how_slow

NOTICE: This project defunct, and all versions have been yanked from rubygems.org. The code remains here only so you can install it by hand if you really need to do so. I recommend something else, like request-log-analyzer as a replacement. It's quite powerful, customizable to your own logging format, and well supported.

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Collect Rails app performance and usage metrics without relying on 3rd party services or setting up a separate logging server.

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The basics

• This is the README for v0.4.0
• how_slow uses Semantic Versioning
• Verified bugs should be opened directly on github
• Run tests with rake test
• how_slow is built against several ruby implementations. See .travis.yml

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Reasons to use how_slow

• You want a solution that doesn't rely on a 3rd party, simplifying your application dependencies.
• You're in an environment where the risk of sensitive data accidentally being leaked to a 3rd party service is unacceptable. So, you can't use NewRelic.
• You don't need all the fancy charts and graphs of NewRelic and you're not afraid of editing some simple config files to get just the metrics you want.
• The idea of setting up and maintaining a statsd server, along with a graphing/charting software stack, just to display your statistics sounds like a waste of time.
• 99% of your needs could be fulfilled by a simple, weekly email that lists your slowest controller actions and your most used features.

Metrics Storage

Performance stats

how_slow will capture performance metrics for every single controller action in your Rails app by default, and place them in the file:

%Rails.root%/log/metrics.log

You can change the list of controller actions captured.

You can change the name of this file.

Usage stats

Want to count logins?

In your controller code:

# Use the `count` method to count an arbitrarily named metric
HowSlow::Collector::count('user_login')

Specify an optional number parameter to count up or down by any whole number:

# e.g. customer ordered three items:
HowSlow::Collector::count('total_items_ordered', 3)

# e.g. customer returned two items:
HowSlow::Collector::count('total_items_ordered', -2)

# e.g. count them separately
HowSlow::Collector::count('total_items_ordered', 3)
HowSlow::Collector::count('total_items_returned', 2)

Metrics Retrieval

Via email:

# rake task - this will ONLY use the defaults specified in your
# `config/environment.rb` OR `config/environments/[Rails.env]` file
rake how_slow:metrics_email

# in code - this allows you to override the defaults in your
# environment file
HowSlow::Mailer.metrics_email(options)

A sample of a real email generated from this:

Slowest 100 requests, sorted by total_runtime:
--------------------
datetime :: controller/action    total / db / view / other in milliseconds
--------------------
2013-08-12T15:47:46+00:00 :: sections/show      2355 / 92 / 1693 / 569
2013-08-12T15:45:35+00:00 :: sections/show      1276 / 57 / 913 / 305
2013-08-11T00:03:20+00:00 :: log_books/index    598 / 10 / 585 / 2
2013-08-17T12:38:52+00:00 :: sections/show      469 / 51 / 409 / 7
2013-08-14T21:24:01+00:00 :: sections/show      460 / 20 / 431 / 7
2013-08-14T05:40:08+00:00 :: sections/show      459 / 32 / 419 / 7
2013-08-17T12:38:53+00:00 :: sections/show      458 / 35 / 415 / 7
2013-08-13T03:42:57+00:00 :: sections/show      408 / 27 / 337 / 43
2013-08-13T01:24:11+00:00 :: sections/show      392 / 22 / 362 / 7
2013-08-15T01:37:02+00:00 :: sections/show      387 / 40 / 339 / 7

...(summarized)...

Counters sorted by alpha_asc:
--------------------
views.homepage: 2226
views.login.total: 2
views.sections.show.by-user.anonymous: 73
views.sections.show.by-provider.facebook: 3
views.sections.show.total: 76

You can name your counters whatever you like, but since I like to get mine sorted by alphebetical order, ascending, I name them as if they were namespaces, in order to group similar counter metrics together.

• See the lib/how_slow/mailer.rb class for which options are availble. It's possible to specify the number of metrics reported, the sort order, and how far back in time you want the report to cover.
• Configure default email options in your environemnt file. See lib/how_slow/setup.rb for a list of defaults.

There's also a Reporter class to get metrics in-app:

See lib/how_slow/reporter.rb for more examples and documentation on default options:

reporter = HowSlow::Reporter.new
reporter.slowest_actions_by(:total_runtime)
=> [HowSlow::Metrics::Action<# >, ...]   # sorted by #total_runtime, DESC

reporter.slowest_actions_by(:db_runtime, { :number_of_actions => 50, :retention => 1.month.ago})
=> [HowSlow::Metrics::Action<# >, ...]   # the 50 longest DB actions in the last month

reporter.sum_counters_by('user_login')   # retrieve the value of any counter
=> 526354

reporter.sum_counters_by('user_login', 1.month.ago) # restrict counts to just the last month
=> 1254

Configuration

Basic options:

• :event_subscriptions - an array of regex patterns used to match actions. For more on how that works, see the documentation on ActiveSupport::Notifications Subscribers. how_slow will default to tracking all controller actions automatically if you don't explicitly set this option.
• :logger_filename - the name of the file used to write metrics data. The default is metrics.log, which winds up in "#{Rails.root}/log/metrics.log"
• :storage - the storage method. Right now the default (and only option) is :log_file, however support for collecting metrics into your database via an :active_record option has been requested. That means being able to write more complex metrics reports via SQL and the ActiveRecord Query Interface will be possible in the future. If you're a power user, want to collect a ton of metrics, or want to do more advanced reporting such as grouping metrics by day of the week, etc., then you'll want to go this direction. The :log_file option is provided as a very stripped down, simple choice if all you want for you app metrics is simplicity.

Metrics email options:

• :email_sender_address - the email address that will appear in the from field
• :email_recipients - the list of email address in the to field
• :email_subject - the subject of the metrics report email
• :email_actions_sort - the attribute by which to sort the action metrics in the report - one of [:total_runtime, :db_runtime, :view_runtime]
• :email_actions_retention - how far back in time to consider action metrics for the email report, such as 7.days or 1.month
• :email_counters_events - a list of the events to include in the report - the default is nil, which means "give me all the counter values"
• :email_counters_sort - how to sort the counters - one of [:alpha_asc, :alpha_desc, :numeric_asc, :numeric_desc]
• :email_counters_retention - how far back in time to consider counter metrics for the email report, such as 7.days or 1.month

Example configuration:

In your app's config/environments/production.rb, you might use something like the options below to send a weekly performance and usage statistics email:

HowSlow.configure(
  :email_recipients        => %w([email protected] [email protected]),
  :email_sender_address    => "[email protected]",
  :email_subject           => "Weekly metrics report",
  :email_actions_retention => 7.days,
  :email_actions_max       => 100
)

Email is sent via ActionMailer