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: Customize logging on Linux package installations including adjusting log retention, log forwarding, switching logs from JSON to plain text logging, and more. How to parse and analyze JSON 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 DEBUG ERROR FATAL 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 Cleanup
DEBUG
GitLab Doctor
VERBOSE
GitLab Export
EXPORT_DEBUG
GitLab Import
IMPORT_DEBUG
GitLab QA Runtime
QA_LOG_LEVEL
Google APIs
Rack Timeout
ERROR
Snowplow Tracker
FATAL
gRPC Client (Gitaly)
GRPC_LOG_LEVEL
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
crond logs
Gitaly
GitLab Exporter for Linux package installations
GitLab Pages logs
GitLab Rails
GitLab Shell logs
Grafana logs
LogRotate logs
Mailroom
NGINX
PgBouncer logs
PostgreSQL logs
Praefect logs
Prometheus logs
Redis logs
Registry logs
Workhorse logs
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
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
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)
History
/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
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)
History
/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.
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
Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated




    

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 History

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
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
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
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
History
/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
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.
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
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
History
The clickhouse.log file logs information related to the
ClickHouse database client in GitLab.
migrations.log
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)
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
History
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 listens 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 listens 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
Tier: Premium, Ultimate
Offering: Self-managed




    

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
Tier: Premium, Ultimate
Offering: Self-managed

History
/var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/zoekt.log on Linux package installations.
/home/git/gitlab/log/zoekt.log on self-compiled installations.
elasticsearch.log
Tier: Premium, Ultimate
Offering: Self-managed

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

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

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
Tier: Premium, Ultimate
Offering: Self-managed

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 .

For Helm chart installations, it’s stored in the Sidekiq pod, at /var/log/gitlab/geo.log . It can be read by either directly accessing the file, or by using kubectl to fetch the Sidekiq logs, and subsequently filtering the results by "subcomponent"=="geo" . The example below uses jq to grab only Geo logs:

kubectl logs -l app=sidekiq --max-log-requests=50 | jq 'select(."subcomponent"=="geo")'
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
Tier: Ultimate
Offering: GitLab.com

History /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/llm.log on Linux package installations. /home/git/gitlab/log/llm.log on self-compiled installations. epic_work_item_sync.log Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated History

The epic_work_item_sync.log file logs information related to syncing and migrating epics as work items.

This file is located at: /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails/epic_work_item_sync.log on Linux package installations. /home/git/gitlab/log/epic_work_item_sync.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
Let’s Encrypt logs
For Linux package installations, Let’s Encrypt auto-renew logs are in /var/log/gitlab/lets-encrypt/.
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
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
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.
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.
to fix an error or add an improvement in a merge request.

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