GitLab Rails Console: 66-Seconds spent going off the rails.

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate Rails Boot Times

The Setup

I run a self-hosted GitLab instance on what can only be described as an absolute unit of a server:

• CPU: Dual Xeon

• RAM: 512GB

• Storage: DELL PERC RAID array with SSDs

• GPU: nVidia GPU (not that Rails gives a shit)

• Purpose: Runs 70B parameter LLMs, handles obscene computational workloads

This machine is a beast. It laughs at mathematical complexity. It scoffs at parallel processing challenges. It can inference neural networks with more parameters than there are stars visible to the naked eye.

The Problem

My Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate expired (as they do every 90 days). After renewing it via CLI, I realized I’d forgotten my GitLab password. No problem, I thought - I’ll just use the Rails console to reset it.

sudo gitlab-rails console -e production

And then I waited.

And waited.

66.82 seconds later, I got a fucking command prompt:

Loading production environment (Rails 7.1.5.1)
irb(main):001>

Let’s Put This In Perspective

What My Server Can Do in 66 Seconds:

• Run inference on a 70B parameter LLM: Hundreds of thousands of tokens generated

• Compile the Linux kernel: Multiple times

• Render complex 3D scenes: Entire animations

• Process gigabytes of data: Through properly parallelized workloads

• Simulate molecular dynamics: Millions of timesteps

• Train smaller neural networks/LLM’s: From scratch

What GitLab’s Rails Console Does in 66 Seconds:

• Loads some Ruby files

• Connects to a database

• Shows me a prompt

That’s it. That’s the fucking list.

The Technical Reality

Here’s what Rails console is doing during those 66 seconds on a Xeon monster:

1. Using exactly ONE core (the others are having a LAN party)

2. Loading the Rails framework (thousands of Ruby files, sequentially)

3. Initializing every GitLab dependency (hundreds of rbGems)

4. Connecting to PostgreSQL (on its own dedicated, blazing fast server)

5. Loading millions of lines of GitLab code (synchronously, because why not)

6. Initializing middleware, routes, models (single-threaded, naturally)

The Insult to Injury:

• Dozens of CPU cores? Uses 1

• 512GB RAM? Loads maybe 500MB

• NVIDIA GPU? Completely ignored

• SSD RAID array? Helps, but can’t overcome Ruby’s architectural decisions from 2004

“But Rails in Production Isn’t Single-Threaded!”

Correct! GitLab in production runs:

• Multiple Puma/Unicorn workers

• Dozens of Sidekiq background processors

• PostgreSQL, Redis, Gitaly, Prometheus, etc.

All of which is irrelevant when you just need to reset a goddamn password and have to wait 66 seconds for the privilege of typing five lines of Ruby.

The Broader Problem

This isn’t just a GitLab problem - it’s a Rails architecture problem. But GitLab has made it worse by building an absolutely massive monolith on top of Rails. The result:

Boot time scales with codebase complexity, not hardware capability.

You could run GitLab’s Rails console on:

• A Raspberry Pi: ~5 minutes

• A beefy workstation: ~90 seconds

• A dual-Xeon enterprise server with 96 cores: ~66 seconds

• A quantum computer: Probably still 45+ seconds because Ruby gonna Ruby

The Comparison That Hurts

My server runs this workload regularly:

Loading 70B parameter model... [2.3s]
Generating 500 tokens... [4.1s]
Total? 6.4 seconds

That’s loading 70 BILLION floating-point parameters into memory and performing trillions of calculations.

Meanwhile, GitLab:

Loading GitLab Rails console... [66.82s]
irb(main):001>
Total? Not fucking acceptable

That’s loading some Ruby files and connecting to a database.

The 70B model runs 10x faster than the Rails console boots. Let that ratio haunt you.

“Just Use the Rake Task!”

Yes, I know:

bash

sudo gitlab-rake “gitlab:password:reset[username]”

This is faster (~20-30 seconds). But it’s still absurd that resetting a password requires booting a significant portion of the Rails framework.

For comparison, here’s how long it takes to reset a password in other systems:

• Linux system user: passwd - 0.1 seconds

• MySQL database: ALTER USER - 0.2 seconds

• Most web applications: Admin panel - 1-2 seconds

• GitLab: 20-66 seconds depending on method

One of these things is not like the others.

The Metaphor

Using GitLab’s Rails console to reset a password is like using a leaky, chum filled canoe to circumnavigate the Earth.

Sure, you’ll get there eventually (if a school of sharks doesn’t eat you first). But:

• It’s unnecessarily slow

• It’s deeply unpleasant

• There are objectively better ways to accomplish this task

• Everyone watching is wondering what went wrong in your decision-making process

Solutions That Don’t Exist (But Should)

What I Want:

bash

gitlab-admin reset-password aimana007
New password: 
Password reset successful. [0.5s]

What I Get:

bash

gitlab-rails console -e production
>>>> [wait 66 seconds]
irb> user = User.find_by(username: ‘aimana007’)
irb> user.password = ‘new_SeCuRe_pass’
irb> user.password_confirmation = ‘new_SeCuRe_pass’
irb> user.save!
irb> exit

Why does a password reset require loading the. Entire. Freaking. Application?

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The Real Questions

1. Why does Rails console boot time scale so poorly with application size?

   • Because it loads everything, not just what you need

2. Why can’t GitLab implement lightweight CLI tools for common admin tasks?

   • They probably could, but it’s not a priority

3. Why doesn’t Rails console parallelize its initialization?

   • Because Rails architecture is fundamentally single-threaded in many core areas

4. Will throwing NVMe drives at this help?

   • Yes, you might cut it down to 30-40 seconds

   • No, that’s still ridiculous

5. Is this a solvable problem?

   • Technically yes

   • Practically, it would require significant architectural changes to Rails and/or GitLab

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The Irony

GitLab is an EXCELLENT product. It’s feature-rich, well-maintained, and genuinely useful. I’m not shitting on GitLab as a whole - I’m shitting on the Rails console boot time, which is a longstanding issue in the Rails ecosystem that GitLab has inherited and magnified.

The irony is that modern hardware has gotten exponentially faster, but Rails console boot times have remained stubbornly linearly slow (or worse).

We can:

• Run trillion-parameter AI models

• Render photo-realistic graphics in real-time

• Simulate quantum systems

• Process petabytes of data

But we cannot load a Ruby application in under 30 seconds, even on enterprise grade server hardware.

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Conclusion

If you’re running GitLab and need to reset a password:

Option 1: Use the rake task (20-30 seconds)

bash

sudo gitlab-rake “gitlab:password:reset[username]”

Option 2: Use Rails console (66+ seconds of existential dread)

bash

sudo gitlab-rails console -e production

Option 3: Write your password down this time, you absolute muppet

Option 4: Set up a password manager like a responsible adult

Option 5: Build a time machine, go back to 2004, and convince DHH to make Rails boot faster

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Postscript: A Message to GitLab Developers

I know you’re aware of this. I know it’s a hard problem. I know Rails architecture makes this difficult.

But please, for the love of all that is holy, consider implementing lightweight CLI tools for common administrative tasks that don’t require booting the entire Rails behemoth.

A simple gitlab-admin command-line utility that connects directly to PostgreSQL for basic CRUD operations would save sysadmins literal hours of cumulative wait time over the lifetime of a GitLab instance.

Or at least optimize the Rails console boot process. Lazy-load modules. Parallelize initialization where possible. Something.

Because right now, waiting 66 seconds to reset a password on a 96-core server feels like a cosmic joke, and I’m not sure who the punchline is.