This version of GitHub Enterprise will be discontinued on This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2020-08-20. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Article version: Enterprise Server 2.18

Installing GitHub Enterprise Server on Hyper-V

To install GitHub Enterprise Server on Hyper-V, you must deploy onto a machine running Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2016.

In this article

Prerequisites

  • You must have a GitHub Enterprise license file. To download an existing license file or request a trial license, visit enterprise.github.com. For more information, see "Managing your GitHub Enterprise license."
  • You must have Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2016, which support Hyper-V.
  • Most actions needed to create your virtual machine (VM) may also be performed using the Hyper-V Manager. However, we recommend using the Windows PowerShell command-line shell for initial setup. Examples using PowerShell are included below. For more information, see the Microsoft guide "Getting Started with Windows PowerShell."

Hardware considerations

GitHub Enterprise Server requires a persistent data disk separate from the root disk. For more information, see "System overview." For your storage device, we recommend a high-performance SSD, either directly attached or from a storage area network (SAN). We recommend different hardware configurations based on the number of user licenses used in your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

User licensesvCPUsMemoryAttached storageRoot storage
Trial, demo, or 10 light users216 GB100 GB200 GB
10-3000432 GB250 GB200 GB
3000-5000864 GB500 GB200 GB
5000-80001296 GB750 GB200 GB
8000-10000+16128 GB1000 GB200 GB

These are minimum recommendations. More resources may be required depending on your usage, such as user activity and selected integrations. When increasing CPU resources, it's recommended to add at least 6.5 GB of memory for each CPU (up to 16 CPUs) added to your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see "Increasing CPU or memory resources."

Note: The root disk can be resized by building a new appliance or using an existing appliance. For more information, see "Increasing storage capacity."

Warning: We recommend you use webhooks to fetch repository changes for continuous integration (CI) or similar systems. Regular automatic checks, or polling, will significantly reduce the scalability of your instance. For more information, see "About webhooks"

Downloading the GitHub Enterprise Server image

  1. Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise Server download page.
  2. To download your license file, click Download license.
  3. Click Get the latest release of GitHub Enterprise Server.
  4. Select GitHub On-premises, then click Hyper-V (VHD).
  5. Click Download for Hyper-V (VHD).

Creating the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

To create the instance, you'll need to import the GitHub Enterprise Server image to your virtual machine and attach an additional storage volume for your instance data. For more information, see "Hardware considerations."

  1. In PowerShell, create a new Generation 1 virtual machine, configure the size based on your user license count, and attach the GitHub Enterprise Server image you downloaded. For more information, see "New-VM" in the Microsoft documentation.
    PS C:\> New-VM -Generation 1 -Name VM_NAME -MemoryStartupBytes MEMORY_SIZE -BootDevice VHD -VHDPath PATH_TO_VHD  
  2. Create a new virtual disk to use as an attached storage volume for your instance data, and configure the size based on your user license count. Replace PATH_TO_DATA_DISK with the path to the location where you create the disk. For more information, see "New-VHD" in the Microsoft documentation.
    PS C:\> New-VHD -Path PATH_TO_DATA_DISK -SizeBytes DISK_SIZE
  3. Attach the data disk to your instance. For more information, see "Add-VMHardDiskDrive" in the Microsoft documentation.
    PS C:\> Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName VM_NAME -Path PATH_TO_DATA_DISK
  4. Start the VM. For more information, see "Start-VM" in the Microsoft documentation.
    PS C:\> Start-VM -Name VM_NAME
  5. Get the IP address of your VM. For more information, see "Get-VMNetworkAdapter" in the Microsoft documentation.
    PS C:\> (Get-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName VM_NAME).IpAddresses
  6. Copy the VM's IP address and paste it into a web browser.

Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

  1. Copy the virtual machine's public DNS name, and paste it into a web browser.
  2. At the prompt, upload your license file and set a management console password. For more information, see "Managing your GitHub Enterprise license."
  3. In the Management Console, configure and save your desired settings. For more information, see "Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance."
  4. The instance will restart automatically.
  5. Click Visit your instance.

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