Troubleshooting

Service Ping Payload drop

Symptoms

You will be alerted by a Sisense alert that is sent to #g_product_intelligence Slack channel

Locating the problem

First you need to identify at which stage in Service Ping data pipeline the drop is occurring.

Start at Service Ping Health Dashboard on Sisense.

The alert compares the current daily value with the daily value from previous week, excluding the last 48 hours as this is the interval where we export the data in GCP and get it into DWH.

You can use this query as an example, to start detecting when the drop started.

Troubleshoot the GitLab application layer

For results about an investigation conducted into an unexpected drop in Service ping Payload events volume, see this issue.

Troubleshoot VersionApp layer

Check if the export jobs are successful.

Check Service Ping errors in the Service Ping Health Dahsboard.

Troubleshoot Google Storage layer

Check if the files are present in Google Storage.

Troubleshoot the data warehouse layer

Reach out to the Data team to ask about current state of data warehouse. On their handbook page there is a section with contact details.

Cannot disable Service Ping with the configuration file

The method to disable Service Ping with the GitLab configuration file does not work in GitLab versions 9.3.0 to 13.12.3. To disable it, you must use the Admin Area in the GitLab UI instead. For more information, see this issue.

GitLab functionality and application settings cannot override or circumvent restrictions at the network layer. If Service Ping is blocked by your firewall, you are not impacted by this bug.

Check if you are affected

You can check if you were affected by this bug by using the Admin Area or by checking the configuration file of your GitLab instance:

Using the Admin Area:
1. On the top bar, select Menu > Admin.
2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > Metrics and profiling.
3. Expand Usage Statistics.
4. Are you able to check or uncheck the checkbox to disable Service Ping?
  - If yes, your GitLab instance is not affected by this bug.
  - If you can't check or uncheck the checkbox, you are affected by this bug. See the steps on how to fix this.
Checking your GitLab instance configuration file:

To check whether you're impacted by this bug, check your instance configuration settings. The configuration file in which Service Ping can be disabled depends on your installation and deployment method, but is typically one of the following:
- /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb for Omnibus GitLab Linux Package and Docker.
- charts.yaml for GitLab Helm and cloud-native Kubernetes deployments.
- gitlab.yml for GitLab installations from source.
To check the relevant configuration file for strings that indicate whether Service Ping is disabled, you can use grep:
```
# Linux package
grep "usage_ping_enabled'\] = false" /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

# Kubernetes charts
grep "enableUsagePing: false" values.yaml

# From source
grep "usage_ping_enabled'\] = false" gitlab/config.yml
```
If you see any output after running the relevant command, your GitLab instance may be affected by the bug. Otherwise, your instance is not affected.

How to fix the "Cannot disable Service Ping" bug

To work around this bug, you have two options:

Update to GitLab 13.12.4 or newer to fix this bug.
If you can't update to GitLab 13.12.4 or newer, enable Service Ping in the configuration file, then disable Service Ping in the UI. For example, if you're using the Linux package:
1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:
```
gitlab_rails['usage_ping_enabled'] = true
```
2. Reconfigure GitLab:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
3. In GitLab, on the top bar, select Menu > Admin.
4. On the left sidebar, select Settings > Metrics and profiling.
5. Expand Usage Statistics.
6. Clear the Enable Service Ping checkbox.
7. Select Save Changes.