New GitLab metrics and registry features help reduce CI/CD bottlenecks
Source: GitLab Blog
CI/CD Job Performance Metrics
- Available tiers: GitLab Premium, GitLab Ultimate
- Status: Limited‑availability beta on GitLab.com; available on GitLab Self‑Managed and GitLab Dedicated when ClickHouse is configured
Overview
A new job‑focused panel on the CI/CD analytics page provides visibility into job‑level performance without the need for custom dashboards.
Key data shown per job (last 30 days by default)
- Typical (P50, median) and worst‑case (P95) duration
- Failure rate
- Job name and stage
The table is sortable, searchable, and paginated.
How to try it
- Navigate to your project → Analyze > CI/CD analytics.
- Locate the CI/CD job performance metrics panel and sort by duration or failure rate.
Documentation
Upcoming improvements
- Stage‑level grouping for aggregated metrics across build, test, and deploy stages.
Feedback
Container Virtual Registry
- Tier: GitLab Premium
- Status: Beta, API‑ready in 18.9
Overview
The Container Virtual Registry provides a single GitLab endpoint that pulls from multiple upstream container registries with built‑in pull‑through caching.
Benefits
- Point pipelines to one virtual registry endpoint.
- Configure multiple upstream registries (Docker Hub, Harbor, Quay, etc.) using long‑lived token authentication.
- Automatic image resolution and caching reduce bandwidth costs and improve reliability.
Current capabilities
- Supports upstream registries with long‑lived token authentication (Docker Hub, Harbor, Quay, and compatible registries).
- Pull‑through caching serves frequently used images from GitLab after the first pull.
- API‑first configuration (UI management in progress).
Future work: support for cloud provider registries requiring IAM authentication (ECR, Google Artifact Registry, Azure Container Registry).
How to test
- SaaS (GitLab.com): Request access via your CSM or comment on the feedback issue to enable the feature flag for your group.
- Self‑managed: Enable the feature flag and configure the virtual registry using the API.
Documentation
Walkthrough
Watch this walkthrough of the Container Virtual Registry Beta: (embed video link if available)
Feedback
Help us build what matters
These betas were created from community requests. Your feedback shapes future features—try the betas and share your experience in the linked feedback issues. This is the first in a series of Core DevOps betas; more are planned throughout the year.