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

In this guide

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 "License files."

  • You must have Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2016, which support Hyper-V.

  • Most actions needed to create your 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 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).

Based on your seat count, we recommend this hardware configuration:

Seats vCPUs Memory Attached Storage Root Storage
10-500 2 16 GB 100 GB 200 GB
500-3000 4 32 GB 250 GB 200 GB
3000-5000 8 64 GB 500 GB 200 GB
5000-8000 12 72 GB 750 GB 200 GB
8000-10000+ 16 128 GB 1000 GB 200 GB

These are minimum recommendations. More resources may be required depending on your usage, such as user activity and selected integrations.

Note: The root disk can be resized by building a new 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 image

  1. Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise download page.

  2. To download your license file, click Download license.

  3. Click Get the latest release of GitHub Enterprise.

  4. Select GitHub On-premises, then click Hyper-V (VHD).

  5. Click Download for Hyper-V (VHD).

Creating the GitHub Enterprise instance

To create the instance, you'll need to import the GitHub Enterprise 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 seat count, and attach the GitHub Enterprise 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 seat count. For more information, see "New-VHD" in the Microsoft documentation.

    PS C:\> New-VHD -Path PATH_FOR_NEW_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 instance

  1. Copy the VM'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 "License files."

  3. In the Management Console, configure and save your desired settings. For more information, see "Configuring the GitHub Enterprise appliance."

  4. The instance will restart automatically.

  5. Click Visit your instance.

Further reading