Installing GitHub Enterprise Server on Hyper-V

In this guide

• Prerequisites
• Hardware considerations
• Downloading the GitHub Enterprise Server image
• Creating the GitHub Enterprise Server instance
• Configuring the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

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 "About license files."

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

• Most actions needed to create your virtual machine (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 Server 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).

We recommend different hardware configurations based on the number of seats used in your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

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

Downloading the GitHub Enterprise Server image

1. Navigate to the GitHub Enterprise Server download page.

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

3. Click Get the latest release of GitHub Enterprise Server.

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

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

Creating the GitHub Enterprise Server instance

To create the instance, you'll need to import the GitHub Enterprise Server 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 Server 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. Replace PATH_TO_DATA_DISK with the path to the location where you create the disk. For more information, see "New-VHD" in the Microsoft documentation.

   PS C:\> New-VHD -Path PATH_TO_DATA_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 Server instance

1. Copy the virtual machine'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 "About license files."

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

4. The instance will restart automatically.

5. Click Visit your instance.

Further reading

• "System overview"