GitLab email setup: sending via another mail server

Question

By default gitlab has the next configuration in gitlab.yml :

email:
  from: notify@gitlabhq.com
  host: gitlabhq.com

but, I need to specify other variables (host, port, user, password, etc) to use another mail server.

How I do that?

Answer 1

This confused me too. But to change the mail setting you edit them in config/environments/production.rb Just add a config.action_mailer.smtp_settings like a regular rails app.

Answer 2

Now it is totally different in Gitlab 5.2+.

It is in "/home/git/gitlab/config/initializers/smtp_settings.rb.sample" and we just need to follow the instructions in that.

Answer 3

Note: This method was useful for older versions of Gitlab. See the answer of Girish for newer versions.

---

At the end of config/environments/production.rb you can add something like this:

  config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
  config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
      :address => 'yourserver.com',
      :port => 25,
      :domain => 'gitlab.yourserver.com',
      :authentication => :plain,
      :user_name => 'gitlab@yourserver.com',
      :password => 'yourPassword',
      :enable_starttls_auto => true
  }

Refer to the ActionMailer documentation for a more detailed description of possible configurations: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionMailer/Base.html

Note: You may have to edit the file again after a Gitlab update

Answer 4

For Gitlab > 7 omnibus, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb as below and run sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

gitlab_rails['smtp_enable'] = true
gitlab_rails['smtp_address'] = "smtp.server"
gitlab_rails['smtp_port'] = 465
gitlab_rails['smtp_user_name'] = "smtp user"
gitlab_rails['smtp_password'] = "smtp password"
gitlab_rails['smtp_domain'] = "example.com"
gitlab_rails['smtp_authentication'] = "login"
gitlab_rails['smtp_enable_starttls_auto'] = true
gitlab_rails['smtp_openssl_verify_mode'] = 'none'

Source: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/settings/smtp.md

Answer 5

The email:host: configuration in gitlab.yml isn't actually for the mail server/SMTP host. It's used to construct the links to your Gitlab host in the email. We call our gitlab server 'gitlab.local' (and have a DNS entry for it), so our configuration says host: gitlab.local.

This way, when users receive an email from Gitlab, the links will work, instead of linking to http://localhost/, as is the default.

There's some redundant configuration in there. For the git clone URLs to be displayed correctly within Gitlab, you also need to configure web:host: and git_host:host: with the same host name.

web:
  host: gitlab.local
  port: 80
  https: false

email:
   host: gitlab.local
   protocol: http

git_host:
   host: gitlab.local

If you are using HTTPS, change web:https:, web:port:, and email:protocol:.

Answer 6

This is my entries at the end in /config/environment/production.rb and that is working for me.

---

Comment out sendmail options and use external SMTP relays

---

  # #config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :sendmail ## Comment out this

  # Defaults to:

  # # config.action_mailer.sendmail_settings = {

  # #   :location => '/usr/sbin/sendmail',

  # #   :arguments => '-i -t'

  # # }

  config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = true

  config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true

  # # SMTP Settings

  config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp

  config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {

      :address => '10.146.10.90', ## My SMTP Relay/Gateway

      :port => 25, ## SMTP Port

      :domain => 'gitlab.example.com', ## My Domain

      :authentication => :plain, ## Let it be plain as it is inside my LAN

      ##:user_name => 'gitlab@yourserver.com', ## This is not required as long as 

      ##:password => 'yourPassword', ## SMTP Gateway allows anonymous relay

      ##:enable_starttls_auto => true ## In LAN

      ##:user_name => '',

      ##:password => '',

      :enable_starttls_auto => true
  }
end

---

Answer 7

Apparently the location of these settings has changed (a few times) since this question was originally asked. Currently as of 2018-11-02:

The settings are in gitlab.rb as per the official documentation:

https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/smtp.html