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Test Import Project

For testing, we can import our own GitLab CE project (named gitlabhq in this case) under a group named qa-perf-testing. Project tarballs that can be used for testing can be found over on the performance-data project. A different project could be used if required.

There are several options for importing the project into your GitLab environment. They are detailed as follows with the assumption that the recommended group qa-perf-testing and project gitlabhq are being set up.

Importing the project

There are several ways to import a project.

Importing via UI

The first option is to simply import the Project tarball file via the GitLab UI:

  1. Create the group qa-perf-testing
  2. Import the GitLab FOSS project tarball into the Group.

It should take up to 15 minutes for the project to fully import. You can head to the project's main page for the current status.

This method ignores all the errors silently (including the ones related to GITALY_DISABLE_REQUEST_LIMITS) and is used by GitLab users. For development and testing, check the other methods below.

Importing via the import-project script

A convenient script, bin/import-project, is provided with performance project to import the Project tarball into a GitLab environment via API from the terminal.

Note that to use the script, it requires some preparation if you haven't done so already:

  1. First, set up Ruby and Ruby Bundler if they aren't already available on the machine.
  2. Next, install the required Ruby Gems via Bundler with bundle install.

For details how to use bin/import-project, run:

bin/import-project --help

The process should take up to 15 minutes for the project to import fully. The script checks the status periodically and exits after the import has completed.

Importing via GitHub

There is also an option to import the project via GitHub:

  1. Create the group qa-perf-testing
  2. Import the GitLab FOSS repository that's mirrored on GitHub into the group via the UI.

This method takes longer to import than the other methods and depends on several factors. It's recommended to use the other methods.

Importing via a Rake task

The Rake task was introduced in GitLab 12.6, replacing a GitLab.com Ruby script.

This script was introduced in GitLab 12.6 for importing large GitLab project exports.

As part of this script we also disable direct and background upload to avoid situations where a huge archive is being uploaded to GCS (while being inside a transaction, which can cause idle transaction timeouts).

We can simply run this script from the terminal:

Parameters:

Attribute Type Required Description
username string yes User name
namespace_path string yes Namespace path
project_path string yes Project name
archive_path string yes Path to the exported project tarball you want to import 
bundle exec rake "gitlab:import_export:import[root, group/subgroup, testingprojectimport, /path/to/file.tar.gz]"

If you're running Omnibus, run the following Rake task:

gitlab-rake "gitlab:import_export:import[root, group/subgroup, testingprojectimport, /path/to/file.tar.gz]"

Enable verbose output

To make the import Rake task more verbose, use the IMPORT_DEBUG environment variable:

IMPORT_DEBUG=true gitlab-rake "gitlab:import_export:import[root, group/subgroup, testingprojectimport, /path/to/file.tar.gz]"

Troubleshooting

Check the common errors listed below, what they mean, and how to fix them.

Exception: undefined method 'name' for nil:NilClass

The username is not valid.

Exception: undefined method 'full_path' for nil:NilClass

The namespace_path does not exist. For example, one of the groups or subgroups is mistyped or missing or you've specified the project name in the path.

The task only creates the project. If you want to import it to a new group or subgroup then create it first.

Exception: No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - (filename)

The specified project export file in archive_path is missing.

Exception: Permission denied @ rb_sysopen - (filename)

The specified project export file can not be accessed by the git user.

Setting the file owner to git:git, changing the file permissions to 0400, and moving it to a public folder (for example /tmp/) fixes the issue.

Name can contain only letters, digits, emojis ... 
Name can contain only letters, digits, emojis, '_', '.', '+', dashes, or spaces. It must start with a letter,
digit, emoji, or '_', and Path can contain only letters, digits, '_', '-', or '.'. It cannot start
with '-', end in '.git', or end in '.atom'.

The project name specified in project_path is not valid for one of the specified reasons.

Only put the project name in project_path. For example, if you provide a path of subgroups it fails with this error as / is not a valid character in a project name.

Name has already been taken and Path has already been taken

A project with that name already exists.

Exception: Error importing repository into (namespace) - No space left on device

The disk has insufficient space to complete the import.

During import, the tarball is cached in your configured shared_path directory. Verify the disk has enough free space to accommodate both the cached tarball and the unpacked project files on disk.

Import is successful, but with a Total number of not imported relations: XX message, and issues are not created during the import

If you receive a Total number of not imported relations: XX message, and issues aren't created during the import, check exceptions_json.log. You might see an error like N is out of range for ActiveModel::Type::Integer with limit 4 bytes, where N is the integer exceeding the 4-byte integer limit. If that's the case, you are likely hitting the issue with rebalancing of relative_position field of the issues.

The feature flag to enable the rebalance automatically was enabled on GitLab.com. We intend to enable it by default on self-managed instances when the issue Rebalance issues FF rollout is implemented.

If the feature is not enabled by default on your GitLab version, run the following commands in the Rails console as a workaround. Replace the ID with the ID of your project you were trying to import:

# Check if the feature is enabled on your instance. If it is, rebalance should work automatically on your instance
Feature.enabled?(:rebalance_issues,Project.find(ID).root_namespace)

# Check the current maximum value of relative_position
Issue.where(project_id: Project.find(ID).root_namespace.all_projects).maximum(:relative_position)

# Enable `rebalance_issues` feauture and check that it was successfully enabled
Feature.enable(:rebalance_issues,Project.find(ID).root_namespace)
Feature.enabled?(:rebalance_issues,Project.find(ID).root_namespace)

# Run the rebalancing process and check if the maximum value of relative_position has changed
Issues::RelativePositionRebalancingService.new(Project.find(ID).root_namespace.all_projects).execute
Issue.where(project_id: Project.find(ID).root_namespace.all_projects).maximum(:relative_position)

Repeat the import attempt after that and check if the issues are imported successfully.

Gitaly calls error when importing

If you're attempting to import a large project into a development environment, you may see Gitaly throw an error about too many calls or invocations, for example:

Error importing repository into qa-perf-testing/gitlabhq - GitalyClient#call called 31 times from single request. Potential n+1?

This is due to a n+1 calls limit being set for development setups. You can work around this by setting GITALY_DISABLE_REQUEST_LIMITS=1 as an environment variable, restarting your development environment and importing again.

Importing via the Rails console

The last option is to import a project using a Rails console:

  1. Start a Ruby on Rails console:

    # Omnibus GitLab
gitlab-rails console

# For installations from source
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rails console -e production

  2. Create a project and run Project::TreeRestorer:

    shared_class = Struct.new(:export_path) do
  def error(message)
    raise message
  end
end

user = User.first

shared = shared_class.new(path)

project = Projects::CreateService.new(user, { name: name, namespace: user.namespace }).execute
begin
  #Enable Request store
  RequestStore.begin!
  Gitlab::ImportExport::Project::TreeRestorer.new(user: user, shared: shared, project: project).restore
ensure
  RequestStore.end!
  RequestStore.clear!
end

  3. In case you need the repository as well, you can restore it using:

    repo_path = File.join(shared.export_path, Gitlab::ImportExport.project_bundle_filename)

Gitlab::ImportExport::RepoRestorer.new(path_to_bundle: repo_path,
                                       shared: shared,
                                       importable: project).restore

    We are storing all import failures in the import_failures data table.

    To make sure that the project import finished without any issues, check:

    project.import_failures.all

Performance testing

For Performance testing, we should:

  • Import a quite large project, gitlabhq should be a good example.
  • Measure the execution time of Project::TreeRestorer.
  • Count the number of executed SQL queries during the restore.
  • Observe the number of GC cycles happening.

You can use this snippet: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/snippets/1924954 (must be logged in), which restores the project, and measures the execution time of Project::TreeRestorer, number of SQL queries and number of GC cycles happening.

You can execute the script from the gdk/gitlab directory like this:

bundle exec rails r  /path_to_script/script.rb project_name /path_to_extracted_project request_store_enabled

Access token setup

Many of the tests also require a GitLab Personal Access Token. This is due to numerous endpoints themselves requiring authentication.

The official GitLab docs detail how to create this token. The tests require that the token is generated by an administrator and that it has the API and read_repository permissions.

Details on how to use the Access Token with each type of test are found in their respective documentation.