The below steps will take us through some basic proof of concept to scrap data or metrics from Atlassian Jira in two different ways. We need to figure out how we want to visualize certain data or metrics and then design them accordingly.

We will describe how we get data or metrics from Atlassian Jira and visualize them in Prometheus and Grafana.

• Prometheus Exporter For Jira

It expose some key metrics on a REST endpoint. Most of the metrics are of operational interest.

• ScriptRunner for Jira

• Atlassian Jira, our source of data or metrics being exported for Prometheus.
• Prometheus, the monitoring system and time series database to persist our data.
• Grafana, the pen platform for beautiful analytics and monitoring to help us do graphing on the Prometheus data.

• Get Atlassian Jira up and running with the below two add-ons.
  • Prometheus Exporter For Jira
  • ScriptRunner for Jira
• Configure ScriptRunner.
  • Expose the custom REST endpoint by using get_jira_issues_rest_endpoint.groovy file.
• Get Prometheus running using Docker.
• Get Grafana running using Docker.
  • Configure visualization of graphs in Grafana.

Praqma is a partner with Atlassian. We have been given access to their Teams In Space demonstration environment, which is a solution with all their applications integrated and with mocked data included. We containerized it ourselves for demonstration purpose, but are not allowed to make it public any of it public.

Unfortunately, if you're not Praqma folks, you will have to use your own Atlassian Jira instance and install the add-ons. Also, adjust the URL and configuration as required below.

• Start Jira from our Teams In Space container, using the adjusted image that includes the related add-ons.

Expect some time for Jira to start up properly. Check the progress of starting Jira under this page.

docker run \
--name teams_in_space \
--detach \
--interactive \
--tty \
--publish 2430:2430 \
--publish 7990:7990 \
--publish 8060:8060 \
--publish 8080:8080 \
--publish 8085:8085 \
--publish 8090:8090 \
praqma/tis:use-prometheus-plugin \
start-jira.sh

• Log into JIRA (credentials for admin can be found in our Teams in Space project) and do a Re-Index under Jira Administration -> System -> Advanced -> Indexing. Direct link.

• After indexing completed, check if the JQL query is working properly: http://jira.teamsinspace.com:8080/issues/?jql=(project%20%3D%20TIS%20and%20assignee%20!%3D%20currentUser()%20and%20updated%20<%3D%20-7d%20and%20resolution%20is%20EMPTY)

JQL results should return 89 issues.

We can serve customized JQL results on a REST endpoint as well. We must make the exported data or metrics compatible for Prometheus.

We can use the similar JQL in get_jira_issues_rest_endpoint.groovy file for ScriptRunner.

• Open Script Console page, under Jira Administration -> Add-ons, left menu chose Script Console under Scriptrunner: Direct link .

• Paste the content of get_jira_issues_rest_endpoint.groovy file into the console. Remember to click the Run button at the bottom of the console.

• After Run, click on the Logs tab, you should get a similar output as below.

2018-06-01 07:52:34,516 DEBUG [runner.ScriptRunnerImpl]: Total issues: 89

• Use the authenticated browser session to browse below link.

http://jira.teamsinspace.com:8080/rest/scriptrunner/latest/custom/getStaledIssues

• Use a terminal to use the below command.

curl -u username:password http://jira.teamsinspace.com:8080/rest/scriptrunner/latest/custom/getStaledIssues

Results: Both queries should respond with the expected result: staled_issues_count 89

If the above queries does not work, try Chrome to run the script once, before Firefox could access the REST endpoint.

Adjust the configuration file so it points to your Atlassian Jira instance, DNS or IP. Run Prometheus from Docker environment.

We run our Teams In Space in container. So, we use the IP since other docker containers like Prometheus does not know about the DNS.

docker inspect --format '{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' teams_in_space
172.18.0.2

Write yourself a new prometheus.yml by copying our template (prometheus.org) and inserting the Jira server address. Or simple run:

sed 's/INSERT_JIRA_IP_OR_DNS_NAME_HERE/172.18.0.2/g' < prometheus.org > prometheus.yml

Modify the basic_auth section with Atlassian Jira credentials in the prometheus.yml file created just above. It sets the Authorization header on every scrape request with the configured username and password.

Alternatively, run the below command from the root of this repository where the prometheus.yml file located.

docker run \
--detach \
--name prometheus \
--publish 9090:9090 \
--volume $(pwd)/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
prom/prometheus

• Access Prometheus on the browser with the below link, or on the IP address you get by running inspect to catch IP again.

docker inspect --format '{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' prometheus
172.18.0.3

Use one of the below URLs.

http://172.18.0.3:9090/ or http://localhost:9090 which usually also works with default Docker configurations.

• Our configuration already configure targets in Prometheus, make sure they have green UP state. Find them under Status -> Targets.

• Select one of the metrics to be executed under the top Graph menu.

Select and then execute the jvm_memory_bytes_used metric, which is exposed by the Prometheus Exporter add-on.

You can then click graph to show simple graphs in Prometheus itself.

Select and then execute the staled_issues_count metric, which is exposed by the ScriptRunner add-on.

Grafana have more options for graphing. So let us try to fire that up and see a simple graph.

• Run Grafana container image.

docker run \
--detach \
--name grafana \
--publish 3000:3000 \
grafana/grafana

• Access Grafana on the browser with the below link. Else, use inspect again as above to catch IP address.

http://localhost:3000/

Default username and password is admin and admin respectively.

Next, add Prometheus data sources.

• Click Add data sources button.

• Use the below configuration.

Name: jira

Type: Prometheus

URL: http://172.18.0.2:9090 (Replace with your Jira server address from above steps)

Access: Browser

Click Save & Test button. Then, Data source is working notification should be shown.

Now we're going to create a dashboard:

• Click on Create or + on the top left area. Select Import on the pop-up menu.

We will use the dashboard template from this project.

The dashboard template has 5249 as its ID.

Enter 5249 into the field of Grafana.com Dashboard. Click Load button.

• Select jira in prometheus field under Options.

• Click Import button.

• Dashboard reflecting Jira metrics will be shown similarly like the below image.

The Jira JQL query, using ScriptRunner to publish data on REST can be shown easily in Grafana also.

Find an existing Dashboard, chose Add panel -> Singlestat. The datasource is there, so just chose the metric staled_issues_count.