GitHub Enterprise
This article explains how to install the Drone server for GitHub Enterprise. The server is packaged as a minimal Docker image distributed on DockerHub.
Step 1 : Preparation
Create an OAuth Application
Create a GitHub OAuth application. The Consumer Key and Consumer Secret are used to authorize access to GitHub resources.


Create a Shared Secret
Create a shared secret to authenticate communication between runners and your central Drone server.
You can use openssl to generate a shared secret:
$ openssl rand -hex 16
bea26a2221fd8090ea38720fc445eca6
Step 2 : Download
The Drone server is distributed as a lightweight Docker image. The image is self-contained and does not have any external dependencies.
$ docker pull drone/drone:1
Step 3 : Configuration
The Drone server is configured using environment variables. This article references a subset of configuration options, defined below. See Configuration for a complete list of configuration options.
- DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
Required string value provides your GitHub oauth Client ID. - DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
Required string value provides your GitHub oauth Client Secret. - DRONE_GITHUB_SERVER
Required url value provides your GitHub Enterprise server address. For example https://github.commpany.com. - DRONE_GIT_ALWAYS_AUTH
Optional boolean value configures Drone to authenticate when cloning public repositories. This should only be enabled when using GitHub Enterprise with private mode enable. - DRONE_RPC_SECRET
Required string value provides the shared secret generated in the previous step. This is used to authenticate the rpc connection between the server and runners. The server and runner must be provided the same secret value. - DRONE_SERVER_HOST
Required string value provides your external hostname or IP address. If using an IP address you may include the port. For example drone.company.com. - DRONE_SERVER_PROTO
Required string value provides your external protocol scheme. This value should be set to http or https. This field defaults to https if you configure ssl or acme.
Step 4 : Start the Server
The server container can be started with the below command. The container is configured through environment variables. For a full list of configuration parameters, please see the configuration reference.
1 docker run \
2 --volume=/var/lib/drone:/data \
3 --env=DRONE_GITHUB_SERVER={{DRONE_GITHUB_SERVER}} \
4 --env=DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID={{DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID}} \
5 --env=DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET={{DRONE_GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET}} \
6 --env=DRONE_RPC_SECRET={{DRONE_RPC_SECRET}} \
7 --env=DRONE_SERVER_HOST={{DRONE_SERVER_HOST}} \
8 --env=DRONE_SERVER_PROTO={{DRONE_SERVER_PROTO}} \
9 --publish=80:80 \
10 --publish=443:443 \
11 --restart=always \
12 --detach=true \
13 --name=drone \
14 drone/drone:1
Step 5 : Install Runners
Once your server is up and running you will need to install runners to execute your build pipelines. See our runner installation documentation for detailed installation instructions.
Further Reading