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  3. Configuring Blackfire Monitoring

Configuring Blackfire Monitoring

Blackfire Profiler and Blackfire Monitoring use the same software stack. See how to get started.

Note

Blackfire Monitoring currently supports PHP 7 and higher on Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows (via Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Python supports Python 2.7 and higher.

Activating Monitoring on an Environment

To activate Blackfire Monitoring on an environment, you need to be manager of that environment or an organization admin.

To activate Blackfire Monitoring on the relevant environment:

  1. Go to your organization menu and click Organization Monitoring Usage.
  2. Click Enable.

Note

Blackfire Monitoring is enabled by default since PHP Probe version 1.61.0 and Python Probe version 1.18.0. Check the PHP probe configuration and the Python probe configuration if you want to explicitly disable it.

Configuring Monitoring Settings

Sample Rate

The Sample Rate represents the percentage of your PHP requests which you would like Blackfire to monitor.

Each request which is monitored generates a “Trace”. This tracing level captures general performance metrics, such as overall response time and memory usage, and generates close-to-no overhead.

We highly recommend you to monitor at least 80% of your requests, but as Blackfire Monitoring pricing is based on a quota of Traces, you can balance:

  • changing your Trace Quota and control the subscription costs;
  • changing your Sample Rate and control the monitoring granularity.

Extended Sample Rate

The Extended Sample Rate represents the percentage of Traces for which Blackfire will collect more in-depth metrics.

Especially, such Extended Traces will include Spans.

A Span is the representation of a function call over time, just like in a profile timeline.

Collecting Spans may generate additional overhead on Extended Traces.

With the Extended Sample Rate, you can balance:

  • the number of end-user requests which may be impacted by the overhead;
  • the possibility for you to collect in-depth performance metrics with “real-world” context.

Note

Blackfire Monitoring natively supports all PHP applications. For some frameworks, including Symfony, Drupal, Prestashop 1.7+, and Ibexa DXP, Blackfire Monitoring already collects the most significant Spans, while avoiding to add more than 15% overhead (maximum currently measured).