Observe GitLab pipelines and merge requests with Dashboards and SDLC events

  • Tutorial
  • 6min
  • Published Apr 03, 2025

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In this use case, you'll

  • Integrate GitLab and Dynatrace.
  • Use Dashboards to observe GitLab pipelines and Workflows.
  • Use this information to make decisions about streamlining CI/CD pipelines, improving productivity, and getting data-driven insights.

Concepts

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) events

SDLC events are events with a separate event kind in Dynatrace that follow a well-defined semantic for capturing data points from a software component's software development lifecycle. The Software development lifecycle (SDLC) events specification defines the semantics of those events.

Why were GitLab webhook events changed into SDLC events?

The main benefit is data normalization and becoming tool agnostic. As a result, Dynatrace Dashboards, Apps, and Workflows can build on SDLC events with well-defined properties rather than tool-specific details.

Target audience

This information is intended for platform engineers who use GitLab in their Internal Development Platform (IDP).

What will you learn

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to

  • Forward GitLab webhook events to Dynatrace.
  • Normalize the ingested event data.
  • Use Dashboards to analyze the data and derive improvements.

Prerequisites

Install Dynatrace Configuration as Code via Monaco

Steps

  1. Prepare the Monaco configuration.

    1. Create an OAuth client for the Dynatrace Monaco CLI with the following permissions

      • Run apps: app-engine:apps:run
      • View OpenPipeline configurations: openpipeline:configurations:read
      • Edit OpenPipeline configurations: openpipeline:configurations:write
      • Create and edit documents: document:documents:write
      • View documents: document:documents:read

    2. Store the retrieved client ID, secret, and token endpoint as separate environment variables.

      $env:OAUTH_CLIENT_ID='<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>'
      $env:OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET='<YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>'
      $env:OAUTH_TOKEN_ENDPOINT='https://sso.dynatrace.com/sso/oauth2/token'

    3. Clone the Dynatrace configuration as code sample repository using the following commands and move to the gitlab_pipeline_observability directory.

      git clone https://github.com/Dynatrace/dynatrace-configuration-as-code-samples.git
      cd dynatrace-configuration-as-code-samples/gitlab_pipeline_observability

    4. Edit the manifest.yaml by exchanging the <YOUR-DT-ENV-ID> placeholder with your Dynatrace environment ID at the name property and within the URL of the value property.

      manifestVersion: 1.0
      projects:
      - name: pipeline_observability
      environmentGroups:
      - name: group
          environments:
          - name: <YOUR-DT-ENV-ID>
              url:
              type: value
              value: https://<YOUR-DT-ENV-ID>.apps.dynatrace.com
              auth:
                  oAuth:
                  clientId:
                      name: OAUTH_CLIENT_ID
                  clientSecret:
                      name: OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET
                  tokenEndpoint:
                      type: environment
                      value: OAUTH_TOKEN_ENDPOINT

  2. Check the OpenPipeline configuration for SDLC events

    These steps modify the OpenPipeline configuration for SDLC events. If your OpenPipeline configuration contains only default/built-in values, you can directly apply the Monaco configuration. If you have any custom ingest sources, dynamic routes, or pipelines, you'll first need to download your configuration and manually merge it into the Monaco configuration.

    Step 3 will indicate if a configuration merge is needed or if you can apply the provided configuration directly.

    1. Go to OpenPipeline > Events > Software development lifecycle.

    2. Check the Ingest sources, Dynamic routing, and Pipelines.

      • Under Ingest sources, are there any other sources than Endpoint for Software Development Lifecycle events?
      • Under Dynamic routing, are there any other routes than Default route?
      • Under Pipelines, are there any other pipelines than events.sdlc?

    3. If the answer to one of those questions is "yes", follow the steps below. Otherwise, skip ahead to step 4.

      • Download your OpenPipeline configuration

        monaco download -e <YOUR-DT-ENV-ID> --only-openpipeline

      • Open the following files:

        • Your downloaded configuration file, download_<DATE>_<NUMBER>/project/openpipline/events.sdlc.json.
        • The provided configuration file, pipeline_observability/openpipline/events.sdlc.gitlab.json.

      • Merge the contents of events.sdlc.json into events.sdlc.gitlab.json, and then save the file.

    4. Apply the Monaco configuration.

      Run this command to apply the provided Monaco configuration. The configuration consists of (1) Dashboards to analyze GitLab activities and (2) OpenPipeline configuration to normalize GitLab events into SDLC events.

      monaco deploy manifest.yaml

  3. Create an access token

    To generate an access token

    1. Go to Access Tokens.
    2. Select Generate new token.
    3. Enter a name for your token.
      Dynatrace doesn't enforce unique token names. You can create multiple tokens with the same name. Be sure to provide a meaningful name for each token you generate. Proper naming helps you to efficiently manage your tokens and perhaps delete them when they're no longer needed.
    4. Select the required scopes for the token.
    5. Select Generate token.
    6. Copy the generated token to the clipboard. Store the token in a password manager for future use.

      You can only access your token once upon creation. You can't reveal it afterward.

    These are the scopes you need

    • OpenPipeline - Ingest Software Development Lifecycle Events (Built-in)(openpipeline.events_sdlc)
    • OpenPipeline - Ingest Software Development Lifecycle Events (Custom)(openpipeline.events_sdlc.custom)

  4. Create the GitLab webhook

    1. Create the GitLab webhook with the following settings

      • URL: enter your placeholders for your Dynatrace environment ID <YOUR-DT-ENV-ID> and access token <YOUR-ACCESS-TOKEN>.

        https://<YOUR-DT-ENV-ID>.live.dynatrace.com/platform/ingest/custom/events.sdlc/gitlab

      • You can enter an optional webhook name and description, but skip the Secret token setting since a custom header manages request validation.

      • In the Trigger section, select the following events to trigger the webhook.

        • Merge request events
        • Job events
        • Pipeline events

    2. Add custom header to your webhook with the name Authorization and value Api-Token <YOUR-ACCESS-TOKEN>.

Now that you've successfully configured GitLab and Dynatrace, you can use Dashboards and SDLC events to observe your GitLab pipelines and merge requests.

Open the GitLab Pipeline Pulse and the GitLab Merge Request dashboards to observe and analyze:

  • Real-time activities of all merge requests in your organization or selected GitLab repositories.

  • Workflow execution details

  • Job insights

  • Step durations for workflows in your organization or selected GitLab repositories.

Leverage those insights for the following improvement areas of your internal development platform (IDP):

  • Streamline CI/CD pipeline

    Observing pipeline executions lets you identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your CI/CD pipelines. Knowing about these bottlenecks and inefficiencies helps optimize build and deployment processes, leading to faster and more reliable releases.

  • Improve developer productivity

    Automated pipelines reduce the manual effort required for repetitive tasks, such as running tests and checking coding standards. This automation allows developers to focus more on writing code and less on administrative tasks.

  • Get data-driven job insights

    Analyzing telemetry data from merge requests and pipelines provides valuable insights into the development process. You can use the telemetry data to make informed decisions and continuously improve the development flows.

Call to action

We highly value your insights on GitLab pipeline observability. Your feedback is crucial in helping us enhance our tools and services. Visit the Dynatrace Community page to share your experiences, suggestions, and ideas directly in Feedback channel for CI/CD Pipeline Observability.

Further reading

Pipeline Observability

Software Development Lifecycle Events