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path: root/spec/lib/gitlab/metrics/instrumentation_spec.rb
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* Track method call times/counts as a single metricYorick Peterse2016-06-171-6/+4
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Previously we'd create a separate Metric instance for every method call that would exceed the method call threshold. This is problematic because it doesn't provide us with information to accurately get the _total_ execution time of a particular method. For example, if the method "Foo#bar" was called 4 times with a runtime of ~10 milliseconds we'd end up with 4 different Metric instances. If we were to then get the average/95th percentile/etc of the timings this would be roughly 10 milliseconds. However, the _actual_ total time spent in this method would be around 40 milliseconds. To solve this problem we now create a single Metric instance per method. This Metric instance contains the _total_ real/CPU time and the call count for every instrumented method.
* Instrument private/protected methodsPaco Guzman2016-06-141-2/+54
| | | | | | | By default instrumentation will instrument public, protected and private methods, because usually heavy work is done on private method or at least that’s what facts is showing
* Measure CPU time for instrumented methodsPaco Guzman2016-06-141-2/+2
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* Enable RSpec/NotToNot cop and auto-correct offensesrs-rubocop-nottonotRobert Speicher2016-05-241-4/+4
| | | | Also removes the note from the development/testing.md guide
* Removed tracking of total method execution timestotal-method-timeYorick Peterse2016-05-121-6/+0
| | | | | | | | | | | Because method call timings are inclusive (that is, they include the time of any sub method calls) this would lead to the total method execution time often being far greater than the total transaction time. Because this is incredibly confusing it's best to simply _not_ track the total method execution time, after all it's not that useful to begin with. Fixes gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#17239
* Use Module#prepend for method instrumentationfix-method-instrumentationYorick Peterse2016-04-181-14/+37
| | | | | | | | | By using Module#prepend we can define a Module containing all proxy methods. This removes the need for setting up crazy method alias chains and in turn prevents us from having to deal with all that madness (e.g. methods calling each other recursively). Fixes gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#15281
* Correct arity for instrumented methods w/o argsinstrumentation-signatureYorick Peterse2016-01-251-0/+10
| | | | | | | | | | | | This ensures that an instrumented method that doesn't take arguments reports an arity of 0, instead of -1. If Ruby had a proper method for finding out the required arguments of a method (e.g. Method#required_arguments) this would not have been an issue. Sadly the only two methods we have are Method#parameters and Method#arity, and both are equally painful to use. Fixes gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#12450
* Automatically prefix transaction series namesYorick Peterse2016-01-041-1/+1
| | | | | This ensures Rails and Sidekiq transactions are split into the series "rails_transactions" and "sidekiq_transactions" respectively.
* Track total method call times per transactionYorick Peterse2016-01-041-0/+6
| | | | | This makes it easier to see where time is spent without having to aggregate all the individual points in the method_calls series.
* Use separate series for Rails/Sidekiq transactionsYorick Peterse2015-12-311-1/+1
| | | | This removes the need for tagging all metrics with a "process_type" tag.
* Support for instrumenting class hierarchiesYorick Peterse2015-12-171-0/+33
| | | | This will be used to (for example) instrument all ActiveRecord models.
* Only track method calls above a certain thresholdYorick Peterse2015-12-171-0/+24
| | | | | | | This ensures we don't end up wasting resources by tracking method calls that only take a few microseconds. By default the threshold is 10 milliseconds but this can be changed using the gitlab.yml configuration file.
* Allow filtering of what methods to instrumentYorick Peterse2015-12-171-0/+16
| | | | | This makes it possible to determine if a method should be instrumented or not using a block.
* Only instrument methods defined directlyYorick Peterse2015-12-171-0/+26
| | | | | | | | | | When using instrument_methods/instrument_instance_methods we only want to instrument methods defined directly in a class, not those included via mixins (e.g. whatever RSpec throws in during development). In case an externally included method _has_ to be instrumented we can still use the regular instrument_method/instrument_instance_method methods.
* Added Instrumentation.configureYorick Peterse2015-12-171-1/+9
| | | | | This makes it easier to instrument multiple modules without having to type the full namespace over and over again.
* Methods for instrumenting multiple methodsYorick Peterse2015-12-171-5/+29
| | | | | | The methods Instrumentation.instrument_methods and Instrumentation.instrument_instance_methods can be used to instrument all methods of a module at once.
* Use custom code for instrumenting method callsYorick Peterse2015-12-171-6/+16
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The use of ActiveSupport would slow down instrumented method calls by about 180x due to: 1. ActiveSupport itself not being the fastest thing on the planet 2. caller_locations() having quite some overhead The use of caller_locations() has been removed because it's not _that_ useful since we already know the full namespace of receivers and the names of the called methods. The use of ActiveSupport has been replaced with some custom code that's generated using eval() (which can be quite a bit faster than using define_method). This new setup results in instrumented methods only being about 35-40x slower (compared to non instrumented methods).
* Use string evaluation for method instrumentationYorick Peterse2015-12-171-2/+4
| | | | | This is faster than using define_method since we don't have to keep block bindings around.
* Storing of application metrics in InfluxDBYorick Peterse2015-12-171-0/+91
This adds the ability to write application metrics (e.g. SQL timings) to InfluxDB. These metrics can in turn be visualized using Grafana, or really anything else that can read from InfluxDB. These metrics can be used to track application performance over time, between different Ruby versions, different GitLab versions, etc. == Transaction Metrics Currently the following is tracked on a per transaction basis (a transaction is a Rails request or a single Sidekiq job): * Timings per query along with the raw (obfuscated) SQL and information about what file the query originated from. * Timings per view along with the path of the view and information about what file triggered the rendering process. * The duration of a request itself along with the controller/worker class and method name. * The duration of any instrumented method calls (more below). == Sampled Metrics Certain metrics can't be directly associated with a transaction. For example, a process' total memory usage is unrelated to any running transactions. While a transaction can result in the memory usage going up there's no accurate way to determine what transaction is to blame, this becomes especially problematic in multi-threaded environments. To solve this problem there's a separate thread that takes samples at a fixed interval. This thread (using the class Gitlab::Metrics::Sampler) currently tracks the following: * The process' total memory usage. * The number of file descriptors opened by the process. * The amount of Ruby objects (using ObjectSpace.count_objects). * GC statistics such as timings, heap slots, etc. The default/current interval is 15 seconds, any smaller interval might put too much pressure on InfluxDB (especially when running dozens of processes). == Method Instrumentation While currently not yet used methods can be instrumented to track how long they take to run. Unlike the likes of New Relic this doesn't require modifying the source code (e.g. including modules), it all happens from the outside. For example, to track `User.by_login` we'd add the following code somewhere in an initializer: Gitlab::Metrics::Instrumentation. instrument_method(User, :by_login) to instead instrument an instance method: Gitlab::Metrics::Instrumentation. instrument_instance_method(User, :save) Instrumentation for either all public model methods or a few crucial ones will be added in the near future, I simply haven't gotten to doing so just yet. == Configuration By default metrics are disabled. This means users don't have to bother setting anything up if they don't want to. Metrics can be enabled by editing one's gitlab.yml configuration file (see config/gitlab.yml.example for example settings). == Writing Data To InfluxDB Because InfluxDB is still a fairly young product I expect the worse. Data loss, unexpected reboots, the database not responding, you name it. Because of this data is _not_ written to InfluxDB directly, instead it's queued and processed by Sidekiq. This ensures that users won't notice anything when InfluxDB is giving trouble. The metrics worker can be started in a standalone manner as following: bundle exec sidekiq -q metrics The corresponding class is called MetricsWorker.