--- stage: none group: unassigned info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments type: reference --- # Usage statistics **(FREE SELF)** GitLab Inc. periodically collects information about your instance in order to perform various actions. All usage statistics are [opt-out](#enable-or-disable-usage-statistics). ## Service Ping Service Ping is a process that collects and sends a weekly payload to GitLab Inc. For more information, see the [Service Ping guide](../../../development/service_ping/index.md). ### Instance-level analytics availability When Service Ping is enabled, GitLab gathers data from other instances and enables certain [instance-level analytics features](../analytics/index.md) that are dependent on Service Ping. ## Version check If enabled, version check informs you if a new version is available and the importance of it through a status. The status displays on the help pages (`/help`) for all signed-in users, and on the Admin Area pages. The statuses are: - Green: You are running the latest version of GitLab. - Orange: An updated version of GitLab is available. - Red: The version of GitLab you are running is vulnerable. You should install the latest version with security fixes as soon as possible. ![Orange version check example](img/update-available.png) GitLab Inc. collects your instance's version and hostname (through the HTTP referer) as part of the version check. No other information is collected. This information is used, among other things, to identify to which versions patches must be backported, making sure active GitLab instances remain secure. If you [disable version check](#enable-or-disable-usage-statistics), this information isn't collected. ### Request flow example The following example shows a basic request/response flow between a self-managed GitLab instance and the GitLab Version Application: ```mermaid sequenceDiagram participant GitLab instance participant Version Application GitLab instance->>Version Application: Is there a version update? loop Version Check Version Application->>Version Application: Record version info end Version Application->>GitLab instance: Response (PNG/SVG) ``` ## Configure your network To send usage statistics to GitLab Inc., you must allow network traffic from your GitLab instance to the IP address `104.196.17.203:443`. If your GitLab instance is behind a proxy, set the appropriate [proxy configuration variables](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/environment-variables.html). ## Enable or disable usage statistics To enable or disable Service Ping and version check: 1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Admin**. 1. On the left sidebar, select **Settings > Metrics and profiling**. 1. Expand **Usage statistics**. 1. Select or clear the **Enable version check** and **Enable Service Ping** checkboxes. 1. Select **Save changes**.