead of using one that’s already being used by a production instance.
IAM permissions
Before launching the Quick Start, you must sign in to the AWS Management Console with IAM permissions for the resources that the templates deploy. The AdministratorAccess managed policy within IAM provides sufficient permissions, although your organization may choose to use a custom policy with more restrictions. For more information, see AWS managed policies for job functions.
This Quick Start requires a license to use GitHub Enterprise. You can fill out the form at https://enterprise.github.com/sn-trial to sign up for a free, 45-day trial license for GitHub Enterprise.
The Quick Start also requires Git, which is the open source version control system underlying GitHub Enterprise. Please install Git from https://git-scm.com/ before you deploy the Quick Start.
Prepare your AWS account
-
If you don’t already have an AWS account, create one at https://aws.amazon.com by following the on-screen instructions.
-
Use the region selector in the navigation bar to choose the AWS Region where you want to deploy GitHub Enterprise on AWS.
-
Create a key pair in your preferred Region.
-
If necessary, request a service limit increase for the Amazon EC2 m3.xlarge instance type. You might need to do this if you already have an existing deployment that uses this instance type, and you think you might exceed the default limit with this reference deployment.
Request a GitHub Enterprise Trial License
-
Fill out the form at https://enterprise.github.com/sn-trial to sign up for a free, 45-day trial license for GitHub Enterprise.
-
Upload the trial license to Amazon S3 and note its URL. You’ll need to supply the location and file name of the license file when you launch the AWS CloudFormation template in the next step.
Deployment options
This Quick Start provides two deployment options:
-
Deploy GitHub Enterprise into a new VPC. This option builds a new AWS environment consisting of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys GitHub Enterprise into this new VPC.
-
Deploy GitHub Enterprise into an existing VPC. This option provisions GitHub Enterprise in your existing AWS infrastructure.
The Quick Start provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and GitHub Enterprise settings, as discussed later in this guide.
Deployment steps
Sign in to your AWS account
-
Sign in to your AWS account at https://aws.amazon.com with an IAM user role that has the necessary permissions. For details, see Planning the deployment earlier in this guide.
-
Make sure that your AWS account is configured correctly, as discussed in the Technical requirements section.
Launch the Quick Start
| If you’re deploying GitHub Enterprise into an existing VPC, make sure that your VPC has two private subnets in different Availability Zones for the workload instances and that the subnets aren’t shared. This Quick Start doesn’t support shared subnets. These subnets require NAT gateways in their route tables to allow the instances to download packages and software without exposing them to the internet. Also make sure that the domain name option in the DHCP options is configured as explained in DHCP options sets. You provide your VPC settings when you launch the Quick Start. |
Each deployment takes about 15 minutes to complete.
-
Sign in to your AWS account, and choose one of the following options to launch the AWS CloudFormation template. For help with choosing an option, see Deployment options earlier in this guide.
-
Check the AWS Region that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar, and change it if necessary. This Region is where the network infrastructure for GitHub Enterprise is built. The template is launched in the us-west-2 Region by default. For other choices, see Supported Regions earlier in this guide.
-
On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.
-
On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary. For details on each parameter, see the Parameter reference section of this guide. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.
-
On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you’re finished, choose Next.
-
On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select the two check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates IAM resources and might require the ability to automatically expand macros.
-
Choose Create stack to deploy the stack.
-
Monitor the status of the stack. When the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the GitHub Enterprise deployment is ready.
-
Use the values displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack, as shown in Figure 2, to view the created resources.
Test the deployment
The Quick Start sets up a sample organization and repository during the deployment process. You can test the deployment by accessing the GitHub Enterprise EC2 instance, accessing the sample repository, and cloning it.
-
Use the URL of the primary instance displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack to view the resources that were created.
-
Log in to GitHub Enterprise. Enter the site administrator user name and password you provided in the Quick Start parameters.
-
Upload a deploy key. This is an SSH key that gives you access to the sample GitHubrepository.
-
Navigate to http://<githuburl>/setting/keys.
-
In the sidebar, choose SSH and GPG keys.
-
Choose New SSH key.
-
For Title, give your key a descriptive name.
-
In the Key field, paste your public key. This key is typically found in~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
-
Choose Add SSH key
-
-
-
Clone your GitHub repository.
-
Navigate back to the main page by choosing the GitHub Enterprise logoon the navigation bar.
-
Switch dashboard context by selecting the organization name. This is the organization you specified in the Quick Start parameters.
-
-
Select the repository name. This is the repository you specified in the Quick Start parameters in step 3 (repo1 in the following figure).
-
Choose Clone or download, and then copy the Git URL that’s displayed by choosing the Clipboard icon
-
Open a terminal shell. (This requires that you install Git on your workstation, as instructed in the Prerequisites section.)
-
Use the Git CLI to clone your repository:
git clone git@13.58.62.155:quickstart-created-repo/repo1.git
To try out additional GitHub Enterprise features, follow the instructions in the GitHub Enterprise documentation.
FAQ
Q. I encountered a CREATE_FAILED error when I launched the Quick Start.
A. If AWS CloudFormation fails to create the stack, relaunch the template with Rollback on failure set to Disabled. This setting is under Advanced in the AWS CloudFormation console on the Configure stack options page. With this setting, the stack’s state is retained, and the instance keeps running so that you can troubleshoot the issue. (For Windows, look at the log files in %ProgramFiles%\Amazon\EC2ConfigService and C:\cfn\log.)
| When you set Rollback on failure to Disabled, you continue to incur AWS charges for this stack. Delete the stack when you finish troubleshooting. |
For more information, see Troubleshooting AWS CloudFormation.
Q. I encountered a size-limitation error when I deployed the AWS CloudFormation templates.
A. Launch the Quick Start templates from the links in this guide or from another S3 bucket. If you deploy the templates from a local copy on your computer or from a location other than an S3 bucket, you might encounter template-size limitations. For more information, see AWS CloudFormation quotas.
Additional Resources
GitHub Enterprise
-
GitHub Enterprise: https://github.com/business
-
GitHub Enterprise trial: https://enterprise.github.com/sn-trial
-
GitHub Enterprise documentation: https://help.github.com/enterprise/2.9/
Parameter reference
Unless you are customizing the Quick Start templates for your own deployment projects, we recommend that you keep the default settings for the parameters labeled Quick Start S3 bucket name, Quick Start S3 bucket
Region, and Quick Start S3 key prefix. Changing these parameter settings automatically updates code references to point to a new Quick Start location. For more information, see the AWS Quick Start Contributor’s Guide.
|
Launch into a new VPC
-
VPC Network Configuration
Parameter label (name) |
Default value |
Description |
VPC CIDR
( |
|
CIDR Block for the VPC |
Permitted IP range
( |
|
The IP address range that can be used to access to the EC2 instance |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
GitHub License Location
( |
|
Name of S3 bucket containing GitHub Enterprise license |
GitHub License Filename
( |
|
GitHub Enterprise License file that is uploaded to the License S3 bucket. Sign up for a trial license here: https://enterprise.github.com/trial |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Initial Organization
( |
|
The initial organization to hold the GitHub Enterprise repository |
Initial Repository
( |
|
The initial repository to create |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Management Password
( |
|
Set the Management password for Github Enterprise (Passwords must be at least 7 characters long and include at least one number and one upper case letter) |
Site Admin Username
( |
|
Set the Site Admin Username |
Site Admin User Email
( |
|
Site Admin Email address |
Site Admin User Password
( |
|
Set the Site Admin password for Github Enterprise (Passwords must be at least 7 characters long and include at least one number and one upper case letter) |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Instance Type
( |
|
WebServer EC2 instance type |
Key Pair Name
( |
|
Public/private key pairs allow you to securely connect to your instance after it launches |
Volume Type
( |
|
Choose either GP2 or IO1. IO1 is recommended for more than 500 users |
Provisioned IOPS
( |
|
Set the provisioned IOPs between 100 and 20000. Only set if you are choosing io1 for your volume type |
Volume Size
( |
|
The size of the EBS attached volume |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Quick Start S3 Bucket Name
( |
|
S3 bucket name for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start bucket name can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, and hyphens (-). It cannot start or end with a hyphen (-). |
Quick Start S3 bucket region
( |
|
The AWS Region where the Quick Start S3 bucket (QSS3BucketName) is hosted. When using your own bucket, you must specify this value. |
Quick Start S3 Key Prefix
( |
|
S3 key prefix for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start key prefix can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, hyphens (-), and forward slash (/). It cannot start with forward slash (/) because it is automatically added |
Launch into an existing VPC
-
VPC Network Configuration
Parameter label (name) |
Default value |
Description |
Permitted IP range
( |
|
The IP address range that can be used to access to the EC2 instance |
Subnet Id
( |
|
The Public subnet where the GitHub Enterprise instance will be launched |
VPC ID
( |
|
The VPC to launch the GitHub Enterprise server |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
GitHub License Location
( |
|
Name of S3 bucket containing GitHub Enterprise license |
GitHub License Filename
( |
|
GitHub Enterprise License file that is uploaded to the License S3 bucket. Sign up for a trial license here: https://enterprise.github.com/trial |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Initial Organization
( |
|
The initial organization to hold the GitHub Enterprise repository |
Initial Repository
( |
|
The initial repository to create |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Management Password
( |
|
Set the Console password for Github Enterprise (Passwords must be at least 7 characters long and include at least one number and one upper case letter) |
Site Admin Username
( |
|
Set the Site Admin Username |
Site Admin User Email
( |
|
Site Admin Email address |
Site Admin User Password
( |
|
Set the Console password for Github Enterprise (Passwords must be at least 7 characters long and include at least one number and one upper case letter) |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Instance Type
( |
|
WebServer EC2 instance type |
Key Pair Name
( |
|
Name of an existing EC2 KeyPair to enable SSH access to the instance |
Volume Type
( |
|
Choose either GP2 or IO1. IO1 is recommended for more than 500 users |
Provisioned IOPS
( |
|
Set the provisioned IOPs between 100 and 20000. Only set if you are choosing io1 for your volume type |
Volume Size
( |
|
The size of the EBS attached volume |
| Parameter label (name) | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Quick Start S3 Bucket Name
( |
|
S3 bucket name for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start bucket name can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, and hyphens (-). It cannot start or end with a hyphen (-). |
Quick Start S3 bucket region
( |
|
The AWS Region where the Quick Start S3 bucket (QSS3BucketName) is hosted. When using your own bucket, you must specify this value. |
Quick Start S3 Key Prefix
( |
|
S3 key prefix for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start key prefix can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, hyphens (-), and forward slash (/). It cannot start with forward slash (/) because it is automatically added. |
Send us feedback
To post feedback, submit feature ideas, or report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Quick Start. To submit code, see the Quick Start Contributor’s Guide.
Quick Start reference deployments
See the AWS Quick Start home page.
GitHub repository
Visit our GitHub repository to download the templates and scripts for this Quick Start, to post your comments, and to share your customizations with others.
Notices
This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents AWS’s current product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS’s products or services, each of which is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.
The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at http://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either expressed or implied. See the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.