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| stage | group | info |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics | Analytics Instrumentation | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments |
Service Ping development guidelines
- Introduced in GitLab Ultimate 11.2, more statistics.
- In GitLab 14.1, renamed from Usage Ping to Service Ping. In 14.0 and earlier, use the Usage Ping documentation for the Rails commands appropriate to your version.
Service Ping is a GitLab process that collects and sends a weekly payload to GitLab. The payload provides important high-level data that helps our product, support, and sales teams understand how GitLab is used. The data helps to:
- Compare counts month over month (or week over week) to get a rough sense for how an instance uses different product features.
- Collect other facts that help us classify and understand GitLab installations.
- Calculate our stage monthly active users (SMAU), which helps to measure the success of our stages and features.
Service Ping information is not anonymous. It's linked to the instance's hostname, but does not contain project names, usernames, or any other specific data.
Service Ping is enabled by default. However, you can disable it on any self-managed instance. When Service Ping is enabled, GitLab gathers data from the other instances and can show your instance's usage statistics to your users.
Service Ping terminology
We use the following terminology to describe the Service Ping components:
- Service Ping: the process that collects and generates a JSON payload.
- Service Data: the contents of the Service Ping JSON payload. This includes metrics.
- Metrics: primarily made up of row counts for different tables in an instance's database. Each metric has a corresponding metric definition in a YAML file.
- MAU: monthly active users.
- WAU: weekly active users.
Limitations
- Service Ping does not track frontend events things like page views, link clicks, or user sessions.
- Service Ping focuses only on aggregated backend events.
Because of these limitations we recommend you:
- Instrument your products with Snowplow for more detailed analytics on GitLab.com.
- Use Service Ping to track aggregated backend events on self-managed instances.
Service Ping request flow
The following example shows a basic request/response flow between a GitLab instance, the Versions Application, the License Application, Salesforce, the GitLab S3 Bucket, the GitLab Snowflake Data Warehouse, and Sisense:
sequenceDiagram
participant GitLab Instance
participant Versions Application
participant Licenses Application
participant Salesforce
participant S3 Bucket
participant Snowflake DW
participant Sisense Dashboards
GitLab Instance->>Versions Application: Send Service Ping
loop Process usage data
Versions Application->>Versions Application: Parse usage data
Versions Application->>Versions Application: Write to database
Versions Application->>Versions Application: Update license ping time
end
loop Process data for Salesforce
Versions Application-xLicenses Application: Request Zuora subscription id
Licenses Application-xVersions Application: Zuora subscription id
Versions Application-xSalesforce: Request Zuora account id by Zuora subscription id
Salesforce-xVersions Application: Zuora account id
Versions Application-xSalesforce: Usage data for the Zuora account
end
Versions Application->>S3 Bucket: Export Versions database
S3 Bucket->>Snowflake DW: Import data
Snowflake DW->>Snowflake DW: Transform data using dbt
Snowflake DW->>Sisense Dashboards: Data available for querying
Versions Application->>GitLab Instance: DevOps Score (Conversational Development Index)
How Service Ping works
-
The Service Ping cron job is set in Sidekiq to run weekly.
-
When the cron job runs, it calls
Gitlab::Usage::ServicePingReport.for(output: :all_metrics_values). -
Gitlab::Usage::ServicePingReport.for(output: :all_metrics_values)cascades down to ~400+ other counter method calls. -
The response of all methods calls are merged together into a single JSON payload.
-
The JSON payload is then posted to the Versions application If a firewall exception is needed, the required URL depends on several things. If the hostname is
version.gitlab.com, the protocol isTCP, and the port number is443, the required URL is https://version.gitlab.com/. -
In case of an error, it will be reported to the Version application along with following pieces of information:
uuid- GitLab instance unique identifierhostname- GitLab instance hostnameversion- GitLab instance current versionselapsed- Amount of time which passed since Service Ping report process started and moment of error occurrencemessage- Error message
{ "uuid"=>"02333324-1cd7-4c3b-a45b-a4993f05fb1d", "hostname"=>"127.0.0.1", "version"=>"14.7.0-pre", "elapsed"=>0.006946, "message"=>'PG::UndefinedColumn: ERROR: column \"non_existent_attribute\" does not exist\nLINE 1: SELECT COUNT(non_existent_attribute) FROM \"issues\" /*applica...' } -
Finally, the timing metadata information that is used for diagnostic purposes is submitted to the Versions application. It consists of a list of metric identifiers and the time it took to calculate the metrics:
- Introduced in GitLab 15.0 with a flag, enabled by default.
- Generally available in GitLab 15.2. Feature flag
measure_service_ping_metric_collectionremoved.
{
"metadata"=>
{
"uuid"=>"0000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
"metrics"=>
[{"name"=>"version", "time_elapsed"=>1.1811964213848114e-05},
{"name"=>"installation_type", "time_elapsed"=>0.00017242692410945892},
{"name"=>"license_billable_users", "time_elapsed"=>0.009520471096038818},
....
{"name"=>"counts.clusters_platforms_eks",
"time_elapsed"=>0.05638605775311589},
{"name"=>"counts.clusters_platforms_gke",
"time_elapsed"=>0.40995341585949063},
{"name"=>"counts.clusters_platforms_user",
"time_elapsed"=>0.06410990096628666},
{"name"=>"counts.clusters_management_project",
"time_elapsed"=>0.24020783510059118}
]
}
}
On a Geo secondary site
We also collect metrics specific to Geo secondary sites to send with Service Ping.
-
The Geo secondary service ping cron job is set in Sidekiq to run weekly.
-
When the cron job runs, it calls
SecondaryUsageData.update_metrics!. This collects the relevant metrics from Prometheus and stores the data in the Geo secondary tracking database for transmission to the primary site during a Geo node status update. -
Geo node status data is sent with the JSON payload in the process described above. The following is an example of the payload where each object in the array represents a Geo node:
[ { "repository_verification_enabled"=>true, "repositories_replication_enabled"=>true, "repositories_synced_count"=>24, "repositories_failed_count"=>0, "git_fetch_event_count_weekly"=>nil, "git_push_event_count_weekly"=>nil, ... other geo node status fields } ]
Implementing Service Ping
See the implement Service Ping guide.
Example Service Ping payload
The following is example content of the Service Ping payload.
{
"uuid": "0000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
"hostname": "example.com",
"version": "12.10.0-pre",
"installation_type": "omnibus-gitlab",
"active_user_count": 999,
"recorded_at": "2020-04-17T07:43:54.162+00:00",
"edition": "EEU",
"license_md5": "00000000000000000000000000000000",
"license_sha256": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
"license_id": null,
"historical_max_users": 999,
"licensee": {
"Name": "ABC, Inc.",
"Email": "email@example.com",
"Company": "ABC, Inc."
},
"license_user_count": 999,
"license_starts_at": "2020-01-01",
"license_expires_at": "2021-01-01",
"license_plan": "ultimate",
"license_add_ons": {
},
"license_trial": false,
"counts": {
"assignee_lists": 999,
"boards": 999,
"ci_builds": 999,
...
},
"container_registry_enabled": true,
"dependency_proxy_enabled": false,
"gitlab_shared_runners_enabled": true,
"gravatar_enabled": true,
"influxdb_metrics_enabled": true,
"ldap_enabled": false,
"mattermost_enabled": false,
"omniauth_enabled": true,
"prometheus_enabled": false,
"prometheus_metrics_enabled": false,
"reply_by_email_enabled": "incoming+%{key}@incoming.gitlab.com",
"signup_enabled": true,
"projects_with_expiration_policy_disabled": 999,
"projects_with_expiration_policy_enabled": 999,
...
"elasticsearch_enabled": true,
"license_trial_ends_on": null,
"geo_enabled": false,
"git": {
"version": {
"major": 2,
"minor": 26,
"patch": 1
}
},
"gitaly": {
"version": "12.10.0-rc1-93-g40980d40",
"servers": 56,
"clusters": 14,
"filesystems": [
"EXT_2_3_4"
]
},
"gitlab_pages": {
"enabled": true,
"version": "1.17.0"
},
"container_registry_server": {
"vendor": "gitlab",
"version": "2.9.1-gitlab"
},
"database": {
"adapter": "postgresql",
"version": "9.6.15",
"pg_system_id": 6842684531675334351,
"flavor": "Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL"
},
"analytics_unique_visits": {
"g_analytics_contribution": 999,
...
},
"usage_activity_by_stage": {
"configure": {
"project_clusters_enabled": 999,
...
},
"create": {
"merge_requests": 999,
...
},
"manage": {
"events": 999,
...
},
"monitor": {
"clusters": 999,
...
},
"package": {
"projects_with_packages": 999
},
"plan": {
"issues": 999,
...
},
"release": {
"deployments": 999,
...
},
"secure": {
"user_container_scanning_jobs": 999,
...
},
"verify": {
"ci_builds": 999,
...
}
},
"usage_activity_by_stage_monthly": {
"configure": {
"project_clusters_enabled": 999,
...
},
"create": {
"merge_requests": 999,
...
},
"manage": {
"events": 999,
...
},
"monitor": {
"clusters": 999,
...
},
"package": {
"projects_with_packages": 999
},
"plan": {
"issues": 999,
...
},
"release": {
"deployments": 999,
...
},
"secure": {
"user_container_scanning_jobs": 999,
...
},
"verify": {
"ci_builds": 999,
...
}
},
"topology": {
"duration_s": 0.013836685999194742,
"application_requests_per_hour": 4224,
"query_apdex_weekly_average": 0.996,
"failures": [],
"nodes": [
{
"node_memory_total_bytes": 33269903360,
"node_memory_utilization": 0.35,
"node_cpus": 16,
"node_cpu_utilization": 0.2,
"node_uname_info": {
"machine": "x86_64",
"sysname": "Linux",
"release": "4.19.76-linuxkit"
},
"node_services": [
{
"name": "web",
"process_count": 16,
"process_memory_pss": 233349888,
"process_memory_rss": 788220927,
"process_memory_uss": 195295487,
"server": "puma"
},
{
"name": "sidekiq",
"process_count": 1,
"process_memory_pss": 734080000,
"process_memory_rss": 750051328,
"process_memory_uss": 731533312
},
...
],
...
},
...
]
}
}
Notable changes
In GitLab 14.6, flavor was added to try to detect the underlying managed database variant.
Possible values are "Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL", "PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS", "Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL",
"Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server", or "null".
In GitLab 13.5, pg_system_id was added to send the PostgreSQL system identifier.
Export Service Ping data
Rake tasks exist to export Service Ping data in different formats.
- The Rake tasks export the raw SQL queries for
count,distinct_count,sum. - The Rake tasks export the Redis counter class or the line of the Redis block for
redis_usage_data. - The Rake tasks calculate the
alt_usage_datametrics.
In the home directory of your local GitLab installation run the following Rake tasks for the YAML and JSON versions respectively:
# for YAML export of SQL queries
bin/rake gitlab:usage_data:dump_sql_in_yaml
# for JSON export of SQL queries
bin/rake gitlab:usage_data:dump_sql_in_json
# for JSON export of Non SQL data
bin/rake gitlab:usage_data:dump_non_sql_in_json
# You may pipe the output into a file
bin/rake gitlab:usage_data:dump_sql_in_yaml > ~/Desktop/usage-metrics-2020-09-02.yaml
Generate Service Ping
To generate Service Ping, use Teleport or a detached screen session on a remote server.
Triggering
Trigger Service Ping with Teleport
- Request temporary access to the required environment.
- After your approval is issued, access the Rails console.
- Run
GitlabServicePingWorker.new.perform('triggered_from_cron' => false).
Trigger Service Ping with a detached screen session
-
Connect to bastion with agent forwarding:
ssh -A lb-bastion.gprd.gitlab.com -
Create named screen:
screen -S <username>_usage_ping_<date> -
Connect to console host:
ssh $USER-rails@console-01-sv-gprd.c.gitlab-production.internal -
Run:
GitlabServicePingWorker.new.perform('triggered_from_cron' => false) -
To detach from screen, press
ctrl + A,ctrl + D. -
Exit from bastion:
exit -
Get the metrics duration from logs:
Search in Google Console logs for time_elapsed. Query example.
Verification (After approx 30 hours)
Verify with Teleport
- Follow the steps to request a new access to the required environment and connect to the Rails console
- Check the last payload in
raw_usage_datatable:RawUsageData.last.payload - Check the when the payload was sent:
RawUsageData.last.sent_at
Verify using detached screen session
-
Reconnect to bastion:
ssh -A lb-bastion.gprd.gitlab.com -
Find your screen session:
screen -ls -
Attach to your screen session:
screen -x 14226.mwawrzyniak_usage_ping_2021_01_22 -
Check the last payload in
raw_usage_datatable:RawUsageData.last.payload -
Check the when the payload was sent:
RawUsageData.last.sent_at
Skip database write operations
To skip database write operations, DevOps report creation, and storage of usage data payload, pass an optional argument:
skip_db_write:
GitlabServicePingWorker.new.perform('triggered_from_cron' => false, 'skip_db_write' => true)
Monitoring
Service Ping reporting process state is monitored with internal SiSense dashboard.