How to build CI/CD observability at scale

This post details the implementation of a containerized observability solution for GitLab CI/CD, combining the open-source gitlab-ci-pipelines-exporter with Prometheus and Grafana. It outlines the challenges of measuring CI/CD performance at scale, defines key metrics (pipeline duration, job success rates, queue times, runner utilization), and presents solution architecture with specific Grafana dashboards (Pipeline Overview, Job Performance, Runner & Infrastructure, Deployment Frequency). It provides Kubernetes deployment instructions for the Pipeline Exporter, Node Exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana, along with network policy configuration and configuration references for exporters, Prometheus, and Grafana data sources. Key metrics like pipeline duration, job status, and artifact size are also detailed.