Metrics

Each almad process can expose Prometheus metrics for the services it runs. An SSH-only process publishes SSH and instance-wide metrics, so no single host is expected to report the entire catalog.

Metrics use Prometheus exposition format at :3081/metrics. Setting ALMA_METRICS_LISTEN binds that dedicated listener. While it is unset the diagnostic listener serves /metrics itself, so the endpoint is off only when neither listener is bound. See Monitoring for the listener settings, a scrape configuration, and recommended alerting signals.

Reading the catalog

Query every name exactly as the catalog spells it. Prefixes are not uniform: some metrics carry an alma_ prefix and most do not, and the two forms sit side by side in the same table. Adding or dropping a prefix silently returns an empty result rather than an error.

The Component column identifies the service that publishes each metric. The names match those used throughout the docs. A metric listed under Proxy Service appears only on hosts running almad --proxy-service.

Types follow Prometheus conventions. A counter only rises and resets to zero on restart. Query it with rate() instead of reading it directly. A gauge reports a current value. A histogram publishes _bucket, _sum, and _count series. Use histogram_quantile() to calculate latency percentiles.

Metrics

Auth Service and backends

Name	Type	Component	Description
audit_failed_disk_monitoring	counter	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of times disk monitoring failed.
audit_failed_emit_events	counter	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of times emitting audit events failed.
audit_percentage_disk_space_used	gauge	AlmaForge Audit Log	Percentage of disk space used.
audit_server_open_files	gauge	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of open audit files.
auth_generate_requests_throttled_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of throttled requests to generate new server keys.
auth_generate_requests_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of requests to generate new server keys.
auth_generate_requests	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Number of current generate requests.
auth_generate_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Auth	Latency for generate requests.
backend_batch_read_requests_total	counter	cache	Number of read requests to the backend.
backend_batch_read_seconds	histogram	cache	Latency for batch read operations.
backend_batch_write_requests_total	counter	cache	Number of batch write requests to the backend.
backend_batch_write_seconds	histogram	cache	Latency for backend batch write operations.
backend_read_requests_total	counter	cache	Number of read requests to the backend.
backend_read_seconds	histogram	cache	Latency for read operations.
backend_requests	counter	cache	Number of requests to the backend (reads, writes, and keepalives).
backend_write_requests_total	counter	cache	Number of write requests to the backend.
backend_write_seconds	histogram	cache	Latency for backend write operations.
backend_batch_read_requests_failed_total	counter	cache	Number of failed batch read requests to the backend.
backend_batch_write_requests_failed_total	counter	cache	Number of failed batch write requests to the backend.
backend_read_requests_failed_total	counter	cache	Number of failed read requests to the backend.
backend_write_requests_failed_total	counter	cache	Number of failed write requests to the backend.
backend_watchers_total	gauge	cache	Number of active backend watchers.
backend_watcher_queues_total	gauge	cache	Backend watcher queue sizes.
cluster_name_not_found_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of times a cluster was not found.
dynamo_requests_total	counter	DynamoDB	Total number of requests to the DynamoDB API.
dynamo_requests	counter	DynamoDB	Total number of requests to the DynamoDB API grouped by result.
dynamo_requests_seconds	histogram	DynamoDB	Latency of DynamoDB API requests.
etcd_backend_batch_read_requests	counter	etcd	Number of read requests to the etcd database.
etcd_backend_batch_read_seconds	histogram	etcd	Latency for etcd read operations.
etcd_backend_read_requests	counter	etcd	Number of read requests to the etcd database.
etcd_backend_read_seconds	histogram	etcd	Latency for etcd read operations.
etcd_backend_tx_requests	counter	etcd	Number of transaction requests to the database.
etcd_backend_tx_seconds	histogram	etcd	Latency for etcd transaction operations.
etcd_backend_write_requests	counter	etcd	Number of write requests to the database.
etcd_backend_write_seconds	histogram	etcd	Latency for etcd write operations.
alma_etcd_events	counter	etcd	Total number of etcd events processed.
alma_etcd_event_backpressure	counter	etcd	Total number of times event processing encountered backpressure.
firestore_events_backend_batch_read_requests	counter	GCP Cloud Firestore	Number of batch read requests to Cloud Firestore events.
firestore_events_backend_batch_read_seconds	histogram	GCP Cloud Firestore	Latency for Cloud Firestore events batch read operations.
firestore_events_backend_batch_write_requests	counter	GCP Cloud Firestore	Number of batch write requests to Cloud Firestore events.
firestore_events_backend_batch_write_seconds	histogram	GCP Cloud Firestore	Latency for Cloud Firestore events batch write operations.
firestore_events_backend_write_requests	counter	GCP Cloud Firestore	Number of write requests to Cloud Firestore events.
firestore_events_backend_write_seconds	histogram	GCP Cloud Firestore	Latency for Cloud Firestore events write operations.
gcs_event_storage_downloads_seconds	histogram	GCP GCS	Latency for GCS download operations.
gcs_event_storage_downloads	counter	GCP GCS	Number of downloads from the GCS backend.
gcs_event_storage_uploads_seconds	histogram	GCP GCS	Latency for GCS upload operations.
gcs_event_storage_uploads	counter	GCP GCS	Number of uploads to the GCS backend.
grpc_server_started_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Total number of RPCs started on the server.
grpc_server_handled_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Total number of RPCs completed on the server, regardless of success or failure.
grpc_server_msg_received_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Total number of RPC stream messages received on the server.
grpc_server_msg_sent_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Total number of gRPC stream messages sent by the server.
heartbeat_connections_received_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of times the Auth Service received a heartbeat connection.
heartbeats_missed_total	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Number of heartbeats the Auth Service expected and did not receive.
s3_requests_total	counter	Amazon S3	Total number of requests to the S3 API.
s3_requests	counter	Amazon S3	Total number of requests to the S3 API grouped by result.
s3_requests_seconds	histogram	Amazon S3	Request latency for the S3 API.
alma_audit_emit_events	counter	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of audit events emitted.
alma_audit_parquetlog_batch_processing_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Audit Log	Duration of processing single batch of events in the Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_s3_flush_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Audit Log	Duration of flushing parquet files to S3 in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_delete_events_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Audit Log	Duration of deletion events from SQS in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_batch_size	histogram	AlmaForge Audit Log	Overall size of events in single batch in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_batch_count	counter	AlmaForge Audit Log	Total number of events in single batch in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_last_processed_timestamp	gauge	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of last processing time in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_age_oldest_processed_message	gauge	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of age of oldest event in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_audit_parquetlog_errors_from_collect_count	counter	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of collect failures in Parquet-format audit log.
alma_access_requests_created	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of access requests created, by requested roles and resources.
alma_connected_resources	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Number and type of resources connected via keepalives.
alma_device_code_inflight	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Device-authorization records pending approval or exchange. Every interactive login opens one.
alma_device_code_outcome_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Device-authorization flows that reached a terminal outcome, grouped by outcome.
alma_device_code_token_latency_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Auth	Latency of the device-code token endpoint, grouped by outcome.
alma_incomplete_session_uploads_total	gauge	AlmaForge Audit Log	Number of sessions not yet uploaded to the Auth Service.
alma_total_instances	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Number of instances the Auth Service currently counts in the cluster.
alma_user_certificates_generated	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of user certificates issued.
alma_registered_servers	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	The number of AlmaForge services that are connected to an Auth Service instance grouped by version.
alma_registered_servers_by_install_methods	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	The number of AlmaForge services that are connected to an Auth Service instance grouped by install methods.
user_login_total	counter	AlmaForge Auth	Number of user logins.
alma_migrations	gauge	AlmaForge Auth	Tracks for each migration if it is active (1) or not (0).
watcher_event_sizes	histogram	cache	Overall size of events emitted.
watcher_events	histogram	cache	Per resource size of events emitted.

Proxy Service

Name	Type	Component	Description
failed_connect_to_node_attempts_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of failed SSH connection attempts to the SSH Service. Use with alma_connect_to_node_attempts_total to get the failure rate.
failed_login_attempts_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of failed alma login or alma ssh logins.
grpc_client_started_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of RPCs started on the client.
grpc_client_handled_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of RPCs completed on the client, regardless of success or failure.
grpc_client_msg_received_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of RPC stream messages received on the client.
grpc_client_msg_sent_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of gRPC stream messages sent by the client.
proxy_connection_limit_exceeded_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of connections that exceeded the Proxy Service connection limit.
proxy_peer_client_dial_error_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of errors encountered dialing peer Proxy Service instances.
proxy_peer_client_connections	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of open connections to peer Proxy Service instances.
proxy_peer_client_rpc	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of current client RPC requests.
proxy_peer_client_rpc_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of client RPC requests.
proxy_peer_client_rpc_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Duration in seconds of RPCs sent by the client.
proxy_peer_client_message_sent_size	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Size of messages sent by the client.
proxy_peer_client_message_received_size	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Size of messages received by the client.
proxy_peer_server_connections	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of currently opened connection to peer Proxy Service clients.
proxy_peer_server_rpc	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of current server RPC requests.
proxy_peer_server_rpc_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Total number of server RPC requests.
proxy_peer_server_rpc_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Duration in seconds of RPCs sent by the server.
proxy_peer_server_message_sent_size	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Size of messages sent by the server.
proxy_peer_server_message_received_size	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Size of messages received by the server.
proxy_ssh_sessions_total	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of active sessions through this Proxy Service instance.
missing_ssh_tunnels	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of missing SSH tunnels. Used to debug if AlmaForge instances have discovered all Proxy Service instances.
alma_connect_to_node_attempts_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of SSH connection attempts to an SSH Service. Use with failed_connect_to_node_attempts_total to get the failure rate.
alma_reverse_ssh_tunnels	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of reverse SSH tunnels connected to the AlmaForge Proxy Service by AlmaForge instances.
alma_proxy_db_connection_setup_time_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Time to establish connection to DB service from Proxy service.
alma_proxy_db_connection_dial_attempts_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of dial attempts from Proxy to DB service made.
alma_proxy_db_connection_dial_failures_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of failed dial attempts from Proxy to DB service made.
alma_proxy_db_attempted_servers_total	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of servers processed during connection attempt to the DB service from Proxy service.
alma_proxy_db_connection_tls_config_time_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Time to fetch TLS configuration for the connection to DB service from Proxy service.
alma_proxy_db_active_connections_total	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Number of currently active connections to DB service from Proxy service.
alma_accepted_connections_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Connections accepted, by ingress path and service. Separates traffic that arrived through the multiplex from traffic on a dedicated port.
alma_active_connections	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Connections currently open, by ingress path and service.
alma_authenticated_accepted_connections_total	counter	AlmaForge Proxy	Accepted connections that went on to authenticate. Compare with alma_accepted_connections_total for the failure rate.
alma_authenticated_active_connections	gauge	AlmaForge Proxy	Open connections that authenticated.
reversetunnel_conn_latency	histogram	AlmaForge Proxy	Time to reach an agent over a reverse tunnel, by dial type and connection stage.

Database Service

Name	Type	Component	Description
alma_db_messages_from_client_total	counter	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of messages (packets) received from the DB client.
alma_db_messages_from_server_total	counter	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of messages (packets) received from the DB server.
alma_db_method_call_count_total	counter	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of times a DB method was called.
alma_db_method_call_latency_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Database Service	Call latency for database method calls.
alma_db_initialized_connections_total	counter	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of initialized DB connections.
alma_db_active_connections_total	gauge	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of active DB connections.
alma_db_connection_durations_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Database Service	Duration of DB connection.
alma_db_connection_setup_time_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Database Service	Time to establish a database connection before handling requests.
alma_db_errors_total	counter	AlmaForge Database Service	Number of synthetic DB errors sent to the client.

Kubernetes Access

The following tables identify all metrics available in the proxy service if Kubernetes access is enabled.

Client

The following table identifies all metrics the Kubernetes Proxy records for its connections to the upstream that serves a cluster, which is an agent running the Kubernetes Service.

Name	Type	Component	Description
alma_kubernetes_client_in_flight_requests	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	In-flight requests waiting for the upstream response.
alma_kubernetes_client_requests_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Total number of requests sent to the upstream AlmaForge proxy, kube_service or Kubernetes Cluster servers.
alma_kubernetes_client_tls_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Latency distribution of TLS handshakes.
alma_kubernetes_client_got_conn_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Latency distribution of time to dial to the upstream server - using reverse tunnel or direct dialer.
alma_kubernetes_client_first_byte_response_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Latency distribution of time to receive the first response byte from the upstream server.
alma_kubernetes_client_request_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Latency distribution of the upstream request time.

Server

The following table identifies all metrics available for incoming connections.

Name	Type	Component	Description
alma_kubernetes_server_in_flight_requests	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	In-flight requests currently handled by the server.
alma_kubernetes_server_api_requests_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Total number of requests handled by the server.
alma_kubernetes_server_request_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Latency distribution of the total request time.
alma_kubernetes_server_response_size_bytes	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Distribution of the response size.
alma_kubernetes_server_exec_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Number of active kubectl exec sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_exec_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Total number of kubectl exec sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_portforward_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Number of active kubectl portforward sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_portforward_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Total number of kubectl port-forward sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_join_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Number of active joining sessions,
alma_kubernetes_server_join_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Proxy	Total number of joining sessions.

AlmaForge SSH Service

Name	Type	Component	Description
user_max_concurrent_sessions_hit_total	counter	AlmaForge SSH	Number of times a user exceeded their concurrent session limit.

AlmaForge Kubernetes Service

The following table identifies all metrics the Kubernetes Service records for its connections to the upstream, which is always a Kubernetes cluster.

Name	Type	Component	Description
alma_kubernetes_client_in_flight_requests	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	In-flight requests waiting for the upstream response.
alma_kubernetes_client_requests_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Total number of requests sent to the upstream Proxy Service, Kubernetes Service, or Kubernetes Cluster servers.
alma_kubernetes_client_tls_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Latency distribution of TLS handshakes.
alma_kubernetes_client_got_conn_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Latency distribution of time to dial to the upstream server - using reversetunnel or direct dialer.
alma_kubernetes_client_first_byte_response_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Latency distribution of time to receive the first response byte from the upstream server.
alma_kubernetes_client_request_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Latency distribution of the upstream request time.

The following table identifies all metrics available for incoming connections.

Name	Type	Component	Description
alma_kubernetes_server_in_flight_requests	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	In-flight requests currently handled by the server.
alma_kubernetes_server_api_requests_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Total number of requests handled by the server.
alma_kubernetes_server_request_duration_seconds	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Latency distribution of the total request time.
alma_kubernetes_server_response_size_bytes	histogram	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Distribution of the response size.
alma_kubernetes_server_exec_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Number of active kubectl exec sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_exec_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Total number of kubectl exec sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_portforward_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Number of active kubectl portforward sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_portforward_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Total number of kubectl port-forward sessions.
alma_kubernetes_server_join_in_flight_sessions	gauge	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Number of active joining sessions,
alma_kubernetes_server_join_sessions_total	counter	AlmaForge Kubernetes Service	Total number of joining sessions.

All AlmaForge instances

Name	Type	Component	Description
process_state	gauge	AlmaForge	State of the almad process: 0 - ok, 1 - recovering, 2 - degraded, 3 - starting.
certificate_mismatch_total	counter	AlmaForge	Number of SSH server login failures due to a certificate mismatch.
rx	counter	AlmaForge	Number of bytes received during an SSH connection.
server_interactive_sessions_total	gauge	AlmaForge	Number of active sessions.
alma_build_info	gauge	AlmaForge	Provides build information of AlmaForge including gitref (git describe --long --tags), Go version, and AlmaForge version. The value of this gauge will always be 1.
alma_cache_events	counter	AlmaForge	Number of events received by a AlmaForge service cache. AlmaForge's Auth Service, Proxy Service, and other services cache incoming events related to their service.
alma_cache_stale_events	counter	AlmaForge	Number of stale events received by a AlmaForge service cache. A high percentage of stale events can indicate a degraded backend.
tx	counter	AlmaForge	Number of bytes transmitted during an SSH connection.

Go runtime metrics

These metrics are surfaced by the Go runtime and are not specific to AlmaForge.

Name	Type	Component	Description
go_gc_duration_seconds	summary	Internal Go	A summary of GC invocation durations.
go_goroutines	gauge	Internal Go	Number of goroutines that currently exist.
go_info	gauge	Internal Go	Information about the Go environment.
go_memstats_alloc_bytes_total	counter	Internal Go	Total number of bytes allocated, even if freed.
go_memstats_alloc_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes allocated and still in use.
go_memstats_buck_hash_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes used by the profiling bucket hash table.
go_memstats_frees_total	counter	Internal Go	Total number of frees.
go_memstats_gc_cpu_fraction	gauge	Internal Go	The fraction of this program's available CPU time used by the GC since the program started.
go_memstats_gc_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes used for garbage collection system metadata.
go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes allocated and still in use.
go_memstats_heap_idle_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes waiting to be used.
go_memstats_heap_inuse_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes that are in use.
go_memstats_heap_objects	gauge	Internal Go	Number of allocated objects.
go_memstats_heap_released_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes released to the OS.
go_memstats_heap_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes obtained from the system.
go_memstats_last_gc_time_seconds	gauge	Internal Go	Number of seconds since the Unix epoch of the last garbage collection.
go_memstats_lookups_total	counter	Internal Go	Total number of pointer lookups.
go_memstats_mallocs_total	counter	Internal Go	Total number of mallocs.
go_memstats_mcache_inuse_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes in use by mcache structures.
go_memstats_mcache_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes used for mcache structures obtained from system.
go_memstats_mspan_inuse_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes in use by mspan structures.
go_memstats_mspan_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes used for mspan structures obtained from system.
go_memstats_next_gc_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of heap bytes when next the garbage collection will take place.
go_memstats_other_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes used for other system allocations.
go_memstats_stack_inuse_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes in use by the stack allocator.
go_memstats_stack_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes obtained from the system for stack allocator.
go_memstats_sys_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Number of bytes obtained from the system.
go_threads	gauge	Internal Go	Number of OS threads created.
process_cpu_seconds_total	counter	Internal Go	Total user and system CPU time spent in seconds.
process_max_fds	gauge	Internal Go	Maximum number of open file descriptors.
process_open_fds	gauge	Internal Go	Number of open file descriptors.
process_resident_memory_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Resident memory size in bytes.
process_start_time_seconds	gauge	Internal Go	Start time of the process since the Unix epoch in seconds.
process_virtual_memory_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Virtual memory size in bytes.
process_virtual_memory_max_bytes	gauge	Internal Go	Maximum amount of virtual memory available in bytes.

Prometheus

Name	Type	Component	Description
promhttp_metric_handler_requests_in_flight	gauge	prometheus	Current number of scrapes being served.
promhttp_metric_handler_requests_total	counter	prometheus	Total number of scrapes by HTTP status code.

References

• Monitoring: endpoints, scrape configuration, and the signals worth alerting on.
• Networking: every port almad listens on, including the metrics and diagnostic listeners.
• Audit Events: records of user and system activity rather than process performance.
• Scaling: how to act on saturation signals.