Skip to content

correct documentation for backup encryption key

Sean requested to merge fergusean/gitlab:fix-backup-encryption-key-docs into master

What does this MR do?

The documentation currently indicates that the customer-provided encryption key for backups when publishing to S3 should be base64-encoded. This is incorrect. Per Fog's source, the key is base64-encoded by Fog at the time of upload. Base64-encoding it in the GitLab configuration results in AWS rejecting the upload with the message The secret key was invalid for the specified algorithm.

Opinion: The better solution would be to base64-decode the key before passing it onto Fog, as this would allow keys to contain characters outside the printable range without awkward escape sequences. However, this would be a breaking change, rendering the encryption key in existing configurations invalid.

Related issues

(none identified)

Author's checklist

Review checklist

All reviewers can help ensure accuracy, clarity, completeness, and adherence to the Documentation Guidelines and Style Guide.

1. Primary Reviewer

  • Review by a code reviewer or other selected colleague to confirm accuracy, clarity, and completeness. This can be skipped for minor fixes without substantive content changes.

2. Technical Writer

  • Optional: Technical writer review. If not requested for this MR, must be scheduled post-merge. To request for this MR, assign the writer listed for the applicable DevOps stage.

3. Maintainer

  1. Review by assigned maintainer, who can always request/require the above reviews. Maintainer's review can occur before or after a technical writer review.
  2. Ensure a release milestone is set.
  3. If there has not been a technical writer review, create an issue for one using the Doc Review template.
Edited by Sean

Merge request reports

Loading