Advanced GitLab Training Course

Introduction and Foundations

• Assessment of participant knowledge regarding Git and GitLab.
• Review of core Git concepts: commits, branches, merges, and push/pull operations.
• Overview of GitLab editions (Free vs. Premium vs. Ultimate).
• Typical GitLab use cases and the organisational benefits it offers.

Overview of GitLab Features and Architecture

• Walkthrough of the GitLab interface and project structure.
• Key features: repository management, pipelines, and issue boards.
• Overview of GitLab CI/CD architecture and runners.

GitLab Workflow

• Comparison of common workflows: GitLab Flow versus GitFlow.
• Merge requests, approval processes, and review cycles.
• Branch management and permission settings.

Organizing Projects with Groups and Namespaces

• Understanding GitLab groups, subgroups, and namespaces.
• Project visibility and group-level permissions.
• Forking strategies and team access management.

Implementing CI/CD in GitLab

• Setting up and registering GitLab Runners.
• Docker and Kubernetes executors.
• Understanding Docker-in-Docker (DIND): benefits and caveats.
• Troubleshooting runner issues.
• Writing and structuring gitlab-ci.yml files.
• Utilising variables and CI secrets.
• Creating CI workflows and stages.
• Including templates and reusable pipeline definitions.
• Managing triggers, schedules, and manual pipeline controls.
• Generating releases and employing tagging strategies.

Issue Management and Collaboration

• Creating and linking issues.
• Custom issue boards and labels.
• Milestones and progress tracking.

Using GitLab Markdown

• Formatting issues, merge requests, and wikis.
• Utilising Markdown for documentation and inline visuals.
• Using checklists, code blocks, and tables.

GitLab Pages

• Publishing static websites from GitLab repositories.
• Setting up GitLab Pages with custom domains.
• Integrating CI/CD with Pages deployments.

Security and Access Management

• Personal access tokens and project tokens.
• Securing pipeline secrets and variables.
• Overview of GitLab’s security scanning features.

Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

• Common CI/CD errors and their resolutions.
• Runner logs and debugging failed jobs.
• Best practices for ensuring pipeline reliability.

Summary and Next Steps

• Course recap and Q&A session.
• Final review session or evaluation task.
• Feedback and course wrap-up.
• Resources for continued learning.