» Configuring GitLab EE and CE Access

These instructions are for using an on-premise installation of GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) or GitLab Community Edition (CE) for Terraform Enterprise (TFE)'s VCS features. GitLab.com has separate instructions, as do the other supported VCS providers.

Connecting TFE to your VCS involves five steps:

On your VCS	On TFE
Register your TFE organization as a new app. Get ID and key.
	Tell TFE how to reach VCS, and provide ID and key. Get callback URL.
Provide callback URL.
	Request VCS access.
Approve access request.

The rest of this page explains the on-premise GitLab versions of these steps.

» Step 1: On GitLab, Create a New Application

1. Open your GitLab instance in your browser and log in as whichever account you want TFE to act as. For most organizations this should be a dedicated service user, but a personal account will also work.

   Important: The account you use for connecting TFE must have admin (master) access to any shared repositories of Terraform configurations, since creating webhooks requires admin permissions. Do not create the application as an administrative application not owned by a user; TFE needs user access to repositories to create webhooks and ingress configurations.

   Important: In GitLab CE or EE 10.6 and up, you may also need to enable Allow requests to the local network from hooks and services on the "Outbound requests" section inside the Admin area under Settings (/admin/application_settings). Refer to the GitLab documentation for details.

2. Navigate to GitLab's "User Settings > Applications" page.

   This page is located at https://<GITLAB INSTANCE HOSTNAME>/profile/applications. You can also reach it through GitLab's menus:

   • In the upper right corner, click your profile picture and choose "Settings."
   • In the navigation sidebar, click "Applications."

3. This page has a list of applications and a form for adding new ones. The form has two text fields and some checkboxes.

   

   Fill out the form as follows:

   Field	Value
   (all checkboxes)	(empty)
   Name	Terraform Enterprise (<YOUR ORGANIZATION NAME>)
   Redirect URI	https://example.com/replace-this-later (or any placeholder; the correct URI doesn't exist until the next step.)

4. Click the "Save application" button, which creates the application and takes you to its page.

5. Leave this page open in a browser tab. In the next step, you will copy and paste the unique Application ID and Secret.

   

» Step 2: On TFE, Add a VCS Provider

1. Open TFE in your browser and navigate to the "VCS Provider" settings for your organization. Click the "Add VCS Provider" button.

   If you just created your organization, you might already be on this page. Otherwise:

   1. Click the upper-left organization menu, making sure it currently shows your organization.
   2. Click the "Settings" link at the top of the page (or within the ☰ menu)
   3. On the next page, click "VCS Provider" in the left sidebar.
   4. Click the "Add VCS Provider" button.

2. The next page has a drop-down and four text fields. Select "GitLab Enterprise Edition" or "GitLab Community Edition" from the drop-down, and fill in all four text fields as follows:

   Field	Value
   HTTP URL	https://<GITLAB INSTANCE HOSTNAME>
   API URL	https://<GITLAB INSTANCE HOSTNAME>/api/v4
   Application ID	(paste value from previous step)
   Secret	(paste value from previous step)

   

   Note that TFE uses GitLab's v4 API.

3. Click "Create connection." This will take you back to the VCS Provider page, which now includes your new GitLab client.

4. Locate the new client's "Callback URL," and copy it to your clipboard; you'll paste it in the next step. Leave this page open in a browser tab.

   

» Step 3: On GitLab, Update the Callback URL

1. Go back to your GitLab browser tab. (If you accidentally closed it, you can reach your OAuth app page through the menus: use the upper right menu > Settings > Applications > "Terraform Enterprise (<YOUR ORG NAME>)".)

2. Click the "Edit" button.

3. In the "Redirect URI" field, paste the callback URL from TFE's VCS Provider page, replacing the "example.com" placeholder you entered earlier.

4. Click the "Save application" button. A banner saying the update succeeded should appear at the top of the page.

» Step 4: On TFE, Request Access

1. Go back to your TFE browser tab and click the "Connect organization <NAME>" button on the VCS Provider page.

   

   This takes you to a page on GitLab, asking whether you want to authorize the app.

   

2. Click the green "Authorize" button at the bottom of the authorization page. This returns you to TFE's VCS Provider page, where the GitLab client's information has been updated.

   If this results in a 500 error, it usually means TFE was unable to reach your GitLab instance.

» Finished

At this point, GitLab access for TFE is fully configured, and you can create Terraform workspaces based on your organization's shared repositories.