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Automatically embed metrics in issue for all gitlab-configured alerts

Problem to solve

Charts help users visualize what went wrong with triaging an incident. If a particular threshold was exceeded, we can reduce time spent during investigation by automatically embedding the relevant metrics chart in the issue.

Intended users

Sasha the Software Developer
Devon the DevOps Engineer
Sidney the Systems Administrator

Further details

This work contributes to the Incident Management Vision

Proposal

The first iteration will involve metrics for GitLab-configured alerts (where a chart already exists on our metrics dashboard). We would:

  • Find the metric and use the corresponding dashboard/embed configuration including chart title, units, etc.
  • Automatically embed a chart visualization for the metric that triggered the alert. Set the time frame to be event time +/- 30 minutes.

The chart should display in the issue description, after the summary and before the alert details (ie, the rest of the alert payload).

Out of scope for this iteration

  • Embedding metrics in issue from Prometheus alerts not created in GitLab. Will be tackled in #195739 (closed)
  • Embedding metrics in issues created from alerts triggered by the generic alert endpoint

Permissions and Security

Documentation

Testing

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

What is the type of buyer?

Links / references

Edited by Amelia Bauerly