Git clone speed very slow

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Git clone speed very slow

Zhang, Yin (SHS DI CT R&D MEQ ISA DOE) 20

We have a local deployed Azure DevOps server. It is not a cloud server. Local deployed in Germany. The performance is good for Europe colleagues. But for China and Indian Users when try clone a Git repo from this Server the speed is very slow. Do you have any suggestion how to improve this problem?

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Suresh Chikkam 1,485 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Zhang, Yin (SHS DI CT R&D MEQ ISA DOE),

Thanks for bringing this up. Since your Azure DevOps Server is hosted locally in Germany, it makes sense that colleagues in Europe are seeing good performance. However, users in China and India facing slow git clone speeds is likely due to the distance and network latency involved in connecting to the server.

One practical solution would be to set up a Git mirror or proxy server closer to those regions. That way, users can clone from a nearby source, which should significantly improve performance. These mirrors can sync with the main server on a regular basis.

You can also suggest shallow clones for users who don’t need the full commit history. Using something like git clone --depth=1 reduces the amount of data they have to pull.

It might also help to look into compression settings in Git, and for some teams, setting up optimized VPN connections or even dedicated network links between regions can make a noticeable difference, especially if access from China is being throttled or filtered.

If your repositories contain large files, using Git LFS in the right way ensures users only download what they actually need, rather than pulling everything.

It could be worth testing the network connection between regions using tools like ping, traceroute, or iperf, just to confirm if the slowness is related to network paths.

Hope it helps!

Please do not forget to click "Accept the answer” and Yes wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

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If you have any other questions or still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.

Suresh Chikkam 1,485 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-02T05:23:38.7066667+00:00

Hi Zhang, Yin (SHS DI CT R&D MEQ ISA DOE),

Following up to see if the above answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes, if you have any further query do let us know.
Zhang, Yin (SHS DI CT R&D MEQ ISA DOE) 20 Reputation points

2025-05-06T01:19:53.8933333+00:00

Any instruction about how to setup a mirror or proxy server for git? What`s most suggested way? And is there any solution on DevOps Server side(like distributed deployment?)?
Suresh Chikkam 1,485 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-06T06:47:54.77+00:00
Hi Zhang, Yin (SHS DI CT R&D MEQ ISA DOE),

Git performance issues for users in other regions like China and India are mostly due to network latency. Unfortunately, Azure DevOps Server doesn’t support distributed Git hosting, and the proxy server feature only applies to TFVC, not Git.

The most effective solution is to set up a Git mirror in those remote locations. You can do this by cloning the main repo using the --mirror flag on a local machine in that region.

git clone --mirror http://<your-devops-server>/<collection>/<project>/_git/<repo-name>

Then, schedule regular syncs with:

cd <repo-name>.git git remote update

To automate this, use a cron job or scheduled task to run it every 15 or 30 minutes.

Once the mirror is kept up to date, you can make it accessible to developers through a local Git server using tools like NGINX, Git daemon, or even platforms like GitLab CE or Gitea, which provide a nice UI and built-in mirroring capabilities.

Hope it helps!

Please do not forget to click "Accept the answer” and Yes wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

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Git clone speed very slow

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