---
type: reference
---

# Configuring a Monitoring node for Scaling and High Availability

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/issues/3786) in GitLab 12.0.

You can configure a Prometheus node to monitor GitLab.

## Standalone Monitoring node using GitLab Omnibus

The GitLab Omnibus package can be used to configure a standalone Monitoring node running [Prometheus](../monitoring/prometheus/index.md) and [Grafana](../monitoring/performance/grafana_configuration.md).
The monitoring node is not highly available. See [Scaling and High Availability](README.md)
for an overview of GitLab scaling and high availability options.

The steps below are the minimum necessary to configure a Monitoring node running Prometheus and Grafana with
Omnibus:

1. SSH into the Monitoring node.
1. [Download/install](https://about.gitlab.com/install) the Omnibus GitLab
   package you want using **steps 1 and 2** from the GitLab downloads page.
   - Do not complete any other steps on the download page.

1. Make sure to collect [`CONSUL_SERVER_NODES`](database.md#consul-information), which are the IP addresses or DNS records of the Consul server nodes, for the next step. Note they are presented as `Y.Y.Y.Y consul1.gitlab.example.com Z.Z.Z.Z`

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the contents:

   ```ruby
   external_url 'http://gitlab.example.com'

   # Enable Prometheus
   prometheus['enable'] = true
   prometheus['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:9090'
   prometheus['monitor_kubernetes'] = false

   # Enable Grafana
   grafana['enable'] = true
   grafana['admin_password'] = 'toomanysecrets'

   # Enable service discovery for Prometheus
   consul['enable'] = true
   consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] =  true

   # Replace placeholders
   # Y.Y.Y.Y consul1.gitlab.example.com Z.Z.Z.Z
   # with the addresses of the Consul server nodes
   consul['configuration'] = {
      retry_join: %w(Y.Y.Y.Y consul1.gitlab.example.com Z.Z.Z.Z),
   }

   # Disable all other services
   gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false
   alertmanager['enable'] = false
   gitaly['enable'] = false
   gitlab_monitor['enable'] = false
   gitlab_workhorse['enable'] = false
   nginx['enable'] = true
   postgres_exporter['enable'] = false
   postgresql['enable'] = false
   redis['enable'] = false
   redis_exporter['enable'] = false
   sidekiq['enable'] = false
   unicorn['enable'] = false
   node_exporter['enable'] = false
   ```

1. Run `sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure` to compile the configuration.

## Migrating to Service Discovery

Once monitoring using Service Discovery is enabled with `consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] =  true`,
ensure that `prometheus['scrape_configs']` is not set  in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`. Setting both
`consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] =  true` and `prometheus['scrape_configs']` in `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`
will result in errors.

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