GitLab CE on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

GitLab CE (Omnibus) on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on Azure

A production-ready GitLab Community Edition (Omnibus) self-hosted DevOps platform — Git source hosting, CI/CD pipelines, and a built-in container registry in one package — pre-installed on a hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base and certified to Microsoft Marketplace standards. Omnibus bundles GitLab with PostgreSQL, Redis, and nginx, but laying it out, sizing it, and hardening the host for a public Git server is still real work. This image does that so your private DevOps platform is reachable on first boot.

Who this is for: Platform and DevOps engineers who want a self-hosted source-and-pipeline platform inside their own subscription, ISVs delivering GitLab as a turnkey baseline to clients, and teams moving off hosted Git for data-residency or cost-control reasons.

Target industries & use cases: Private source hosting and CI/CD; an in-tenant container registry feeding AKS and other workloads; financial services, healthcare, government, and defense shops requiring code and pipelines inside their own VNet; consultancies standing up per-client DevOps platforms; air-gapped or sovereignty-constrained software delivery.

Value proposition: Provisioning a secure GitLab host means installing the Azure Linux Agent, configuring Trusted Launch, applying current kernel CVEs, deploying and tuning the Omnibus stack, and certifying against Microsoft Marketplace standards. This image does all of that for you:

• Omnibus stack pre-installed — GitLab CE with its bundled PostgreSQL, Redis, nginx, and registry components baked in; the web UI and Git endpoints come up on first boot
• Monthly patch cadence — each version is rebuilt from upstream Ubuntu and GitLab security updates within days of release
• 33 documented hardening traps applied — every published version is gated through an automated trap-audit covering Trusted Launch, sysprep race conditions, Defender pre-installation, hardening-script residue, and 29 more
• Trusted Launch + Secure Boot enabled by default — Gen2 image with vTPM and signed-boot configured per Microsoft’s OEM requirements
• Azure Linux Agent pre-installed and pre-configured — walinuxagent.service is running; custom-script and run-command work on first boot

How this differs from rolling your own: The Omnibus installer is one package, but production-readying it isn’t: external URL and TLS, registry storage, sizing for Sidekiq and Puma, backup wiring, and the OS hardening a public Git server needs are all manual. This image does that work monthly. GitLab CE is free, MIT-licensed open-source software; only standard Azure compute and storage rates apply.

Recommended deployment: Standard_D4as_v5 (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM) is the realistic floor for the Omnibus stack; Standard_D8as_v5 or larger for active teams running concurrent pipelines. Attach a separate Premium SSD data disk for /var/opt/gitlab so image upgrades never replace your repositories, registry, or database.

Azure integration: Azure Linux Agent, Trusted Launch + Secure Boot, Azure Monitor Agent, Azure Backup, Azure Disk Encryption, Azure Defender for Servers, and Azure VM Run Command all attach via standard extensions. Front the web UI with Azure Application Gateway for TLS and point registry storage at Azure Blob.

Support: support@dcassociatesgroup.com · www.dcassociatesgroup.com/support — 24-hour initial response SLA.

Documentation: www.dcassociatesgroup.com/docs/gitlab-ce-on-azure — deployment guide, hardening reference, monthly changelog.