Geo glossary
Tier: Premium, Ultimate
Offering: Self-managed
We are updating the Geo documentation, user interface and commands to reflect these changes. Not all pages comply with
these definitions yet.
These are the defined terms to describe all aspects of Geo. Using a set of clearly defined terms helps us to communicate efficiently and avoids confusion. The language on this page aims to be ubiquitous and as simple as possible.
We provide example diagrams and statements to demonstrate correct usage of terms.
| Term | Definition | Scope | Discouraged synonyms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Node | An individual server that runs GitLab either with a specific role or as a whole (for example a Rails application node). In a cloud context this can be a specific machine type. | GitLab | instance, server |
| Site | One or a collection of nodes running a single GitLab application. A site can be single-node or multi-node. | GitLab | deployment, installation instance |
| Single-node site | A specific configuration of GitLab that uses exactly one node. | GitLab | single-server, single-instance |
| Multi-node site | A specific configuration of GitLab that uses more than one node. | GitLab | multi-server, multi-instance, high availability |
| Primary site | A GitLab site whose data is being replicated by at least one secondary site. There can only be a single primary site. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Primary node |
| Secondary site | A GitLab site that is configured to replicate the data of a primary site. There can be one or more secondary sites. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Secondary node |
| Geo deployment | A collection of two or more GitLab sites with exactly one primary site being replicated by one or more secondary sites. | Geo-specific | |
| Reference architecture | A specified configuration of GitLab based on Requests per Second or user count, possibly including multiple nodes and multiple sites. | GitLab | |
| Promoting | Changing the role of a site from secondary to primary. | Geo-specific | |
| Demoting | Changing the role of a site from primary to secondary. | Geo-specific | |
| Failover | The entire process that shifts users from a primary Site to a secondary site. This includes promoting a secondary, but contains other parts as well. For example, scheduling maintenance. | Geo-specific | |
| Replication | Also called “synchronization”. The uni-directional process that updates a resource on a secondary site to match the resource on the primary site. | Geo-specific | |
| Verification | The process of comparing the data that exist on a primary site to the data replicated to a secondary site. Used to ensure integrity of replicated data. | Geo-specific | |
| Unified URL | A single external URL used for all Geo sites. Allows requests to be routed to either the primary Geo site or any secondary Geo sites. | Geo-specific | |
| Geo proxying | A mechanism where secondary Geo sites transparently forward operations to the primary site, except for certain operations that can be handled locally by the secondary sites. | Geo-specific |
Examples
Single-node site
graph TD
subgraph S-Site[Single-node site]
Node_3[GitLab node]
end
Multi-node site
graph TD
subgraph MN-Site[Multi-node site]
Node_1[Application node]
Node_2[Database node]
Node_3[Gitaly node]
end
Geo deployment - Single-node sites
This Geo deployment has a single-node primary site, a single-node secondary site:
graph TD
subgraph Geo deployment
subgraph Primary[Primary site, single-node]
Node_1[GitLab node]
end
subgraph Secondary1[Secondary site 1, single-node]
Node_2[GitLab node]
end
end
Geo deployment - Multi-node sites
This Geo deployment has a multi-node primary site, a multi-node secondary site:
graph TD
subgraph Geo deployment
subgraph Primary[Primary site, multi-node]
Node_1[Application node]
Node_2[Database node]
end
subgraph Secondary1[Secondary site 1, multi-node]
Node_5[Application node]
Node_6[Database node]
end
end
Geo deployment - Mixed sites
This Geo deployment has a multi-node primary site, a multi-node secondary site and another single-node secondary site:
graph TD
subgraph Geo deployment
subgraph Primary[Primary site, multi-node]
Node_1[Application node]
Node_2[Database node]
Node_3[Gitaly node]
end
subgraph Secondary1[Secondary site 1, multi-node]
Node_5[Application node]
Node_6[Database node]
end
subgraph Secondary2[Secondary site 2, single-node]
Node_7[Single GitLab node]
end
end