Monitor GitLab Runner usage

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GitLab Runner can be monitored using Prometheus.

Embedded Prometheus metrics

GitLab Runner includes native Prometheus metrics, which you can expose using an embedded HTTP server on the /metrics path. The server - if enabled - can be scraped by the Prometheus monitoring system or accessed with any other HTTP client.

The exposed information includes:

  • Runner business logic metrics (for example, the number of jobs running at the moment)
  • Go-specific process metrics (for example, garbage collection stats, goroutines, and memstats)
  • general process metrics (memory usage, CPU usage, file descriptor usage, etc.)
  • build version information

The metrics format is documented in Prometheus' Exposition formats specification.

These metrics are meant as a way for operators to monitor and gain insight into your runners. For example, you might want to know if an increase in load average on the runner host is related to an increase in processed jobs. Or perhaps you are running a cluster of machines, and you want to track build trends so you can make changes to your infrastructure.

Learning more about Prometheus

To set up Prometheus server to scrape this HTTP endpoint and use the collected metrics, see Prometheus’s getting started guide. For more details on how to configure Prometheus, see the configuration section. For more details about alert configuration, see alerting rules and Alertmanager.

Available metrics

To find a full list of all available metrics, curl the metrics endpoint after it is configured and enabled. For example, for a local runner configured with listening port 9252:

$ curl -s "http://localhost:9252/metrics" | grep -E "# HELP"

# HELP gitlab_runner_api_request_statuses_total The total number of api requests, partitioned by runner, endpoint and status.
# HELP gitlab_runner_autoscaling_machine_creation_duration_seconds Histogram of machine creation time.
# HELP gitlab_runner_autoscaling_machine_states The current number of machines per state in this provider.
# HELP gitlab_runner_concurrent The current value of concurrent setting
# HELP gitlab_runner_errors_total The number of caught errors.
# HELP gitlab_runner_limit The current value of limit setting
# HELP gitlab_runner_request_concurrency The current number of concurrent requests for a new job
# HELP gitlab_runner_request_concurrency_exceeded_total Count of excess requests above the configured request_concurrency limit
# HELP gitlab_runner_version_info A metric with a constant '1' value labeled by different build stats fields.
...

The list includes Go-specific process metrics. For a list of available metrics that do not include Go-specific processes, see Monitoring runners.

pprof HTTP endpoints

The internal state of the GitLab Runner process through metrics is valuable, but in some cases you must examine the Running process in real time. That’s why we’ve introduced the pprof HTTP endpoints.

pprof endpoints are available through an embedded HTTP server on /debug/pprof/ path.

You can read more about using pprof in its documentation.

Configuration of the metrics HTTP server

The metrics server exports data about the internal state of the GitLab Runner process and should not be publicly available!

Configure the metrics HTTP server by using one of the following methods:

  • Use the listen_address global configuration option in the config.toml file.

  • Use the --listen-address command line option for the run command.

  • For runners using Helm chart, in the values.yaml:

    1. Configure the metrics option:

      ## Configure integrated Prometheus metrics exporter
##
## ref: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/monitoring/#configuration-of-the-metrics-http-server
##
metrics:
  enabled: true

  ## Define a name for the metrics port
  ##
  portName: metrics

  ## Provide a port number for the integrated Prometheus metrics exporter
  ##
  port: 9252

  ## Configure a prometheus-operator serviceMonitor to allow automatic detection of
  ## the scraping target. Requires enabling the service resource below.
  ##
  serviceMonitor:
    enabled: true

    ...

    2. Configure the service monitor to retrieve the configured metrics:

      ## Configure a service resource to allow scraping metrics by using
## prometheus-operator serviceMonitor
service:
  enabled: true

  ## Provide additional labels for the service
  ##
  labels: {}

  ## Provide additional annotations for the service
  ##
  annotations: {}

  ...

If you add the address to your config.toml file, to start the metrics HTTP server, you must restart the runner process.

In both cases the option accepts a string with the format [host]:<port>, where:

  • host can be an IP address or a hostname,
  • port is a valid TCP port or symbolic service name (like http). You should use port 9252 which is already allocated in Prometheus.

If the listen address does not contain a port, it defaults to 9252.

Examples of addresses:

  • :9252 listens on all interfaces on port 9252.
  • localhost:9252 listens on the loopback interface on port 9252.
  • [2001:db8::1]:http listens on IPv6 address [2001:db8::1] on the HTTP port 80.

Remember that for listening on ports below 1024 - at least on Linux/Unix systems - you need to have root/administrator privileges.

The HTTP server is opened on the selected host:port without any authorization. If you bind the metrics server to a public interface, use your firewall to limit access or add an HTTP proxy for authorization and access control.

Monitor Operator managed GitLab Runners

GitLab Runners managed by the GitLab Runner Operator use the same embedded Prometheus metrics server as standalone GitLab Runner instances. The metrics server is preconfigured with listenAddr set to [::]:9252, which listens on all IPv6 and IPv4 interfaces on port 9252.

Expose metrics port

To enable monitoring and metrics collection for GitLab Runners managed by the GitLab Runner Operator, see Monitor Operator managed GitLab Runners.

Configure the metrics port

Add the following patch to the podSpec field in your runner configuration:

apiVersion: apps.gitlab.com/v1beta2
kind: Runner
metadata:
  name: gitlab-runner
spec:
  gitlabUrl: https://gitlab.example.com
  token: gitlab-runner-secret
  buildImage: alpine
  podSpec:
    name: "metrics-config"
    patch: |
      {
        "containers": [
          {
            "name": "runner",
            "ports": [
              {
                "name": "metrics",
                "containerPort": 9252,
                "protocol": "TCP"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    patchType: "strategic"

This configuration:

  • name: Assigns a name to the custom PodSpec for identification.
  • patch: Defines the JSON patch to apply to the PodSpec, exposes port 9252 on the runner container.
  • patchType: Uses the strategic merge strategy (default) to apply the patch.
  • port: Named as metrics for easy identification in Kubernetes services.

Configure Prometheus scraping

For environments using Prometheus Operator, create a PodMonitor resource to directly scrape metrics from runner pods:

apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PodMonitor
metadata:
  name: gitlab-runner-metrics
  namespace: kube-prometheus-stack
  labels:
    release: kube-prometheus-stack
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/component: runner
  namespaceSelector:
    matchNames:
      - gitlab-runner-system
  podMetricsEndpoints:
    - port: metrics
      interval: 10s
      path: /metrics

Apply the PodMonitor configuration:

kubectl apply -f gitlab-runner-podmonitor.yaml

The PodMonitor configuration:

  • selector: Matches pods with the app.kubernetes.io/component: runner label.
  • namespaceSelector: Limits scraping to the gitlab-runner-system namespace.
  • podMetricsEndpoints: Defines the metrics port, scrape interval, and path.

Add runner identification to metrics

To add runner identification to all exported metrics, include relabel configuration in the PodMonitor:

podMetricsEndpoints:
  - port: metrics
    interval: 10s
    path: /metrics
    relabelings:
      - sourceLabels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name]
        targetLabel: runner_name

The relabel configuration:

  • Extracts the app.kubernetes.io/name label from each runner pod (automatically set by GitLab Runner Operator).
  • Adds it as a runner_name label to all metrics from that pod.
  • Enables filter and aggregation metrics by specific runner instances.

The following is an example metrics with runner identification:

gitlab_runner_concurrent{runner_name="my-gitlab-runner"} 10
gitlab_runner_jobs_running_total{runner_name="my-gitlab-runner"} 3

Direct Prometheus scrape configuration

If you’re not using Prometheus Operator, you can add the relabel configuration directly in the Prometheus scrape configuration:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'gitlab-runner-operator'
    kubernetes_sd_configs:
      - role: pod
        namespaces:
          names:
            - gitlab-runner-system
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name]
        target_label: runner_name
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scrape_interval: 10s

This configuration:

  • Uses Kubernetes service discovery to find pods in the gitlab-runner-system namespace.
  • Extracts the app.kubernetes.io/name label and adds it as runner_name to metrics.

Monitor GitLab Runner with executors other than Kubernetes

For GitLab Runner deployments with executors other than Kubernetes, you can add runner identification through external labels in your Prometheus configuration.

Static configuration with external labels

Configure Prometheus to scrape your GitLab Runner instances and add identifying labels:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'gitlab-runner'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['runner1.example.com:9252']
        labels:
          runner_name: 'production-runner-1'
      - targets: ['runner2.example.com:9252']
        labels:
          runner_name: 'staging-runner-1'
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scrape_interval: 30s

This configuration adds runner identification to your metrics:

gitlab_runner_concurrent{runner_name="production-runner-1"} 10
gitlab_runner_jobs_running_total{runner_name="staging-runner-1"} 3

This configuration enables you to:

  • Filter metrics by specific runner instances.
  • Create runner-specific dashboards and alerts.
  • Track performance across different runner deployments.

Available metrics for Operator managed GitLab Runners

GitLab Runners managed by the GitLab Runner Operator expose the same metrics as standalone GitLab Runner deployments. To view all available metrics, use kubectl to access the metrics endpoint:

kubectl port-forward pod/<gitlab-runner-pod-name> 9252:9252
curl -s "http://localhost:9252/metrics" | grep -E "# HELP"

For a complete list of available metrics, see Available metrics.

Security considerations for Operator managed GitLab Runners

When you configure the metrics collection for GitLab Runners managed by the GitLab Runner Operator:

  • Use Kubernetes NetworkPolicies to restrict access to authorized monitoring systems.
  • Consider using mutal TLS encryption for metric scraping in production environments.

Troubleshooting Operator managed GitLab Runner monitoring

Metrics endpoint not accessible

If you cannot access the metrics endpoint:

  1. Verify that the pod specification includes the metrics port configuration.

  2. Ensure that the runner pod is running and healthy:

    kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/component=runner -n gitlab-runner-system
kubectl describe pod <runner-pod-name> -n gitlab-runner-system

  3. Test the connectivity to the metrics endpoint:

    kubectl port-forward pod/<runner-pod-name> 9252:9252 -n gitlab-runner-system
curl "http://localhost:9252/metrics"

Missing metrics in Prometheus

If metrics are not appearing in Prometheus:

  1. Verify that the PodMonitor is correctly configured and applied.

  2. Check that the namespace and label selectors match your runner pods.

  3. Review Prometheus logs for scraping errors.

  4. Validate that the PodMonitor is discoverable by Prometheus Operator:

    kubectl get podmonitor gitlab-runner-metrics -n kube-prometheus-stack
kubectl describe podmonitor gitlab-runner-metrics -n kube-prometheus-stack