---
stage: Monitor
group: Health
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
---

# Working with Prometheus Metrics

## Adding to the library

We strive to support the 2-4 most important metrics for each common system service that supports Prometheus. If you are looking for support for a particular exporter which has not yet been added to the library, additions can be made [to the `common_metrics.yml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/config/prometheus/common_metrics.yml) file.

### Query identifier

The requirement for adding a new metric is to make each query to have an unique identifier which is used to update the metric later when changed:

```yaml
- group: Response metrics (NGINX Ingress)
  metrics:
    - title: "Throughput"
      y_axis:
        name: "Requests / Sec"
        format: "number"
        precision: 2
      queries:
        - id: response_metrics_nginx_ingress_throughput_status_code
          query_range: 'sum(rate(nginx_upstream_responses_total{upstream=~"%{kube_namespace}-%{ci_environment_slug}-.*"}[2m])) by (status_code)'
          unit: req / sec
          label: Status Code
```

### Update existing metrics

After you add or change an existing common metric, you must [re-run the import script](../administration/raketasks/maintenance.md#import-common-metrics) that queries and updates all existing metrics.

Or, you can create a database migration:

```ruby
class ImportCommonMetrics < ActiveRecord::Migration[4.2]
  include Gitlab::Database::MigrationHelpers

  DOWNTIME = false

  def up
    ::Gitlab::DatabaseImporters::CommonMetrics::Importer.new.execute
  end

  def down
    # no-op
  end
end
```

If a query metric (which is identified by `id:`) is removed, it isn't removed from database by default.
You might want to add additional database migration that makes a decision what to do with removed one.
For example: you might be interested in migrating all dependent data to a different metric.

## GitLab Prometheus metrics

GitLab provides [Prometheus metrics](../administration/monitoring/prometheus/gitlab_metrics.md)
to monitor itself.

### Adding a new metric

This section describes how to add new metrics for self-monitoring
([example](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/15440)).

1. Select the [type of metric](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/prometheus-client-mmap#metrics):

   - `Gitlab::Metrics.counter`
   - `Gitlab::Metrics.gauge`
   - `Gitlab::Metrics.histogram`
   - `Gitlab::Metrics.summary`

1. Select the appropriate name for your metric. Refer to the guidelines
   for [Prometheus metric names](https://prometheus.io/docs/practices/naming/#metric-names).
1. Update the list of [GitLab Prometheus metrics](../administration/monitoring/prometheus/gitlab_metrics.md).
1. Trigger the relevant page or code that records the new metric.
1. Check that the new metric appears at `/-/metrics`.