GitLab CE on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

What's included

• GitLab CE Omnibus — repos, MRs, CI/CD, container registry
• All data stays inside your subscription and region
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with automatic security updates
• Trusted Launch: Secure Boot + vTPM supported
• Pair with GitLab Runner VMs to scale CI capacity
• Backs up with the built-in gitlab-backup tooling

Quick start

1. Deploy from the Azure Marketplace (Get It Now → Create), choosing your SSH key at the Administration step.
2. Allow inbound SSH (22) for yourself plus the application port(s): 80 (web) and 443; 22 for Git over SSH — restrict to your own IP where possible. The in-image firewall already allows them; only the Network Security Group (NSG) keeps them closed.
3. Wait for the first-boot reconfigure, print the generated root password with `sudo cat /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password`, then open http://<VM-IP>/ and sign in as root (see First login below).
4. Set your real external_url (with https://) in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, run `sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure`, then add users and your first project.

Get your admin password (one time)

ssh <your-username>@<VM-IP>
sudo cat /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password

Sign in as root with the password in /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password, then change it. The file is root-only and GitLab removes it 24 hours after the first reconfigure — read it on day one. On VMs deployed before 2026-09-16 the file is absent: use `sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:password:reset[root]"` instead.