Metrics

Experimental feature

This feature was added in v1.0.4 and is still considered experimental. If you notice any strange behavior, please raise a ticket in the repository issues.

Metrics can be used to track how Watchtower behaves over time.

To use this feature, you have to set an API token and enable the metrics API, as well as creating a port mapping for your container for port 8080.

Note

You can enable both the metrics API and the update API simultaneously by using both --http-api-metrics and --http-api-update flags.

The metrics API endpoint is /v1/metrics and provides Prometheus-compatible metrics. This is separate from the /v1/update endpoint which triggers updates and returns JSON results.

Available Metrics

Name	Type	Description
watchtower_containers_scanned	Gauge	Number of containers scanned for changes by watchtower during the last scan
watchtower_containers_updated	Gauge	Number of containers updated by watchtower during the last scan
watchtower_containers_failed	Gauge	Number of containers where update failed during the last scan
watchtower_scans_total	Counter	Number of scans since the watchtower started
watchtower_scans_skipped	Counter	Number of skipped scans since watchtower started

Example Prometheus scrape_config

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: watchtower
    scrape_interval: 5s
    metrics_path: /v1/metrics
    bearer_token: demotoken
    static_configs:
      - targets:
        - 'watchtower:8080'

Replace demotoken with the Bearer token you have set accordingly.

Demo

The repository contains a demo with prometheus and grafana, available through /examples/metrics/docker-compose.yml. This demo is preconfigured with a dashboard, which will look something like this: