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Monitors As Code

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Overview

Monitors As Code aims to allow data engineers to create and maintain monitors programmatically as part of their CI/CD processes.

Prerequisites

Users need to install Sifflet CLI and configure the CLI using the API token generated on the platform.

Workspace and Monitors

A workspace is a collection of objects that are isolated from each other. Creating monitors within workspaces allows users to manage a group of monitors within the same workspace with a single command without interfering with other monitors belonging to different workspaces.

One of the benefits of using workspaces is preventing configuration conflicts, especially when multiple teams manage the monitors' settings.

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Monitors in workspace

Once a monitor is created in a workspace, it becomes read-only on the User Interface (UI). Modifications or deletions are exclusively through Monitors as Code.

Example - Step by step guide

  1. Install and configure Sifflet CLI (version >= 0.3.6) - see Sifflet CLI - Command Line Interface
    1. Install sifflet CLI: pip install sifflet or upgrade it to a version >= 0.3.6: pip install sifflet --upgrade
    2. Create an access token with Editor (or Admin) role
    3. Configure the CLI: sifflet configure --tenant {yourTenant} and paste the access token when needed
    4. Verify that CLI is configured correcly: sifflet status
  2. Change the current directory of your command line to a new directory that will contain your workspace and monitor files
  3. Create and deploy your first workspace
    1. Create the workspace: sifflet code workspace init --file workspace.yaml --name "My First workspace"
    2. A new workspace.yaml file has been generated in the current folder. The file content will look like: 
      kind: Workspace
version: 1
id: ca33195d-28c7-4bba-8293-8539a6bea86b
name: My First workspace
include:
- '*.yaml'
exclude: []
      See Workspace schema for more details about the format of this file
    3. Deploy the workspace: sifflet code workspace apply --file workspace.yaml
  4. Add your first monitor to the workspace
    1. Create a new monitor: sifflet code monitor init --file myFirstMonitor.yaml --name "My first workspace-managed monitor"
    2. A new myFirstMonitor.yaml file has been generated in the current folder. The file content will look like: 
      kind: Monitor
version: 1
id: e75009a8-0199-453e-a3d4-3b56e760b09f
name: My first workspace-managed monitor
incident:
  severity: Low
datasets:
- name: {Name of a dataset}
parameters:
  kind: MonitorKind
      See Monitor schema for more details about the format of this file
    3. Replace {MonitorKind} with the kind of monitor you want to create. For test purpose, you can try with SchemaChange. See Parameters list and example for every monitor type for details about what parameters to add to this section.
    4. Replace {Name of a dataset} by the name of a dataset you can find in the Sifflet data catalog.
    5. Deploy the workspace: sifflet code workspace apply --file workspace.yaml
  5. You should now see your new monitor in the Sifflet UI (you can search for My first workspace-managed monitor in the Monitors page)
  6. (Optional) Cleanup
    1. You can now clean-up the data from this demo with: sifflet code workspace delete --id {Workspace ID}
    2. This will remove the workspace and all attached monitors.

Managing workspaces

Creating a workspace

  1. Start by initializing a workspace locally with sifflet code workspace init --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml --name {workspaceName}. This will create a {workspaceFileName}.yaml file locally - in particular, it will generate the workspace UUID.
  2. Update the file {workspaceFileName}.yamlwith the list of monitors you want to include in the workspace (see the following documentation section to learn more on how to set a monitor)

Applying a workspace

Finally, you can deploy the workspace with sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml.

Example:

sifflet code workspace apply --file myWorkspace.yaml --name "My first workspace"

kind: Workspace
version: 1
id: 37114815-3d82-4d8a-93e6-4b2bf78afe84
name: My first workspace
description: |
  This is a great workspace.
  You can find the source at https://gitlab.com/...
include:
 - "**/*.yaml"  # Glob pattern
 - ...
exclude:
 - "dbt/**"  # Glob pattern
 - ...

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Dry runs

You can dry run a workspace to understand the expected changes and spot the one you are unaware of before applying them to the monitors.

sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceYamlFile} --dry-run

Deleting a workspace with the attached monitors

sifflet code workspace delete --id {workspaceId}

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Delete all attached monitors

This command will delete all monitors created via this workspace, with their associated data. This change cannot be undone.

Managing monitors

Creating a monitor via code

  1. Initialize a new monitor locally with sifflet code monitor init --file {monitorFileName} --name {monitorName}.
  2. Update the file with the parameters you need. (see Monitor schema):
  3. If necessary, update the workspace file {workspaceFileName}.yaml to include the new monitor in the include section.
  4. Then, deploy it using sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml

Cloning from an existing monitor

  1. On the UI, go to the monitor details page of the monitor that will be copied
  2. Click on Show as YAML code
  1. Copy the YAML code
  2. Paste it in your favorite text/code editor
  3. Update the file with the required changes
    At least, update the ID with a new UUID (currently, migrating UI-managed monitors to code-managed monitors is not supported).
  4. Save the file
  5. If necessary, update the workspace file {workspaceFileName}.yaml to include the new monitor in the include section.
  6. Deploy using sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml

Creating an As Code monitor leveraging the UI

  1. In the UI, create a new monitor
  2. Configure the monitor
  3. Once ready, instead of Save, click on Show as YAML code

  4. Copy the YAML code
  5. Paste it in your favorite text/code editor
  6. Update the file if needed
  7. Save the file
  8. If necessary, update the workspace file {workspaceFileName}.yaml to include the new monitor in the include section.
  9. Then, deploy it using sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml

Deleting a monitor

  1. Remove the YAML file corresponding to the monitor (the most reliable way is to find it by id)
  2. Then, deploy the workspace using sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml --force-delete

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--force-delete flag

To be able to delete objects from a workspace, you need to specify the --force-delete flag.

Be cautious when using it as it will remove any monitors and all associated data (such as monitor runs and incidents) that cannot be found in the local workspace.

Also, note that a monitor is uniquely identified by its ID, so changing the id will cause the monitor attached to the old ID to be deleted (with all its associated data), and a new monitor to be created.

Integrating in the CI/CD

Run the following command to apply a workspace from your CI/CD using Sifflet CLI: 

export SIFFLET_BACKEND_URL={mySiffletUrl}
export SIFFLET_TOKEN={mySecretToken}
sifflet code workspace apply --file {workspaceFileName}.yaml

Updated 4 months ago