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Log system (FREE SELF)

GitLab has an advanced log system where everything is logged, so you can analyze your instance using various system log files. The log system is similar to audit events.

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 the log system and using the logs:

Log Levels

Each log message has an assigned log level that indicates its importance and verbosity. Each logger has an assigned minimum log level. A logger emits a log message only if its log level is equal to or above the minimum log level.

The following log levels are supported:

Level Name
0 DEBUG
1 INFO
2 WARN
3 ERROR
4 FATAL
5 UNKNOWN

GitLab loggers emit all log messages because they are set to DEBUG by default.

Override default log level

You can override the minimum log level for GitLab loggers using the GITLAB_LOG_LEVEL environment variable. Valid values are either a value of 0 to 5, or the name of the log level.

Example:

GITLAB_LOG_LEVEL=info

For some services, other log levels are in place that are not affected by this setting. Some of these services have their own environment variables to override the log level. For example:

Service Log level Environment variable
GitLab API INFO
GitLab Cleanup INFO DEBUG
GitLab Doctor INFO VERBOSE
GitLab Export INFO EXPORT_DEBUG
GitLab Geo INFO
GitLab Import INFO IMPORT_DEBUG
GitLab QA Runtime INFO QA_LOG_LEVEL
Google APIs INFO
Rack Timeout ERROR
Sidekiq (server) INFO
Snowplow Tracker FATAL
gRPC Client (Gitaly) WARN GRPC_LOG_LEVEL
LLM INFO LLM_DEBUG

Log Rotation

The logs for a given service may be managed and rotated by:

  • logrotate
  • svlogd (runit's service logging daemon)
  • logrotate and svlogd
  • Or not at all

The following table includes information about what's responsible for managing and rotating logs for the included services. Logs managed by svlogd are written to a file called current. The logrotate service built into GitLab manages all logs except those captured by runit.

Log type Managed by logrotate Managed by svlogd/runit
Alertmanager logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
crond logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Gitaly {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
GitLab Exporter for Linux package installations {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
GitLab Pages logs {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
GitLab Rails {check-circle} Yes {dotted-circle} No
GitLab Shell logs {check-circle} Yes {dotted-circle} No
Grafana logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
LogRotate logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Mailroom {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
NGINX {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
PgBouncer logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
PostgreSQL logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Praefect logs {dotted-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
Prometheus logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Puma {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes
Redis logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Registry logs {dotted-circle} No {check-circle} Yes
Workhorse logs {check-circle} Yes {check-circle} Yes

production_json.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/production_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/production_json.log on self-compiled installations.

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

Each line contains JSON 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,
  "pid": 81836,
  "worker_id":"puma_0"
}

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

  • duration_s: Total time to retrieve the request
  • queue_duration_s: Total time the request was queued inside GitLab Workhorse
  • view_duration_s: Total time inside the Rails views
  • db_duration_s: Total time to retrieve data from PostgreSQL
  • cpu_s: Total time spent on CPU
  • gitaly_duration_s: Total time by Gitaly calls
  • gitaly_calls: Total number of calls made to Gitaly
  • redis_calls: Total number of calls made to Redis
  • redis_cross_slot_calls: Total number of cross-slot calls made to Redis
  • redis_allowed_cross_slot_calls: Total number of allowed cross-slot calls made to Redis
  • redis_duration_s: Total time to retrieve data from Redis
  • redis_read_bytes: Total bytes read from Redis
  • redis_write_bytes: Total bytes written to Redis
  • redis_<instance>_calls: Total number of calls made to a Redis instance
  • redis_<instance>_cross_slot_calls: Total number of cross-slot calls made to a Redis instance
  • redis_<instance>_allowed_cross_slot_calls: Total number of allowed cross-slot calls made to a Redis instance
  • redis_<instance>_duration_s: Total time to retrieve data from a Redis instance
  • redis_<instance>_read_bytes: Total bytes read from a Redis instance
  • redis_<instance>_write_bytes: Total bytes written to a Redis instance
  • pid: The worker's Linux process ID (changes when workers restart)
  • worker_id: The worker's logical ID (does not change when workers restart)

User clone and fetch activity using HTTP transport appears in the 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 additionally log elasticsearch_calls and elasticsearch_call_duration_s, which correspond to:

  • elasticsearch_calls: Total number of calls to Elasticsearch
  • elasticsearch_duration_s: Total time taken by Elasticsearch calls
  • elasticsearch_timed_out_count: Total number of calls to Elasticsearch that timed out and therefore returned partial results

ActionCable connection and subscription events are also logged to this file and they follow the previous format. 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":null,
  "path":null,
  "format":null,
  "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,
  "pid": 81836,
  "worker_id": "puma_0",
  "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 is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/production.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/production.log on self-compiled installations.

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

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/api_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/api_json.log on self-compiled installations.

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,
  "pid": 81836,
  "worker_id": "puma_0",
  ...
}

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

  • duration: Total time in milliseconds to retrieve the request
  • queue_duration: Total time in milliseconds the request was queued inside GitLab Workhorse
  • method: The HTTP method used to make the request
  • path: The relative path of the query
  • params: Key-value pairs passed in a query string or HTTP body (sensitive parameters, such as passwords and tokens, are filtered out)
  • ua: The User-Agent of the requester

NOTE: As of Grape Logging v1.8.4, the view_duration_s is calculated by duration_s - db_duration_s. Therefore, view_duration_s can be affected by multiple different factors, like read-write process on Redis or external HTTP, not only the serialization process.

application.log (deprecated)

Deprecated in GitLab 15.10.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/application.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/application.log on self-compiled installations.

It contains a less structured version of the logs in application_json.log, like this 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 is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/application_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/application_json.log on self-compiled installations.

It helps you discover events happening in your instance such as user creation and project deletion. For example:

{
  "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 is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/integrations_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/integrations_json.log on self-compiled installations.

It contains information about integration activities, such as Jira, Asana, and irker services. It uses JSON format, like this example:

{
  "severity":"ERROR",
  "time":"2018-09-06T14:56:20.439Z",
  "service_class":"Integrations::Jira",
  "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":"Integrations::Jira",
  "project_id":3,
  "project_path":"namespace2/project2",
  "message":"Successfully posted",
  "client_url":"http://jira.example.com"
}

kubernetes.log (deprecated)

Deprecated in GitLab 14.5.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/kubernetes.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/kubernetes.log on self-compiled installations.

It logs information related to certificate-based clusters, such as connectivity errors. Each line contains JSON that can be ingested by services like Elasticsearch and Splunk.

git_json.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/git_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/git_json.log on self-compiled installations.

After GitLab version 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. If this happens, you need to know exactly what happened. This log file contains all failed requests from GitLab to Git repositories. In the majority of cases this file is 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 (FREE ALL)

NOTE: GitLab Free tracks a small number of different audit events. GitLab Premium tracks many more.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/audit_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/audit_json.log on self-compiled installations.

Changes to group or project settings and memberships (target_details) 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 Linux package installations, some Sidekiq logs are in /var/log/gitlab/sidekiq/current and as follows.

sidekiq.log

The default log format for Helm chart installations changed from text to json in GitLab 16.0 and later.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/sidekiq/current on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq.log on self-compiled installations.

GitLab uses background jobs for processing tasks which can take a long time. All information about processing these jobs are written to this file. 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,
  "worker_id":"sidekiq_0",
  "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
}

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

2023-05-16T16:08:55.272Z pid=82525 tid=23rl INFO: Initializing websocket
2023-05-16T16:08:55.279Z pid=82525 tid=23rl INFO: Booted Rails 6.1.7.2 application in production environment
2023-05-16T16:08:55.279Z pid=82525 tid=23rl INFO: Running in ruby 3.0.5p211 (2022-11-24 revision ba5cf0f7c5) [arm64-darwin22]
2023-05-16T16:08:55.279Z pid=82525 tid=23rl INFO: See LICENSE and the LGPL-3.0 for licensing details.
2023-05-16T16:08:55.279Z pid=82525 tid=23rl INFO: Upgrade to Sidekiq Pro for more features and support: https://sidekiq.org
2023-05-16T16:08:55.286Z pid=82525 tid=7p4t INFO: Cleaning working queues
2023-05-16T16:09:06.043Z pid=82525 tid=7p7d class=ScheduleMergeRequestCleanupRefsWorker jid=efcc73f169c09a514b06da3f INFO: start
2023-05-16T16:09:06.050Z pid=82525 tid=7p7d class=ScheduleMergeRequestCleanupRefsWorker jid=efcc73f169c09a514b06da3f INFO: arguments: []
2023-05-16T16:09:06.065Z pid=82525 tid=7p81 class=UserStatusCleanup::BatchWorker jid=e279aa6409ac33031a314822 INFO: start
2023-05-16T16:09:06.066Z pid=82525 tid=7p81 class=UserStatusCleanup::BatchWorker jid=e279aa6409ac33031a314822 INFO: arguments: []

For Linux package installations, add the configuration option:

sidekiq['log_format'] = 'text'

For self-compiled installations, edit the gitlab.yml and set the Sidekiq log_format configuration option:

  ## Sidekiq
  sidekiq:
    log_format: text

sidekiq_client.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.9.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sidekiq_client.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq_client.log on self-compiled installations.

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 is 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.

Information containing git-{upload-pack,receive-pack} requests is at /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log. Information about hooks to GitLab Shell from Gitaly is at /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/current.

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/current:

{
  "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"
}

Gitaly logs

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

grpc.log

This file is at /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/grpc.log for Linux package installations. Native gRPC logging used by Gitaly.

gitaly_hooks.log

This file is at /var/log/gitlab/gitaly/gitaly_hooks.log and is produced by gitaly-hooks command. It also contains records about failures received during processing of the responses from GitLab API.

Puma logs

puma_stdout.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/puma/puma_stdout.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/puma_stdout.log on self-compiled installations.

puma_stderr.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/puma/puma_stderr.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/puma_stderr.log on self-compiled installations.

repocheck.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/repocheck.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/repocheck.log on self-compiled installations.

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

importer.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/importer.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/importer.log on self-compiled installations.

This file logs the progress of project imports and migrations.

exporter.log

Introduced in GitLab 13.1.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/exporter.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/exporter.log on self-compiled installations.

It logs the progress of the export process.

features_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 13.7.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/features_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/features_json.log on self-compiled installations.

The modification events from Feature flags in development of GitLab are recorded in this file. For example:

{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:30:59.860Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"enable","extra.thing":"true"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.108Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"enable","extra.thing":"true"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.129Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"disable","extra.thing":"false"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.177Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"enable","extra.thing":"Project:1"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.183Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"disable","extra.thing":"Project:1"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.188Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"enable_percentage_of_time","extra.percentage":"50"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.193Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"disable_percentage_of_time"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.198Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"enable_percentage_of_actors","extra.percentage":"50"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.203Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"disable_percentage_of_actors"}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:31:29.329Z","correlation_id":null,"key":"cd_auto_rollback","action":"remove"}

ci_resource_groups_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 15.9.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/ci_resource_group_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/ci_resource_group_json.log on self-compiled installations.

It contains information about resource group acquisition. For example:

{"severity":"INFO","time":"2023-02-10T23:02:06.095Z","correlation_id":"01GRYS10C2DZQ9J1G12ZVAD4YD","resource_group_id":1,"processable_id":288,"message":"attempted to assign resource to processable","success":true}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2023-02-10T23:02:08.945Z","correlation_id":"01GRYS138MYEG32C0QEWMC4BDM","resource_group_id":1,"processable_id":288,"message":"attempted to release resource from processable","success":true}

The examples show the resource_group_id, processable_id, message, and success fields for each entry.

auth.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.0.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/auth.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/auth.log on self-compiled installations.

This log records:

  • Requests over the Rate Limit on raw endpoints.
  • Protected paths abusive requests.
  • In GitLab versions 12.3 and later, user ID and username, if available.

auth_json.log

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/auth_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/auth_json.log on self-compiled installations.

This file contains the JSON version of the logs in auth.log, for example:

{
    "severity":"ERROR",
    "time":"2023-04-19T22:14:25.893Z",
    "correlation_id":"01GYDSAKAN2SPZPAMJNRWW5H8S",
    "message":"Rack_Attack",
    "env":"blocklist",
    "remote_ip":"x.x.x.x",
    "request_method":"GET",
    "path":"/group/project.git/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack"
}

graphql_json.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.0.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/graphql_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/graphql_json.log on self-compiled installations.

GraphQL queries are recorded in the 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}

clickhouse.log

Introduced in GitLab 16.5.

The clickhouse.log file logs information related to the ClickHouse database client in GitLab.

migrations.log

Introduced in GitLab 12.3.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/migrations.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/migrations.log on self-compiled installations.

This file logs the progress of database migrations.

mail_room_json.log (default)

Introduced in GitLab 12.6.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/mailroom/current on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/mail_room_json.log on self-compiled installations.

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.

web_hooks.log

Introduced in GitLab 16.3.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/web_hooks.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/web_hooks.log on self-compiled installations.

The back-off, disablement, and re-enablement events for Webhook are recorded in this file. For example:

{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:30:59.860Z","hook_id":12,"action":"backoff","disabled_until":"2020-11-24T04:30:59.860Z","backoff_count":2,"recent_failures":2}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:30:59.860Z","hook_id":12,"action":"disable","disabled_until":null,"backoff_count":5,"recent_failures":100}
{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-11-24T02:30:59.860Z","hook_id":12,"action":"enable","disabled_until":null,"backoff_count":0,"recent_failures":0}

Reconfigure logs

Reconfigure log files are in /var/log/gitlab/reconfigure for Linux package installations. Self-compiled installations 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 starts a Web server and listen to the defined port (default: 8082). By default, Sidekiq Exporter access logs are disabled but can be enabled:

  • Use the sidekiq['exporter_log_enabled'] = true option in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb on Linux package installations.
  • Use the sidekiq_exporter.log_enabled option in gitlab.yml on self-compiled installations.

When enabled, depending on your installation method, this file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/sidekiq_exporter.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/sidekiq_exporter.log on self-compiled installations.

If Prometheus metrics and the Web Exporter are both enabled, Puma starts a Web server and listen to the defined port (default: 8083), and access logs are generated in a location based on your installation method:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/web_exporter.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/web_exporter.log on self-compiled installations.

database_load_balancing.log (PREMIUM SELF)

Introduced in GitLab 12.3.

Contains details of GitLab Database Load Balancing. This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/database_load_balancing.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/database_load_balancing.log on self-compiled installations.

zoekt.log (PREMIUM SELF)

Introduced in GitLab 15.9.

This file logs information related to the Exact code search feature which is powered by Zoekt.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/zoekt.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/zoekt.log on self-compiled installations.

elasticsearch.log (PREMIUM SELF)

Introduced in GitLab 12.6.

This file logs information related to the Elasticsearch Integration, including errors during indexing or searching Elasticsearch. This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/elasticsearch.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/elasticsearch.log on self-compiled installations.

Each line contains JSON 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 logs the information about exceptions being tracked by Gitlab::ErrorTracking, which provides a standard and consistent way of processing rescued exceptions. This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/exceptions_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/exceptions_json.log on self-compiled installations.

Each line contains JSON 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 is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/service_measurement.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/service_measurement.log on self-compiled installations.

It contains only a single structured log with measurements for each service execution. It contains 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 (PREMIUM SELF)

Geo stores structured log messages in a geo.log file. For Linux package 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

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/update_mirror_service_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/update_mirror_service_json.log on self-compiled installations.

This file contains information about LFS errors that occurred during project mirroring. While we work to move other project mirroring errors into this log, the general log can be used.

{
   "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"
}

llm.log (ULTIMATE SAAS)

Introduced in GitLab 16.0.

The llm.log file logs information related to AI features.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/llm.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/llm.log on self-compiled installations.

Registry logs

For Linux package installations, Container Registry logs are in /var/log/gitlab/registry/current.

NGINX logs

For Linux package installations, NGINX logs are in:

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

The $request and $http_referer are filtered for sensitive query string parameters such as secret tokens.

Pages logs

For Linux package installations, Pages logs are 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 Linux package installations, Mattermost logs are in these locations:

  • /var/log/gitlab/mattermost/mattermost.log
  • /var/log/gitlab/mattermost/current

Workhorse logs

For Linux package installations, Workhorse logs are in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-workhorse/current.

PgBouncer logs

For Linux package installations, PgBouncer logs are in /var/log/gitlab/pgbouncer/current.

PostgreSQL logs

For Linux package installations, PostgreSQL logs are in /var/log/gitlab/postgresql/current.

Prometheus logs

For Linux package installations, Prometheus logs are in /var/log/gitlab/prometheus/current.

Redis logs

For Linux package installations, Redis logs are in /var/log/gitlab/redis/current.

Alertmanager logs

For Linux package installations, Alertmanager logs are in /var/log/gitlab/alertmanager/current.

crond logs

For Linux package installations, crond logs are in /var/log/gitlab/crond/.

Grafana logs

For Linux package installations, Grafana logs are in /var/log/gitlab/grafana/current.

LogRotate logs

For Linux package installations, logrotate logs are in /var/log/gitlab/logrotate/current.

GitLab Monitor logs

For Linux package installations, GitLab Monitor logs are in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-monitor/.

GitLab Exporter

For Linux package installations, GitLab Exporter logs are in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-exporter/current.

GitLab agent server

For Linux package installations, GitLab agent server logs are in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-kas/current.

Praefect logs

For Linux package installations, Praefect logs are in /var/log/gitlab/praefect/.

GitLab also tracks Prometheus metrics for Praefect.

Backup log

Introduced in GitLab 14.1.

For Linux package installations, the backup log is located at /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/backup_json.log.

This log is populated when a GitLab backup is created. You can use this log to understand how the backup process performed.

Performance bar stats

Introduced in GitLab 13.7.

This file is located at:

  • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/performance_bar_json.log on Linux package installations.
  • /home/git/gitlab/log/performance_bar_json.log on self-compiled installations.

Performance bar statistics (currently only duration of SQL queries) are recorded in that file. For example:

{"severity":"INFO","time":"2020-12-04T09:29:44.592Z","correlation_id":"33680b1490ccd35981b03639c406a697","filename":"app/models/ci/pipeline.rb","method_path":"app/models/ci/pipeline.rb:each_with_object","request_id":"rYHomD0VJS4","duration_ms":26.889,"count":2,"query_type": "active-record"}

These statistics are logged on .com only, disabled on self-deployments.

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.

NOTE: GitLab Support often asks for one of these, and maintains the required tools.

Briefly tail the main logs

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

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

Conclude the log gathering with Control + C.

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 broader perspective of the GitLab instance. For more details and instructions to run it, read the GitLabSOS documentation.

Fast-stats

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

Find relevant log entries with a correlation ID

Most requests have a log ID that can be used to find relevant log entries.