Advanced GitLab Training Course

Introduction and Foundations

• Establishing a baseline: assessing participants' existing knowledge of Git and GitLab
• Refreshing key Git concepts: commits, branches, merges, and push/pull operations
• Comparative overview of GitLab editions (Free vs. Premium vs. Ultimate)
• Typical GitLab use cases and their organizational advantages

Overview of GitLab Features and Architecture

• Guided walkthrough of the GitLab interface and project structure
• Core features: repository management, pipelines, and issue boards
• Introduction to GitLab CI/CD architecture and runner concepts

GitLab Workflow

• Comparing common workflows: GitLab Flow vs. GitFlow
• Managing merge requests, approvals, and review cycles
• Branch management strategies and permission settings

Organizing Projects with Groups and Namespaces

• Understanding GitLab groups, subgroups, and namespace structures
• Managing project visibility and group-level permissions
• Implementing forking strategies and team access controls

Implementing CI/CD in GitLab

• Configuring and registering GitLab Runners
• Utilizing Docker and Kubernetes executors
• Exploring Docker-in-Docker (DIND): advantages and limitations
• Diagnosing and resolving runner issues
• Writing and structuring effective gitlab-ci.yml files
• Leveraging variables and CI secrets
• Designing CI workflows and stages
• Incorporating templates and reusable pipeline definitions
• Configuring triggers, schedules, and manual pipeline controls
• Generating releases and developing tagging strategies

Issue Management and Collaboration

• Creating issues and establishing meaningful links
• Setting up custom issue boards and applying labels
• Tracking progress through milestones

Using GitLab Markdown

• Formatting issues, merge requests, and wikis effectively
• Using Markdown for documentation and incorporating inline visuals
• Utilizing checklists, code blocks, and tables for clarity

GitLab Pages

• Publishing static websites directly from GitLab repositories
• Configuring GitLab Pages with custom domains
• Integrating CI/CD pipelines with Pages deployments

Security and Access Management

• Managing personal access tokens and project tokens
• Securing pipeline secrets and environment variables
• Overview of GitLab’s built-in security scanning features

Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

• Addressing common CI/CD errors and applying fixes
• Analyzing runner logs and debugging failed jobs
• Best practices for ensuring pipeline reliability

Summary and Next Steps

• Course recap and Q&A session
• Final review or evaluation task
• Gathering feedback and wrapping up the course
• Providing resources for continued learning