GitLab Prometheus metrics
Note: Available since Omnibus GitLab 9.3. Currently experimental. For installations from source you'll have to configure it yourself.
To enable the GitLab Prometheus metrics:
- Log into GitLab as an administrator, and go to the Admin area.
- Click on the gear, then click on Settings.
- Find the
Metrics - Prometheussection, and clickEnable Prometheus Metrics - Restart GitLab for the changes to take effect
Collecting the metrics
GitLab monitors its own internal service metrics, and makes them available at the
/-/metrics endpoint. Unlike other Prometheus exporters, in order to access
it, the client IP needs to be included in a whitelist.
Currently the embedded Prometheus server is not automatically configured to collect metrics from this endpoint. We recommend setting up another Prometheus server, because the embedded server configuration is overwritten once every reconfigure of GitLab. In the future this will not be required.
Metrics available
In this experimental phase, only a few metrics are available:
| Metric | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| db_ping_timeout | Gauge | Whether or not the last database ping timed out |
| db_ping_success | Gauge | Whether or not the last database ping succeeded |
| db_ping_latency_seconds | Gauge | Round trip time of the database ping |
| filesystem_access_latency_seconds | Gauge | Latency in accessing a specific filesystem |
| filesystem_accessible | Gauge | Whether or not a specific filesystem is accessible |
| filesystem_write_latency_seconds | Gauge | Write latency of a specific filesystem |
| filesystem_writable | Gauge | Whether or not the filesystem is writable |
| filesystem_read_latency_seconds | Gauge | Read latency of a specific filesystem |
| filesystem_readable | Gauge | Whether or not the filesystem is readable |
| http_requests_total | Counter | Rack request count |
| http_request_duration_seconds | Histogram | HTTP response time from rack middleware |
| rack_uncaught_errors_total | Counter | Rack connections handling uncaught errors count |
| redis_ping_timeout | Gauge | Whether or not the last redis ping timed out |
| redis_ping_success | Gauge | Whether or not the last redis ping succeeded |
| redis_ping_latency_seconds | Gauge | Round trip time of the redis ping |
| user_session_logins_total | Counter | Counter of how many users have logged in |
Metrics shared directory
GitLab's Prometheus client requires a directory to store metrics data shared between multi-process services. Those files are shared among all instances running under Unicorn server. The directory needs to be accessible to all running Unicorn's processes otherwise metrics will not function correctly.
For best performance its advisable that this directory will be located in tmpfs.
Its location is configured using environment variable prometheus_multiproc_dir.
If GitLab is installed using Omnibus and tmpfs is available then metrics
directory will be automatically configured.