Geo glossary

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We are updating the Geo documentation, user interface and commands to reflect these changes. Not all pages comply with these definitions yet.

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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.

Main terms

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  
Replication slot The PostgreSQL replication feature that ensures a persistent connection point with the database, and tracks which WAL segments are still needed by standby servers. It can be helpful to name replication slots to match the geo_node_name of a site, but this is not required. PostgreSQL  
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  
Blob Geo-related data type which can be replicated to cover various GitLab components. Geo-specific file

Replicator terms

Geo uses replicators to replicate data of individual GitLab components between primary and secondary sites. They define how the individual data types of these components have to be processed and verified. For example, data of the GitLab container registry has to be handled differently than CI job artifacts. Some components may have more than one replicator which are potentially also named differently. As such, the following table describes the replicator names and to which GitLab component they belong.

The same replicator names are also visible in the Geo section of the Admin area or when using Geo-related console commands.

Geo replicator name GitLab component name
Ci Secure Files CI Secure Files
Container Repositories Container registry
Dependency Proxy Blobs Dependency Proxy Images
Dependency Proxy Manifests Dependency Proxy Images
Design Management Repositories Project designs repository
Group Wiki Repositories Group wiki repository
Job Artifacts CI job artifacts
Lfs Objects LFS objects
Merge Request Diffs External merge request diffs
Package Files Package registry
Pages Deployments Pages
Pipeline Artifacts Pipeline artifacts
Project Repositories Project repository
Project Wiki Repositories Project wiki repository
Snippet Repositories Personal Snippets and Project Snippets
Terraform State Versions Versioned Terraform State
Uploads User uploads

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