Monitor Your GitHub Repo with InfluxDB
Template built by
Telegraf Plugins used:
Included Resources:
- 1 Telegraf:
`Configuration: Github Inputs` - 1 Dashboards:
`Github - InfluxData [InfluxDB & Telegraf repos]` - 1 Bucket:
`github` - 1 Label:
`github`
Quick Install
If you have your InfluxDB credentials configured in the CLI, you can install this template with:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/influxdata/community-templates/master/github/github.yml
Monitoring your GitHub repo with InfluxDB
The website GitHub, which itself has been a subsidiary of Microsoft since 2018, provides both hosting and software development, along with version control, using Git. For those unfamiliar, Git is a distributed version-control system used to track changes in the source code of an application — something that is itself a critical part of the software development process.
In other words, it's an invaluable resource designed to help make coordinating work among programmers easier than ever before. By supporting distributed, non-linear workflows, it offers an unprecedented level of data integrity and speed to development teams everywhere.
GitHub is also notable because it offers its basic services totally free. Some of the more advanced and professional-driven services, however, require users to upgrade to a paid enterprise account. The free tier offers up to three collaborators per repository, though unlimited private repositories are also available to all plans.
What is GitHub Repo?
GitHub is a Git repository (repo) hosting service that helps developers store and manage their code, as well as track and control changes to their code.
In their repository, they can view the various branches that are being worked on, and be notified when someone makes a commit. Once a developer makes a change, that code can be submitted back to a branch by making a pull request (PR). A pull request is basically asking the person in charge of the branch to include your code. It also helps that person see exactly what you’ve changed in the code.
If you wanted to edit some or all of the source code on your own account on a more permanent basis, you could also fork it by clicking the Fork button (a fork is similar in concept to a branch, but a fork is more permanent).
Why monitor your GitHub repo
You may want to monitor your GitHub repo to see how active it is. GitHub itself has some analytics for you to track in GitHub but limits them to a two-week window. By collecting and visualizing the metrics in InfluxDB, you get a view of the activity from the moment you start collecting the GitHub metrics.
The GitHub Monitoring Template uses the GitHub Telegraf plugin to collect the metrics that are stored in InfluxDB, which are then visualized in the included dashboard.
How to use the GitHub Monitoring Template
Once your InfluxDB credentials have been properly configured in the CLI, you can install the GitHub monitoring template using the Quick Install command. Once installed, the data for the dashboard will be populated by the included Telegraf configuration, which includes the relevant GitHub Input. Note that you might need to customize the input configuration to better serve your needs, including by specifying a new input value.
To find out more information about environmental variables within the Telegraf configuration, consult the following link.
Key GitHub metrics to monitor
Some of the most important GitHub metrics that you should proactively monitor include:
- Forks
- Pull Requests
- Stars
- Watchers
Related Resources
GitHub Telegraf Plugin
Gather repository information from GitHub hosted repositories.
Intro to Telegraf and the plugin ecosystem
How to install and configure Telegraf, InfluxDB’s native data collector that supports over 200 inputs and outputs.
Using InfluxDB Cloud to Monitor GitHub Repos
An easy way to keep an eye on your GitHub Repos.