GitLab 8.16 Now Includes Monitoring and Extends Auto Deploy to Google Container Engine

Following the introduction of auto-deploy to Kubernetes on OpenShift last month, GitLab 8.16 makes auto-deploy available on Google Cloud. Additionally, GitLab 8.16 improves its issue search and filter UI, and includes monitoring tool Prometheus and Slack-alternative Mattermost.

According to GitLab VP of product, Job van der Voort, making auto-deploy available on Google Container Engine (GCE) allows a much larger developer audience to take advantage of the possibility of deploying an app to Kubernetes from a GitLab instance using its auto-scaling CI features. A number of steps are required to deploy GitLab to Kubernetes on GCE, which makes the entire process not entirely straightforward, although it can be completed in less than 30 minutes, according to GitLab.

The inclusion of Prometheus within GitLab 8.16 is the first step in GitLab’s roadmap to make monitoring an integral part of GitLab CI. Prometheus should make it possible to gather early feedback about deployments and automatically revert those that cause problems. To be able to connect to Prometheus console, which can provide metrics relating to CPU, memory, and throughput, you should first set up port forwarding so the private Prometheus server becomes accessible on localhost:9090:

kubectl -n gitlab get pods -l name=gitlab -o name | sed 's/^.*\///' | xargs -I{} kubectl port-forward -n gitlab {} 9090:9090

Following are a few examples of queries that can be sent to Prometheus:

• % Memory Used: (1 - ((node_memory_MemFree + node_memory_Cached) / node_memory_MemTotal)) * 100
• % CPU Load: 1 - rate(node_cpu{mode="idle"}[5m])
• Data Transmitted: irate(node_network_transmit_bytes[5m])
• Data Received: irate(node_network_receive_bytes[5m])

Other notable features in GitLab 8.16 are:

• Improved issue search and filter interface to make it more natural and intuitive, according to GitLab.
• Support for removing merge request approval.
• Support for deploy keys granting write privilege, in addition to already existing read-only deploy keys.
• New merge command allows to merge a PR by simply typing /merge in the description or comment to an issue.
• GitLab Runner 1.10, including a bunch of improvements and fixes.
• Mattermost 3.6 is now included in GitLab.

GitLab 8.16 can be installed or updated using a variety of methods, including images for several hosting providers, Docker containers, or OS-specific packages.