Self-Managed Gitlab

Ensure service account continuity

Create a dedicated application user

Arnica's GitLab integration uses a GitLab-generated app password tied to a specified user. To prevent the token from being revoked when that user leaves, we recommend creating and integrating with a dedicated application user.

The created user will be visible to all developers as part of Arnica's interactions, such as comments on merge requests. Hence, it is recommended to name the service account properly, such as arnica-service-account

Prerequisites

Ensure network connectivity between Arnica and Self-Managed GitLab

Ensure that your on-premises GitLab instance is accessible to Arnica by configuring the necessary DNS and NAT rules.

Grant Group permissions to the application user

1. Login to Gitlab, and click on the required Gitlab group

2. Click on "Manage" -> "Groups"

   -Or Navigate to https://gitlab.com/groups/[YOUR_GROUP]/-/group_members

3. Click on Invite Members , type the username or email of the dedicated service account, select an Owner role, and click on Invite

1. Accept the invite by the dedicated service account.

If your environment is comprised of multiple groups, repeat the steps above for each group with the same user.

Grant Admin Permissions to the application user

1. Login to your Self-Managed GitLab

2. At the lower-left side of the screen, hit Admin Area

3. Under the Overview menu, hit Users

4. Locate the Arnica Integration user, and hit Edit

5. Scroll down, and under Access level, select Administrator

6. Hit Save changes

Integration process

Generate a Personal Access Token

1. Login with the application user and navigate to the Personal Access Tokens page.

2. Click on Create App Password and assign the following settings to the token:

1. Remove token expiration by clicking on the "X" next to the Expiration Date.

2. Click on Create personal access token.

3. Copy the credentials into a temporary place to use them later in the integration process below.

Integrate

1. Navigate to the Integrations page in Arnica and click on GitLab.

2. Click on the Access Token tab.

3. Fill in the token from the step above.

4. Click on Validate to ensure that the token works properly and then click on OK.

Arnica will integrate with all groups associated with this user. Arnica's default policies include scan-only functionality. While scanning will begin immediately, developers will not see any impact until Arnica's polices are updated to take actions.