• Administering organizations
• Administering projects
• Administering users
  • User impersonation
  • User identities
  • User Permission Export
  • Users statistics
  • Add email to user
• User cohorts
• Prevent a user from creating top level groups
• Administering groups
• Administering topics
  • View all topics
  • Search for topics
  • Create a topic
  • Edit a topic
  • Remove a topic
  • Merge topics
• Administering Gitaly servers
• CI/CD section
  • Administering runners
    • Search and filter runners
    • Bulk delete runners
    • Runner attributes
  • Administering Jobs
• Monitoring section
  • System information
  • Background jobs
  • Logs
  • Audit events
  • Statistics

GitLab Admin area

TheAdminarea provides a web UI to manage and configure features of GitLab self-managed instances. If you are an administrator, to access theAdminarea:

• In GitLab 17.3 and later: on the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
• In GitLab 16.7 and later: on the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin area.
• In GitLab 16.1 and later: on the left sidebar, selectSearch or go to,then selectAdmin.
• In GitLab 16.0 and earlier: on the top bar, selectMain menu > Admin.

If the GitLab instance uses Admin Mode, you mustenable Admin Mode for your sessionbefore theAdminbutton is visible.

Administering organizations

You can administer all organizations in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Organizations page.

To access the Organizations page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Organizations.

Administering projects

You can administer all projects in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Projects page.

To access the Projects page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Projects.
3. Select theAll,Private,Internal,orPublictab to list only projects of that criteria.

By default, all projects are listed, in reverse order of when they were last updated. For each project, the following information is listed:

• Name
• Namespace
• Description
• Size, updated every 15 minutes at most

Projects can be edited or deleted.

To edit a project’s name or description:

1. In the Projects overview, next to the project you want to edit, selectEdit.
2. Edit theProject nameorProject description.
3. SelectSave Changes.

To delete a project:

1. In the Projects overview, next to the project you want to delete, selectDelete.

The list of projects can be sorted by:

• Updated date
• Last created
• Name
• Most stars
• Oldest created
• Oldest updated
• Largest repository

A user can choose to hide or show archived projects in the list.

In theFilter by namefield, type the project name you want to find, and GitLab filters them as you type.

To filter only projects in that namespace, select from theNamespacedropdown list.

You can combine the filter options. For example, to list only public projects withscorein their name:

1. Select thePublictab.
2. Enterscorein theFilter by nametext box.

Administering users

You can administer all users in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Users page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Users.

You can use the user search box to search and filter users by:

• Useraccess level.
• Whethertwo-factor authenticationis enabled or disabled.
• Userstate.

You can also type text into the search box. For example, the name of a specific user. This text search is case insensitive, and applies partial matching to name, username and email for self-managed instances.

For each user, the following are listed:

• Username
• Email address
• Project membership count
• Group membership count
• Date of account creation
• Date of last activity

To edit a user, in the user’s row, selectEdit.To delete the user, or delete the user and their contributions, select the cog dropdown list in that user’s row, and select the desired option.

To change the sort order:

1. Select the sort dropdown list.
2. Select the desired order.

By default the sort dropdown list showsName.

User impersonation

An administrator can “impersonate” any other user, including other administrators. This allows the administrator to “see what the user sees,” and take actions on behalf of the user. You can impersonate a user in the following ways:

• Through the UI:
  1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
  2. On the left sidebar, selectOverview > Users.
  3. From the list of users, select a user.
  4. SelectImpersonate.
• With the API, usingimpersonation tokens.

All impersonation activities arecaptured with audit events. By default, impersonation is enabled. GitLab can be configured todisable impersonation.

User identities

When using authentication providers, administrators can see the identities for a user:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Users.
3. From the list of users, select a user.
4. SelectIdentities.

This list shows the user’s identities, including SCIM identities. Administrators can use this information to troubleshoot SCIM-related issues and confirm the identities being used for an account.

User Permission Export

An administrator can export user permissions for all users in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Users page. The export lists direct membership the users have in groups and projects.

The following data is included in the export:

• Username
• Email
• Type
• Path
• Access level (ProjectandGroup)
• Date of last activity. For a list of activities that populate this column, see theUsers API documentation.

Only the first 100,000 user accounts are exported.

Users statistics

TheUsers statisticspage provides an overview of user accounts by role. These statistics are calculated daily, so user changes made since the last update are not reflected.

The following totals are also included:

• Billable users
• Blocked users
• Total users

GitLab billing is based on the number ofBillable users.

Add email to user

You must be an administrator to manually add emails to users:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Users.
3. Locate the user and select them.
4. SelectEdit.
5. InEmail,enter the new email address. This adds the new email address to the user and sets the previous email address to be a secondary.
6. SelectSave changes.

User cohorts

TheCohortstab displays the monthly cohorts of new users and their activities over time.

Prevent a user from creating top level groups

By default, users can create top level groups. To prevent a user from creating a top level group:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Users.
3. Locate the user and select them.
4. SelectEdit.
5. Clear theCan create top level groupcheckbox.
6. SelectSave changes.

It is also possible tolimit which roles can create a subgroup within a group.

Administering groups

You can administer all groups in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Groups page.

To access the Groups page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Groups.

For each group, the page displays their name, description, size, number of projects in the group, number of members, and whether the group is private, internal, or public. To edit a group, in the group’s row, selectEdit.To delete the group, in the group’s row, selectDelete.

To change the sort order, select the sort dropdown list and select the desired order. The default sort order is byLast created.

To search for groups by name, enter your criteria in the search field. The group search is case insensitive, and applies partial matching.

ToCreate a new groupselectNew group.

Administering topics

You can categorize and find similar projects withtopics.

View all topics

To view all topics in the GitLab instance:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.

For each topic, the page displays its name and the number of projects labeled with the topic.

Search for topics

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.
3. In the search box, enter your search criteria. The topic search is case-insensitive and applies partial matching.

Create a topic

To create a topic:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.
3. SelectNew topic.
4. Enter theTopic slug (name)andTopic title.
5. Optional. Enter aDescriptionand add aTopic avatar.
6. SelectSave changes.

The created topics are displayed on theExplore topicspage.

Edit a topic

You can edit a topic’s name, title, description, and avatar at any time. To edit a topic:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.
3. SelectEditin that topic’s row.
4. Edit the topic slug (name), title, description, or avatar.
5. SelectSave changes.

Remove a topic

If you no longer need a topic, you can permanently remove it. To remove a topic:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.
3. To remove a topic, selectRemovein that topic’s row.

Merge topics

You can move all projects assigned to a topic to another topic. The source topic is then permanently deleted. After a merged topic is deleted, you cannot restore it.

To merge topics:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Topics.
3. SelectMerge topics.
4. From theSource topicdropdown list, select the topic you want to merge and remove.
5. From theTarget topicdropdown list, select the topic you want to merge the source topic into.
6. SelectMerge.

Administering Gitaly servers

You can list all Gitaly servers in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’sGitaly servers page. For more details, seeGitaly.

To access theGitaly serverspage:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Gitaly servers.

For each Gitaly server, the following details are listed:

CI/CD section

Administering runners

You can administer all runners in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’sRunnerspage. See GitLab Runnerfor more information.

To access theRunnerspage:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectCI/CD > Runners.

Search and filter runners

To search runners’ descriptions:

1. In theSearch or filter resultstext box, type the description of the runner you want to find.
2. PressEnter.

You can also filter runners by status, type, and tag. To filter:

1. Select a tab or theSearch or filter resultstext box.
2. Select anyType,or filter byStatusorTags.
3. Select or enter your search criteria.

Bulk delete runners

You can delete multiple runners at the same time.

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectOverview > Runners.
3. To the left of the runners you want to delete, select the checkbox. To select all of the runners on the page, select the checkbox above the list.
4. SelectDelete selected.

Runner attributes

For each runner, the following attributes are listed:

You can also edit, pause, or remove each runner.

Administering Jobs

You can administer all jobs in the GitLab instance from theAdminarea’s Jobs page.

To access the Jobs page:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, selectAdmin.
2. SelectCI/CD > Jobs.All jobs are listed, in descending order of job ID.
3. Select theAlltab to list all jobs. Select thePending,Running,orFinished tab to list only jobs of that status.

For each job, the following details are listed:

Monitoring section

The following topics document theMonitoringsection of theAdminarea.

System information

TheSystem informationpage provides the following statistics:

These statistics are updated only when you go to theSystem informationpage, or you refresh the page in your browser.

Background jobs

TheBackground jobspage displays the Sidekiq dashboard. Sidekiq is used by GitLab to perform processing in the background.

The Sidekiq dashboard consists of the following elements:

• A tab per jobs’ status.
• A breakdown of background job statistics.
• A live graph ofProcessedandFailedjobs, with a selectable polling interval.
• An historical graph ofProcessedandFailedjobs, with a selectable time span.
• Redis statistics, including:
  • Version number
  • Uptime, measured in days
  • Number of connections
  • Current memory usage, measured in MB
  • Peak memory usage, measured in MB

Logs

Logview has been removed from theAdminarea dashboard since the logging does not work in multi-node setups and could cause confusion for administrators by displaying partial information.

For multi-node systems we recommend ingesting the logs into services like Elasticsearch and Splunk.

The contents of these log files can be useful when troubleshooting a problem.

For details of these log files and their contents, seeLog system.

The content of each log file is listed in chronological order. To minimize performance issues, a maximum 2000 lines of each log file are shown.

Audit events

TheAudit eventspage lists changes made within the GitLab server. With this information you can control, analyze, and track every change.

Statistics

TheInstance overviewsection of the Dashboard lists the current statistics of the GitLab instance. This information is retrieved using theApplication statistics API.