Log system

GitLab has an advanced log system where everything is logged, so you can analyze your instance using various system log files. In addition to system log files, GitLab Enterprise Edition provides Audit Events. Find more about them in Audit Events documentation.

System log files are typically plain text in a standard log file format. This guide talks about how to read and use these system log files.

Read more about how to customise logging on Omnibus GitLab installations including adjusting log retention, log forwarding, switching logs from JSON to plain text logging, and more.

production_json.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/production_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/production_json.log for installations from source. When GitLab is running in an environment other than production, the corresponding log file is shown here.

It contains a structured log for Rails controller requests received from GitLab, thanks to Lograge. Note that requests from the API are logged to a separate file in api_json.log.

Each line contains a JSON line that can be ingested by services like Elasticsearch and Splunk. Line breaks were added to examples for legibility: 

{
  "method":"GET",
  "path":"/gitlab/gitlab-foss/issues/1234",
  "format":"html",
  "controller":"Projects::IssuesController",
  "action":"show",
  "status":200,
  "time":"2017-08-08T20:15:54.821Z",
  "params":[{"key":"param_key","value":"param_value"}],
  "remote_ip":"18.245.0.1",
  "user_id":1,
  "username":"admin",
  "queue_duration_s":0.0,
  "gitaly_calls":16,
  "gitaly_duration_s":0.16,
  "redis_calls":115,
  "redis_duration_s":0.13,
  "redis_read_bytes":1507378,
  "redis_write_bytes":2920,
  "correlation_id":"O1SdybnnIq7",
  "cpu_s":17.50,
  "db_duration_s":0.08,
  "view_duration_s":2.39,
  "duration_s":20.54
}

This example was a GET request for a specific issue. Each line also contains performance data, with times in seconds:

  1. duration_s: total time taken to retrieve the request
  2. queue_duration_s: total time that the request was queued inside GitLab Workhorse
  3. view_duration_s: total time taken inside the Rails views
  4. db_duration_s: total time to retrieve data from PostgreSQL
  5. cpu_s: total time spent on CPU
  6. gitaly_duration_s: total time taken by Gitaly calls
  7. gitaly_calls: total number of calls made to Gitaly
  8. redis_calls: total number of calls made to Redis
  9. redis_duration_s: total time to retrieve data from Redis
  10. redis_read_bytes: total bytes read from Redis
  11. redis_write_bytes: total bytes written to Redis
  12. redis_<instance>_calls: total number of calls made to a Redis instance
  13. redis_<instance>_duration_s: total time to retrieve data from a Redis instance
  14. redis_<instance>_read_bytes: total bytes read from a Redis instance
  15. redis_<instance>_write_bytes: total bytes written to a Redis instance

User clone and fetch activity using HTTP transport appears in this log as action: git_upload_pack.

In addition, the log contains the originating IP address, (remote_ip), the user’s ID (user_id), and username (username).

Some endpoints such as /search may make requests to Elasticsearch if using Advanced Search. These will additionally log elasticsearch_calls and elasticsearch_call_duration_s, which correspond to:

  1. elasticsearch_calls: total number of calls to Elasticsearch
  2. elasticsearch_duration_s: total time taken by Elasticsearch calls

ActionCable connection and subscription events are also logged to this file and they follow the same format above. The method, path, and format fields are not applicable, and are always empty. The ActionCable connection or channel class is used as the controller. 

{
  "method":{},
  "path":{},
  "format":{},
  "controller":"IssuesChannel",
  "action":"subscribe",
  "status":200,
  "time":"2020-05-14T19:46:22.008Z",
  "params":[{"key":"project_path","value":"gitlab/gitlab-foss"},{"key":"iid","value":"1"}],
  "remote_ip":"127.0.0.1",
  "user_id":1,
  "username":"admin",
  "ua":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:76.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/76.0",
  "correlation_id":"jSOIEynHCUa",
  "duration_s":0.32566
}
Note: Starting with GitLab 12.5, if an error occurs, an exception field is included with class, message, and backtrace. Previous versions included an error field instead of exception.class and exception.message. For example:
{
  "method": "GET",
  "path": "/admin",
  "format": "html",
  "controller": "Admin::DashboardController",
  "action": "index",
  "status": 500,
  "time": "2019-11-14T13:12:46.156Z",
  "params": [],
  "remote_ip": "127.0.0.1",
  "user_id": 1,
  "username": "root",
  "ua": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:70.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/70.0",
  "queue_duration": 274.35,
  "correlation_id": "KjDVUhNvvV3",
  "queue_duration_s":0.0,
  "gitaly_calls":16,
  "gitaly_duration_s":0.16,
  "redis_calls":115,
  "redis_duration_s":0.13,
  "correlation_id":"O1SdybnnIq7",
  "cpu_s":17.50,
  "db_duration_s":0.08,
  "view_duration_s":2.39,
  "duration_s":20.54
  "exception.class": "NameError",
  "exception.message": "undefined local variable or method `adsf' for #<Admin::DashboardController:0x00007ff3c9648588>",
  "exception.backtrace": [
    "app/controllers/admin/dashboard_controller.rb:11:in `index'",
    "ee/app/controllers/ee/admin/dashboard_controller.rb:14:in `index'",
    "ee/lib/gitlab/ip_address_state.rb:10:in `with'",
    "ee/app/controllers/ee/application_controller.rb:43:in `set_current_ip_address'",
    "lib/gitlab/session.rb:11:in `with_session'",
    "app/controllers/application_controller.rb:450:in `set_session_storage'",
    "app/controllers/application_controller.rb:444:in `set_locale'",
    "ee/lib/gitlab/jira/middleware.rb:19:in `call'"
  ]
}

production.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/production.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/production.log for installations from source. (When GitLab is running in an environment other than production, the corresponding log file is shown here.)

It contains information about all performed requests. You can see the URL and type of request, IP address, and what parts of code were involved to service this particular request. Also, you can see all SQL requests performed, and how much time each took. This task is more useful for GitLab contributors and developers. Use part of this log file when you’re reporting bugs. For example: 

Started GET "/gitlabhq/yaml_db/tree/master" for 168.111.56.1 at 2015-02-12 19:34:53 +0200
Processing by Projects::TreeController#show as HTML
  Parameters: {"project_id"=>"gitlabhq/yaml_db", "id"=>"master"}

  ... [CUT OUT]

  Namespaces"."created_at" DESC, "namespaces"."id" DESC LIMIT 1 [["id", 26]]
  CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT  "members".* FROM "members"  WHERE "members"."source_type" = 'Project' AND "members"."type" IN ('ProjectMember') AND "members"."source_id" = $1 AND "members"."source_type" = $2 AND "members"."user_id" = 1  ORDER BY "members"."created_at" DESC, "members"."id" DESC LIMIT 1  [["source_id", 18], ["source_type", "Project"]]
  CACHE (0.0ms) SELECT  "members".* FROM "members"  WHERE "members"."source_type" = 'Project' AND "members".
  (1.4ms) SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "merge_requests"  WHERE "merge_requests"."target_project_id" = $1 AND ("merge_requests"."state" IN ('opened','reopened')) [["target_project_id", 18]]
  Rendered layouts/nav/_project.html.haml (28.0ms)
  Rendered layouts/_collapse_button.html.haml (0.2ms)
  Rendered layouts/_flash.html.haml (0.1ms)
  Rendered layouts/_page.html.haml (32.9ms)
Completed 200 OK in 166ms (Views: 117.4ms | ActiveRecord: 27.2ms)

In this example, the server processed an HTTP request with URL /gitlabhq/yaml_db/tree/master from IP 168.111.56.1 at 2015-02-12 19:34:53 +0200. The request was processed by Projects::TreeController.

api_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 10.0.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/api_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages, or in /home/git/gitlab/log/api_json.log for installations from source.

It helps you see requests made directly to the API. For example: 

{
  "time":"2018-10-29T12:49:42.123Z",
  "severity":"INFO",
  "duration":709.08,
  "db":14.59,
  "view":694.49,
  "status":200,
  "method":"GET",
  "path":"/api/v4/projects",
  "params":[{"key":"action","value":"git-upload-pack"},{"key":"changes","value":"_any"},{"key":"key_id","value":"secret"},{"key":"secret_token","value":"[FILTERED]"}],
  "host":"localhost",
  "remote_ip":"::1",
  "ua":"Ruby",
  "route":"/api/:version/projects",
  "user_id":1,
  "username":"root",
  "queue_duration":100.31,
  "gitaly_calls":30,
  "gitaly_duration":5.36
}

This entry shows an internal endpoint accessed to check whether an associated SSH key can download the project in question via a git fetch or git clone. In this example, we see:

  1. duration: total time in milliseconds taken to retrieve the request
  2. queue_duration: total time in milliseconds that the request was queued inside GitLab Workhorse
  3. method: The HTTP method used to make the request
  4. path: The relative path of the query
  5. params: Key-value pairs passed in a query string or HTTP body. Sensitive parameters (such as passwords and tokens) are filtered out.
  6. ua: The User-Agent of the requester

application.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/application.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/application.log for installations from source.

It helps you discover events happening in your instance such as user creation, project removing and so on. For example: 

October 06, 2014 11:56: User "Administrator" (admin@example.com) was created
October 06, 2014 11:56: Documentcloud created a new project "Documentcloud / Underscore"
October 06, 2014 11:56: Gitlab Org created a new project "Gitlab Org / Gitlab Ce"
October 07, 2014 11:25: User "Claudie Hodkiewicz" (nasir_stehr@olson.co.uk)  was removed
October 07, 2014 11:25: Project "project133" was removed

application_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.7.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/application_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/application_json.log for installations from source.

It contains the JSON version of the logs in application.log like the example below: 

{
  "severity":"INFO",
  "time":"2020-01-14T13:35:15.466Z",
  "correlation_id":"3823a1550b64417f9c9ed8ee0f48087e",
  "message":"User \"Administrator\" (admin@example.com) was created"
}
{
  "severity":"INFO",
  "time":"2020-01-14T13:35:15.466Z",
  "correlation_id":"78e3df10c9a18745243d524540bd5be4",
  "message":"Project \"project133\" was removed"
}

integrations_json.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/integrations_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/integrations_json.log for installations from source.

It contains information about integrations activities such as Jira, Asana, and Irker services. It uses JSON format like the example below: 

{
  "severity":"ERROR",
  "time":"2018-09-06T14:56:20.439Z",
  "service_class":"JiraService",
  "project_id":8,
  "project_path":"h5bp/html5-boilerplate",
  "message":"Error sending message",
  "client_url":"http://jira.gitlap.com:8080",
  "error":"execution expired"
}
{
  "severity":"INFO",
  "time":"2018-09-06T17:15:16.365Z",
  "service_class":"JiraService",
  "project_id":3,
  "project_path":"namespace2/project2",
  "message":"Successfully posted",
  "client_url":"http://jira.example.com"
}

kubernetes.log

Introduced in GitLab 11.6.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/kubernetes.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/kubernetes.log for installations from source.

It logs information related to the Kubernetes Integration including errors during installing cluster applications on your managed Kubernetes clusters.

Each line contains a JSON line that can be ingested by services like Elasticsearch and Splunk. Line breaks have been added to the following example for clarity: 

{
  "severity":"ERROR",
  "time":"2018-11-23T15:14:54.652Z",
  "exception":"Kubeclient::HttpError",
  "error_code":401,
  "service":"Clusters::Applications::CheckInstallationProgressService",
  "app_id":14,
  "project_ids":[1],
  "group_ids":[],
  "message":"Unauthorized"
}
{
  "severity":"ERROR",
  "time":"2018-11-23T15:42:11.647Z",
  "exception":"Kubeclient::HttpError",
  "error_code":null,
  "service":"Clusters::Applications::InstallService",
  "app_id":2,
  "project_ids":[19],
  "group_ids":[],
  "message":"SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=error: certificate verify failed (unable to get local issuer certificate)"
}

git_json.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/git_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/git_json.log for installations from source.

Note: After 12.2, this file was renamed from githost.log to git_json.log and stored in JSON format.

GitLab has to interact with Git repositories, but in some rare cases something can go wrong, and in this case you may need know what exactly happened. This log file contains all failed requests from GitLab to Git repositories. In the majority of cases this file will be useful for developers only. For example: 

{
   "severity":"ERROR",
   "time":"2019-07-19T22:16:12.528Z",
   "correlation_id":"FeGxww5Hj64",
   "message":"Command failed [1]: /usr/bin/git --git-dir=/Users/vsizov/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/tmp/tests/gitlab-satellites/group184/gitlabhq/.git --work-tree=/Users/vsizov/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/tmp/tests/gitlab-satellites/group184/gitlabhq merge --no-ff -mMerge branch 'feature_conflict' into 'feature' source/feature_conflict\n\nerror: failed to push some refs to '/Users/vsizov/gitlab-development-kit/repositories/gitlabhq/gitlab_git.git'"
}

audit_json.log

Note: Most log entries only exist in GitLab Starter, however a few exist in GitLab Core.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/audit_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/audit_json.log for installations from source.

Changes to group or project settings are logged to this file. For example: 

{
  "severity":"INFO",
  "time":"2018-10-17T17:38:22.523Z",
  "author_id":3,
  "entity_id":2,
  "entity_type":"Project",
  "change":"visibility",
  "from":"Private",
  "to":"Public",
  "author_name":"John Doe4",
  "target_id":2,
  "target_type":"Project",
  "target_details":"namespace2/project2"
}

Sidekiq Logs

For Omnibus installations, some Sidekiq logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/sidekiq/current and as follows.

sidekiq.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sidekiq.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq.log for installations from source.

GitLab uses background jobs for processing tasks which can take a long time. All information about processing these jobs are written down to this file. For example: 

2014-06-10T07:55:20Z 2037 TID-tm504 ERROR: /opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/htdocs/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/redis-3.0.7/lib/redis/client.rb:228:in `read'
2014-06-10T18:18:26Z 14299 TID-55uqo INFO: Booting Sidekiq 3.0.0 with redis options {:url=>"redis://localhost:6379/0", :namespace=>"sidekiq"}

Instead of the format above, you can opt to generate JSON logs for Sidekiq. For example: 

{
  "severity":"INFO",
  "time":"2018-04-03T22:57:22.071Z",
  "queue":"cronjob:update_all_mirrors",
  "args":[],
  "class":"UpdateAllMirrorsWorker",
  "retry":false,
  "queue_namespace":"cronjob",
  "jid":"06aeaa3b0aadacf9981f368e",
  "created_at":"2018-04-03T22:57:21.930Z",
  "enqueued_at":"2018-04-03T22:57:21.931Z",
  "pid":10077,
  "message":"UpdateAllMirrorsWorker JID-06aeaa3b0aadacf9981f368e: done: 0.139 sec",
  "job_status":"done",
  "duration":0.139,
  "completed_at":"2018-04-03T22:57:22.071Z",
  "db_duration":0.05,
  "db_duration_s":0.0005,
  "gitaly_duration":0,
  "gitaly_calls":0
}

For Omnibus GitLab installations, add the configuration option: 

sidekiq['log_format'] = 'json'

For source installations, edit the gitlab.yml and set the Sidekiq log_format configuration option: 

  ## Sidekiq
  sidekiq:
    log_format: json

sidekiq_client.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.9.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sidekiq_client.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq_client.log for installations from source.

This file contains logging information about jobs before Sidekiq starts processing them, such as before being enqueued.

This log file follows the same structure as sidekiq.log, so it will be structured as JSON if you’ve configured this for Sidekiq as mentioned above.

gitlab-shell.log

GitLab Shell is used by GitLab for executing Git commands and provide SSH access to Git repositories.

For GitLab versions 12.10 and up

For GitLab version 12.10 and later, there are 2 gitlab-shell.log files. Information containing git-{upload-pack,receive-pack} requests lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log. Information about hooks to GitLab Shell from Gitaly lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/gitlab-shell.log.

Example log entries for /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log: 

{
  "duration_ms": 74.104,
  "level": "info",
  "method": "POST",
  "msg": "Finished HTTP request",
  "time": "2020-04-17T20:28:46Z",
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v4/internal/allowed"
}
{
  "command": "git-upload-pack",
  "git_protocol": "",
  "gl_project_path": "root/example",
  "gl_repository": "project-1",
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "executing git command",
  "time": "2020-04-17T20:28:46Z",
  "user_id": "user-1",
  "username": "root"
}

Example log entries for /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/gitlab-shell.log: 

{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v4/internal/allowed",
  "duration": 0.058012959,
  "gitaly_embedded": true,
  "pid": 16636,
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "finished HTTP request",
  "time": "2020-04-17T20:29:08+00:00"
}
{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v4/internal/pre_receive",
  "duration": 0.031022552,
  "gitaly_embedded": true,
  "pid": 16636,
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "finished HTTP request",
  "time": "2020-04-17T20:29:08+00:00"
}

For GitLab versions 12.5 through 12.9

For GitLab 12.5 to 12.9, this file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/gitlab-shell.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitaly/gitlab-shell.log for installations from source.

Example log entries: 

{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v4/internal/post_receive",
  "duration": 0.031809164,
  "gitaly_embedded": true,
  "pid": 27056,
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "finished HTTP request",
  "time": "2020-04-17T16:24:38+00:00"
}

For GitLab 12.5 and earlier

For GitLab 12.5 and earlier, the file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log.

Example log entries: 

I, [2015-02-13T06:17:00.671315 #9291]  INFO -- : Adding project root/example.git at </var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root/dcdcdcdcd.git>.
I, [2015-02-13T06:17:00.679433 #9291]  INFO -- : Moving existing hooks directory and symlinking global hooks directory for /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories/root/example.git.

User clone/fetch activity using SSH transport appears in this log as executing git command <gitaly-upload-pack....

Gitaly Logs

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/current and is produced by runit. runit is packaged with Omnibus GitLab and a brief explanation of its purpose is available in the Omnibus GitLab documentation. Log files are rotated, renamed in Unix timestamp format, and gzip-compressed (like @1584057562.s).

grpc.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/grpc.log for Omnibus GitLab packages. Native gRPC logging used by Gitaly.

Puma Logs

puma_stdout.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/puma/puma_stdout.log for Omnibus GitLab packages, and /home/git/gitlab/log/puma_stdout.log for installations from source.

puma_stderr.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/puma/puma_stderr.log for Omnibus GitLab packages, or in /home/git/gitlab/log/puma_stderr.log for installations from source.

Unicorn Logs

Note: Starting with GitLab 13.0, Puma is the default web server used in GitLab all-in-one package based installations as well as GitLab Helm chart deployments.

unicorn_stdout.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/unicorn/unicorn_stdout.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/unicorn_stdout.log for for installations from source.

unicorn_stderr.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/unicorn/unicorn_stderr.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/unicorn_stderr.log for for installations from source.

These logs contain all information about the state of Unicorn processes at any given time. 

I, [2015-02-13T06:14:46.680381 #9047]  INFO -- : Refreshing Gem list
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.931002 #9047]  INFO -- : listening on addr=127.0.0.1:8080 fd=12
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.931381 #9047]  INFO -- : listening on addr=/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sockets/gitlab.socket fd=13
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.936638 #9047]  INFO -- : master process ready
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.946504 #9092]  INFO -- : worker=0 spawned pid=9092
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.946943 #9092]  INFO -- : worker=0 ready
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.947892 #9094]  INFO -- : worker=1 spawned pid=9094
I, [2015-02-13T06:14:56.948181 #9094]  INFO -- : worker=1 ready
W, [2015-02-13T07:16:01.312916 #9094]  WARN -- : #<Unicorn::HttpServer:0x0000000208f618>: worker (pid: 9094) exceeds memory limit (320626688 bytes > 247066940 bytes)
W, [2015-02-13T07:16:01.313000 #9094]  WARN -- : Unicorn::WorkerKiller send SIGQUIT (pid: 9094) alive: 3621 sec (trial 1)
I, [2015-02-13T07:16:01.530733 #9047]  INFO -- : reaped #<Process::Status: pid 9094 exit 0> worker=1
I, [2015-02-13T07:16:01.534501 #13379]  INFO -- : worker=1 spawned pid=13379
I, [2015-02-13T07:16:01.534848 #13379]  INFO -- : worker=1 ready

repocheck.log

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/repocheck.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/repocheck.log for installations from source.

It logs information whenever a repository check is run on a project.

importer.log

Introduced in GitLab 11.3.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/importer.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/importer.log for installations from source.

It logs the progress of the import process.

exporter.log

Introduced in GitLab 13.1.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/exporter.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/exporter.log for installations from source.

It logs the progress of the export process.

auth.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.0.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/auth.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/auth.log for installations from source.

This log records:

Note: In GitLab versions 12.3 and greater, user ID and username are also recorded on this log, if available.

graphql_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.0.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/graphql_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/graphql_json.log for installations from source.

GraphQL queries are recorded in that file. For example: 

{"query_string":"query IntrospectionQuery{__schema {queryType { name },mutationType { name }}}...(etc)","variables":{"a":1,"b":2},"complexity":181,"depth":1,"duration_s":7}

migrations.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.3.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/migrations.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/migrations.log for installations from source.

mail_room_json.log (default)

Introduced in GitLab 12.6.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/mailroom/current for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/mail_room_json.log for installations from source.

This structured log file records internal activity in the mail_room gem. Its name and path are configurable, so the name and path may not match the above.

Reconfigure Logs

Reconfigure log files live in /var/log/gitlab/reconfigure for Omnibus GitLab packages. Installations from source don’t have reconfigure logs. A reconfigure log is populated whenever gitlab-ctl reconfigure is run manually or as part of an upgrade.

Reconfigure logs files are named according to the UNIX timestamp of when the reconfigure was initiated, such as 1509705644.log

sidekiq_exporter.log and web_exporter.log

If Prometheus metrics and the Sidekiq Exporter are both enabled, Sidekiq will start a Web server and listen to the defined port (default: 8082). By default, Sidekiq Exporter access logs are disabled but can be enabled via the sidekiq['exporter_log_enabled'] = true option in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb for Omnibus installations, or via the sidekiq_exporter.log_enabled option in gitlab.yml for installations from source. When enabled, access logs will be generated in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sidekiq_exporter.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq_exporter.log for installations from source.

If Prometheus metrics and the Web Exporter are both enabled, Puma/Unicorn will start a Web server and listen to the defined port (default: 8083). Access logs will be generated in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/web_exporter.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/web_exporter.log for installations from source.

database_load_balancing.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.3.

Contains details of GitLab’s Database Load Balancing. It’s stored at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/database_load_balancing.log for Omnibus GitLab packages.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/database_load_balancing.log for installations from source.

elasticsearch.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.6.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/elasticsearch.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/elasticsearch.log for installations from source.

It logs information related to the Elasticsearch Integration including errors during indexing or searching Elasticsearch.

Each line contains a JSON line that can be ingested by services like Elasticsearch and Splunk. Line breaks have been added to the following example line for clarity: 

{
  "severity":"DEBUG",
  "time":"2019-10-17T06:23:13.227Z",
  "correlation_id":null,
  "message":"redacted_search_result",
  "class_name":"Milestone",
  "id":2,
  "ability":"read_milestone",
  "current_user_id":2,
  "query":"project"
}

exceptions_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.6.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/exceptions_json.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/exceptions_json.log for installations from source.

It logs the information about exceptions being tracked by Gitlab::ErrorTracking which provides a standard and consistent way of processing rescued exceptions.

Each line contains a JSON line that can be ingested by Elasticsearch. For example: 

{
  "severity": "ERROR",
  "time": "2019-12-17T11:49:29.485Z",
  "correlation_id": "AbDVUrrTvM1",
  "extra.project_id": 55,
  "extra.relation_key": "milestones",
  "extra.relation_index": 1,
  "exception.class": "NoMethodError",
  "exception.message": "undefined method `strong_memoize' for #<Gitlab::ImportExport::RelationFactory:0x00007fb5d917c4b0>",
  "exception.backtrace": [
    "lib/gitlab/import_export/relation_factory.rb:329:in `unique_relation?'",
    "lib/gitlab/import_export/relation_factory.rb:345:in `find_or_create_object!'"
  ]
}

service_measurement.log

Introduced in GitLab 13.0.

This file lives in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/service_measurement.log for Omnibus GitLab packages or in /home/git/gitlab/log/service_measurement.log for installations from source.

It contains only a single structured log with measurements for each service execution. It will contain measurements such as the number of SQL calls, execution_time, gc_stats, and memory usage.

For example: 

{ "severity":"INFO", "time":"2020-04-22T16:04:50.691Z","correlation_id":"04f1366e-57a1-45b8-88c1-b00b23dc3616","class":"Projects::ImportExport::ExportService","current_user":"John Doe","project_full_path":"group1/test-export","file_path":"/path/to/archive","gc_stats":{"count":{"before":127,"after":127,"diff":0},"heap_allocated_pages":{"before":10369,"after":10369,"diff":0},"heap_sorted_length":{"before":10369,"after":10369,"diff":0},"heap_allocatable_pages":{"before":0,"after":0,"diff":0},"heap_available_slots":{"before":4226409,"after":4226409,"diff":0},"heap_live_slots":{"before":2542709,"after":2641420,"diff":98711},"heap_free_slots":{"before":1683700,"after":1584989,"diff":-98711},"heap_final_slots":{"before":0,"after":0,"diff":0},"heap_marked_slots":{"before":2542704,"after":2542704,"diff":0},"heap_eden_pages":{"before":10369,"after":10369,"diff":0},"heap_tomb_pages":{"before":0,"after":0,"diff":0},"total_allocated_pages":{"before":10369,"after":10369,"diff":0},"total_freed_pages":{"before":0,"after":0,"diff":0},"total_allocated_objects":{"before":24896308,"after":24995019,"diff":98711},"total_freed_objects":{"before":22353599,"after":22353599,"diff":0},"malloc_increase_bytes":{"before":140032,"after":6650240,"diff":6510208},"malloc_increase_bytes_limit":{"before":25804104,"after":25804104,"diff":0},"minor_gc_count":{"before":94,"after":94,"diff":0},"major_gc_count":{"before":33,"after":33,"diff":0},"remembered_wb_unprotected_objects":{"before":34284,"after":34284,"diff":0},"remembered_wb_unprotected_objects_limit":{"before":68568,"after":68568,"diff":0},"old_objects":{"before":2404725,"after":2404725,"diff":0},"old_objects_limit":{"before":4809450,"after":4809450,"diff":0},"oldmalloc_increase_bytes":{"before":140032,"after":6650240,"diff":6510208},"oldmalloc_increase_bytes_limit":{"before":68537556,"after":68537556,"diff":0}},"time_to_finish":0.12298400001600385,"number_of_sql_calls":70,"memory_usage":"0.0 MiB","label":"process_48616"}

geo.log

Introduced in 9.5.

Geo stores structured log messages in a geo.log file. For Omnibus installations, this file is at /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/geo.log.

This file contains information about when Geo attempts to sync repositories and files. Each line in the file contains a separate JSON entry that can be ingested into. For example, Elasticsearch or Splunk.

For example: 

{"severity":"INFO","time":"2017-08-06T05:40:16.104Z","message":"Repository update","project_id":1,"source":"repository","resync_repository":true,"resync_wiki":true,"class":"Gitlab::Geo::LogCursor::Daemon","cursor_delay_s":0.038}

This message shows that Geo detected that a repository update was needed for project 1.

update_mirror_service_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 11.12.

This file is stored in:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/update_mirror_service_json.log for Omnibus GitLab installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/update_mirror_service_json.log for installations from source.

This file contains information about any errors that occurred during project mirroring. 

{
   "severity":"ERROR",
   "time":"2020-07-28T23:29:29.473Z",
   "correlation_id":"5HgIkCJsO53",
   "user_id":"x",
   "project_id":"x",
   "import_url":"https://mirror-source/group/project.git",
   "error_message":"The LFS objects download list couldn't be imported. Error: Unauthorized"
}

Registry Logs

For Omnibus installations, Container Registry logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/registry/current.

NGINX Logs

For Omnibus installations, NGINX logs reside in:

  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_access.log contains a log of requests made to GitLab.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_error.log contains a log of NGINX errors for GitLab.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_pages_access.log contains a log of requests made to Pages static sites.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_pages_error.log contains a log of NGINX errors for Pages static sites.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_registry_access.log contains a log of requests made to the Container Registry.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_registry_error.log contains a log of NGINX errors for the Container Registry.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_mattermost_access.log contains a log of requests made to Mattermost.
  • /var/log/gitlab/nginx/gitlab_mattermost_error.log contains a log of NGINX errors for Mattermost.

Below is the default GitLab NGINX access log format: 

$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" $status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" "$http_user_agent"

Pages Logs

For Omnibus installations, Pages logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-pages/current.

For example: 

{
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "GitLab Pages Daemon",
  "revision": "52b2899",
  "time": "2020-04-22T17:53:12Z",
  "version": "1.17.0"
}
{
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "URL: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages",
  "time": "2020-04-22T17:53:12Z"
}
{
  "gid": 998,
  "in-place": false,
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "running the daemon as unprivileged user",
  "time": "2020-04-22T17:53:12Z",
  "uid": 998
}

Mattermost Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Mattermost logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/mattermost/mattermost.log.

Workhorse Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Workhorse logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-workhorse/.

PostgreSQL Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, PostgreSQL logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/postgresql/.

Prometheus Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Prometheus logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/prometheus/.

Redis Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Redis logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/redis/.

Alertmanager Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Alertmanager logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/alertmanager/.

Crond Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, crond logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/crond/.

Grafana Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, Grafana logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/grafana/.

LogRotate Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, logrotate logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/logrotate/.

GitLab Monitor Logs

For Omnibus GitLab installations, GitLab Monitor logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-monitor/.

GitLab Exporter

For Omnibus GitLab installations, GitLab Exporter logs reside in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-exporter/.

Gathering logs

When troubleshooting issues that aren’t localized to one of the previously listed components, it’s helpful to simultaneously gather multiple logs and statistics from a GitLab instance.

GitLabSOS

If performance degradations or cascading errors occur that can’t readily be attributed to one of the previously listed GitLab components, GitLabSOS can provide a perspective spanning all of Omnibus GitLab. For more details and instructions to run it, see the GitLabSOS documentation.

Note: GitLab Support likes to use this custom-made tool.

Briefly tail the main logs

If the bug or error is readily reproducible bug or error, save the main GitLab logs to a file while reproducing the problem once or more times: 

sudo gitlab-ctl tail | tee /tmp/<case-ID-and-keywords>.log

Conclude the log gathering with Ctrl + C.

Fast-stats

Fast-stats is a tool for creating and comparing performance statistics from GitLab logs. For more details and instructions to run it, see read the documentation for fast-stats.