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Capstone Project 3 — Deploy a Git Server

Git is the industry-standard version control system used to manage source code, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), documentation, automation scripts, and configuration files. While cloud-hosted Git platforms such as GitHub and GitLab are widely used, many organizations deploy self-hosted Git servers for greater control, security, compliance, and integration with internal infrastructure. In this capstone project, you'll build a secure production-ready Git server using SSH authentication, repository permissions, backups, monitoring, and system hardening.

Project Overview

Objective

Build and secure a production-ready self-hosted Git server for team collaboration.

Skills Covered

  • Linux Administration
  • Git Installation
  • Git Repository Management
  • SSH Authentication
  • User Management
  • File Permissions
  • Backup Strategy
  • Monitoring
  • Logging
  • Firewall Configuration
  • Production Hardening

Estimated Time

5–7 Hours

Difficulty

Beginner → Advanced

Project Architecture

             Developers
                  │
           Git Push / Pull
                  │
              SSH (22)
                  │
        +----------------------+
        |     Git Server       |
        | Ubuntu Linux         |
        +----------------------+
                  │
          Git Repositories
                  │
      +------------------------+
      | /home/git/repos/*.git  |
      +------------------------+

Learning Outcomes

By completing this project, you'll be able to:

  • Deploy a Git server
  • Configure secure SSH access
  • Create Git repositories
  • Manage repository permissions
  • Secure Git administration
  • Configure backups
  • Monitor Git services
  • Validate production readiness

Project Requirements

Hardware

Minimum

  • 2 vCPU
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 20 GB Disk

Recommended

  • 4 vCPU
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 40 GB SSD

Operating System

Choose one:

  • Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
  • Rocky Linux 9
  • AlmaLinux 9

This project uses Ubuntu Server.

Software Stack

  • Ubuntu Server
  • Git
  • OpenSSH Server
  • UFW
  • Fail2Ban
  • rsync
  • auditd

Project Tasks

Phase Task
1 Install Linux
2 Install Git
3 Create Git User
4 Configure SSH
5 Create Repositories
6 Clone & Test Repository
7 Configure Firewall
8 Configure Backups
9 Configure Monitoring
10 Harden Server
11 Validate Git Operations
12 Production Review

Phase 1 — Install Linux

Update packages.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

Verify.

hostnamectl

Phase 2 — Install Git

Install Git.

sudo apt install git

Verify version.

git --version

Configure global settings.

git config --global user.name "Administrator"

git config --global user.email "admin@example.com"

Verify configuration.

git config --list

Phase 3 — Create Git User

Create dedicated Git account.

sudo adduser git

Create repository directory.

sudo mkdir -p /home/git/repos

Assign ownership.

sudo chown -R git:git /home/git/repos

Phase 4 — Configure SSH

Generate SSH key.

ssh-keygen

Copy public key.

ssh-copy-id git@server-ip

Test SSH login.

ssh git@server-ip

Disable password authentication.

PasswordAuthentication no

Restart SSH.

sudo systemctl restart ssh

Phase 5 — Create Repository

Create a bare repository.

cd /home/git/repos

git init --bare demo.git

Verify.

ls -l

Expected:

demo.git

Phase 6 — Clone Repository

Clone repository.

git clone git@server-ip:/home/git/repos/demo.git

Create README.

echo "# Demo Project" > README.md

Commit.

git add .

git commit -m "Initial Commit"

Push.

git push origin main

Phase 7 — Configure Firewall

Install UFW.

sudo apt install ufw

Allow SSH.

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH

Enable.

sudo ufw enable

Verify.

sudo ufw status

Phase 8 — Configure Backups

Backup repositories.

tar -czf git-backup.tar.gz /home/git/repos

Synchronize backups.

rsync -av /home/git/repos /backup

Verify.

ls -lh

Phase 9 — Configure Monitoring

CPU.

top

Memory.

free -h

Disk.

df -h

Processes.

ps aux

SSH service.

systemctl status ssh

Phase 10 — Harden Server

Install Fail2Ban.

sudo apt install fail2ban

Enable.

sudo systemctl enable fail2ban

sudo systemctl start fail2ban

Install auditd.

sudo apt install auditd

Enable.

sudo systemctl enable auditd

sudo systemctl start auditd

Review ports.

ss -tuln

Phase 11 — Validate Git Operations

Clone repository.

git clone git@server-ip:/home/git/repos/demo.git

Push changes.

git push

Pull changes.

git pull

Verify repository.

git log

Phase 12 — Production Review

Validate:

Git.

git --version

SSH.

systemctl status ssh

Firewall.

ufw status

Disk.

df -h

Logs.

journalctl

Backup.

Verify archive exists.

Repository Structure

Example:

/home/git/repos

├── demo.git

├── project1.git

├── terraform.git

├── ansible.git

└── scripts.git

Final Project Checklist

Item Status
Linux Installed ☐
Git Installed ☐
Git User Created ☐
SSH Keys Configured ☐
Git Repository Created ☐
Repository Cloned ☐
Push & Pull Verified ☐
Firewall Enabled ☐
Backup Configured ☐
Monitoring Verified ☐
Server Hardened ☐
Production Validation Completed ☐

Production Perspective

Self-hosted Git servers are commonly used for:

  • Source code management
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Configuration repositories
  • Documentation
  • Automation scripts
  • Air-gapped environments
  • Enterprise software development

Hands-on Lab

Task 1

Install Git.

Task 2

Create Git administrator.

Task 3

Generate SSH keys.

Task 4

Create three bare repositories.

Task 5

Clone one repository.

Task 6

Push initial project.

Task 7

Configure repository backup.

Task 8

Add a second developer account and verify collaborative Git operations using SSH authentication.

Production Best Practices

  • Use SSH key authentication only.
  • Create dedicated Git accounts.
  • Restrict repository permissions.
  • Backup repositories regularly.
  • Enable audit logging.
  • Protect the server using a firewall.
  • Monitor storage utilization.
  • Keep Git updated.
  • Review access logs periodically.
  • Document repository ownership and access policies.

Challenge Tasks

Complete these additional tasks to extend the project:

  • Configure Git hooks for commit validation.
  • Host multiple development teams.
  • Configure repository access using Linux groups.
  • Implement repository backup automation with cron.
  • Mirror repositories to a secondary Git server.
  • Configure automatic security updates.
  • Install Prometheus Node Exporter.
  • Build a repository usage dashboard.
  • Integrate the Git server with Jenkins or GitLab CI.
  • Deploy Git over HTTPS using Nginx and TLS.

Skills Demonstrated

After completing this project, you will have demonstrated proficiency in:

  • Git Administration
  • Linux Security
  • SSH Authentication
  • Repository Management
  • User Management
  • Backup Strategy
  • Monitoring
  • Production Hardening
  • Enterprise Linux Administration

Congratulations!

You have successfully deployed a production-ready Git Server.

Your Git server now provides secure version control for developers while protecting repositories through SSH authentication, proper permissions, backups, monitoring, and system hardening.

This project reflects how many organizations manage internal source code repositories for software development, Infrastructure as Code, and automation.

What's Next?

Capstone Project 4 — Create a Monitoring Server

You'll learn how to:

  • Install Prometheus
  • Configure Node Exporter
  • Install Grafana
  • Build monitoring dashboards
  • Configure alerting
  • Monitor Linux servers
  • Visualize infrastructure health

By the end of the project, you'll have a centralized monitoring server capable of collecting metrics, displaying dashboards, and monitoring the health of multiple Linux systems in a production environment.