Deprecation of old Sentry versions for GitLab instances errors monitoring

Summary:

Support for self-hosted Sentry versions 21.4.1 and earlier is deprecated and will be removed in GitLab 17.0.

If your self-hosted Sentry version is 21.4.1 or earlier, you may not be able to collect errors from your GitLab instance after upgrading to GitLab 17.0 or later. To continue sending errors from your GitLab instance to your Sentry instance, upgrade Sentry to version 21.5.0 or later. Upgrade process detailed in Sentry documentation.

Learn more: Deprecation announcement, Feature documentation page

Note that this concerns GitLab instance error tracking features for administrators. The deprecated support does not relate to GitLab error tracking for developers’ own deployed applications.

Links:

• Previous issues: #422407 (closed), https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/393741
• deprecation announcement entry for 16.8 - !140284 (merged)
• documentation page update - omnibus-gitlab!7313 (merged)
• upgrade notice for 17.0 release post: gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com!132162 (merged)
• handbook process: Breaking changes, deprecations, and removing features

Description

What is the feature?

• GitLab administrators can collect Rails and Javascript errors from their self-managed GitLab instance and send them to a Sentry instance for triage - see documentation.
• Note that it is different from the GitLab Error Tracking feature - which enable customers to collect errors from their own applications (not from their GitLab instance).

Where is the feature visible?

• Configuration in "Admin Area > Metrics and Profiling > Sentry" (see screenshot)
• Errors are visible in Sentry (not in GitLab)

What is deprecated?

• Old versions of Sentry - version 21.4.1 and below - won't be supported anymore.
• Users may not be able to see GitLab errors in Sentry if they don't upgrade.

What is the required action for customers?

• Upgrade their Sentry self-hosted instance to version 21.5.0

Affected customers?

• We are assuming that few customers should be impacted by this change, but there is a chance that a small numbers of large customers may be.
• We don't have any usage metrics (requested tracking here).
• FYI Siemens contributed to this feature.

Deprecation Milestone: 16.9 release

Planned Removal: 17.0 release

Action plan

16.9 (Jan 2024)

• confirm sentry versions - #422407 (comment 1702831482)
• create deprecation announcement entry so the deprecation will appear in release posts and on the general deprecation page. - !140284 (merged)
  • Merge before 16.9 cutoff (2024-02-02)
• update relevant documentation page - omnibus-gitlab!7313 (merged)
  • Merge before 16.9 cutoff (2024-02-02)
• Inform CSM/support teams via Slack (thread - list of potential customers impacted)

17.0 (end april 2024):

• upgrade notice is merged to be included into release post - gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com!132162 (merged)
• actual change is merged to be included in release during appropriate time window - !138536 (closed)
• Inform again CSM/support teams via Slack

17.0 release date (may 16 2024):

• check release post

Checklists

Labels

• This issue is labeled deprecation, and with the relevant ~devops::, ~group::, and ~Category: labels.
• This issue is labeled breaking change if the removal of the deprecated item will be a breaking change.

Mentions

• Your GPM has been @mentioned so that they are aware of planned deprecations. The goal is to have reviews happen at least two releases before the final removal of the feature or introduction of a breaking change.
• Your stage's stable counterparts have been @mentioned on this issue. For example, Customer Support, Customer Success (Technical Account Manager), Product Marketing Manager.
  • To see who the stable counterparts are for a product team visit product categories
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Sales/CS please mention @timtams
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Support please mention @gitlab-com/support/managers
    • If there is no stable counterpart listed for Marketing please mention @cfoster3