From Dedicated to Cells: A Technical Analysis
Introduction
This document is intended to be a high-level summary describing how the existing GitLab Dedicated architecture could be used as a foundation for deployment and operating large numbers of GitLab Cell instances.
Additionally, it explains certain decisions in the Dedicated architecture, and why these are beneficial to both GitLab Dedicated and GitLab Cells, and how they differ from other approaches, such as GitLab.com’s IaC, or GET.
Note to readers: Please keep in mind that this is not a critique of GitLab.com’s approach, nor GET’s. It is an explanation of how and why Dedicated differs from these other approaches, and offers some insight into how different requirements led to different design choices.
