Set up Geo on Gitlab.com without a secondary site

Production Change

Change Summary

Provide a high-level summary of the change and its purpose.

Set up Geo on Gitlab.com without a secondary site to enable checksumming of all data. This is a prerequisite for the Org Mover to ensure the data was not corrupted in transit and at rest when we move one organization off GitLab.com to a cell.

Change Details

1. Services Impacted - Web, API, Sidekiq, Gitaly, and PostgreSQL
2. Change Technician - DRI for the execution of this change
3. Change Reviewer - DRI for the review of this change
4. Time tracking - Time, in minutes, needed to execute all change steps, including rollback
5. Downtime Component - If there is a need for downtime, include downtime estimate here

Set Maintenance Mode in GitLab

If your change involves scheduled maintenance, add a step to set and unset maintenance mode per our runbooks. This will make sure SLA calculations adjust for the maintenance period.

Preparation before the change

Preparation Steps - steps to take to prepare for the change

• Disable the replication feature flag from all environments:
  • /chatops run feature false geo_ci_secure_file_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_container_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_dependency_proxy_blob_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_dependency_proxy_manifest_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_design_management_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_group_wiki_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_job_artifact_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_lfs_object_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_merge_request_diff_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_package_file_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_pages_deployment_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_pipeline_artifact_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_project_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_project_wiki_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_snippet_repository_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_terraform_state_version_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_upload_replication --dev --pre --staging --production
• Disable the force primary checksumming feature flag from all environments:
  • /chatops run feature false geo_ci_secure_file_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_container_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_dependency_proxy_blob_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_dependency_proxy_manifest_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_design_management_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_group_wiki_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_job_artifact_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_lfs_object_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_merge_request_diff_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_package_file_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_pages_deployment_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_pipeline_artifact_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_project_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_project_wiki_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_snippet_repository_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_terraform_state_version_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production
  • /chatops run feature false geo_upload_force_primary_checksumming --dev --pre --staging --production

Detailed steps for the change

Change Steps - steps to take to execute the change

Estimated Time to Complete (mins) - Estimated Time to Complete in Minutes

• Set label changein-progress /label ~change::in-progress

• Set the unique identifier for the Geo site on rails and sidekiq nodes:

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following:

     gitlab_rails['geo_node_name'] = 'gitlab-com'

  2. After making this change, reconfigure GitLab so the changes take effect:

     sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

• Define the GitLab.com as our primary Geo site:

  gitlab-ctl set-geo-primary-node

1. On the Geo admin page select Edit of the primary site to:
   • Lower the Verification concurrency limit to 10
   • Increase Re-verification interval to 90

• Set label changecomplete /label ~change::complete

Rollback

Rollback steps - steps to be taken in the event of a need to rollback this change

Estimated Time to Complete (mins) - Estimated Time to Complete in Minutes

• Remove GeoNode records on a Rails console session:

  GeoNode.delete_all

• Remove the unique identifier for the Geo site on rails and sidekiq nodes:

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and remove the following:

     gitlab_rails['geo_node_name'] = 'GitLab-com'

  2. After making this change, reconfigure GitLab so the changes take effect:

     sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

• Set label changeaborted /label ~change::aborted

Monitoring

Key metrics to observe

• Metric: Latency: Apdex
  • Location:https://dashboards.gitlab.net/d/general-triage/general3a-platform-triage?orgId=1
  • What changes to this metric should prompt a rollback: any decline in the impacted services after these changes were applied.

Change Reviewer checklist

C4 C3 C2 C1:

• Check if the following applies:
  • The scheduled day and time of execution of the change is appropriate.
  • The change plan is technically accurate.
  • The change plan includes estimated timing values based on previous testing.
  • The change plan includes a viable rollback plan.
  • The specified metrics/monitoring dashboards provide sufficient visibility for the change.

C2 C1:

• Check if the following applies:
  • The complexity of the plan is appropriate for the corresponding risk of the change. (i.e. the plan contains clear details).
  • The change plan includes success measures for all steps/milestones during the execution.
  • The change adequately minimizes risk within the environment/service.
  • The performance implications of executing the change are well-understood and documented.
  • The specified metrics/monitoring dashboards provide sufficient visibility for the change.
    • If not, is it possible (or necessary) to make changes to observability platforms for added visibility?
  • The change has a primary and secondary SRE with knowledge of the details available during the change window.
  • The change window has been agreed with Release Managers in advance of the change. If the change is planned for APAC hours, this issue has an agreed pre-change approval.
  • The labels blocks deployments and/or blocks feature-flags are applied as necessary.

Change Technician checklist

• Check if all items below are complete:
  • The change plan is technically accurate.
  • This Change Issue is linked to the appropriate Issue and/or Epic
  • Change has been tested in staging and results noted in a comment on this issue.
  • A dry-run has been conducted and results noted in a comment on this issue.
  • The change execution window respects the Production Change Lock periods.
  • For C1 and C2 change issues, the change event is added to the GitLab Production calendar.
  • For C1 and C2 change issues, the SRE on-call has been informed prior to change being rolled out. (In #production channel, mention @sre-oncall and this issue and await their acknowledgement.)
  • For C1 and C2 change issues, the SRE on-call provided approval with the eoc_approved label on the issue.
  • For C1 and C2 change issues, the Infrastructure Manager provided approval with the manager_approved label on the issue.
  • Release managers have been informed prior to any C1, C2, or blocks deployments change being rolled out. (In #production channel, mention @release-managers and this issue and await their acknowledgment.)
  • There are currently no active incidents that are severity1 or severity2
  • If the change involves doing maintenance on a database host, an appropriate silence targeting the host(s) should be added for the duration of the change.