Configuring Blackfire Continuous Profiler for Ruby ¶

Requires Production Plan

• Ruby >= 2.5
• Blackfire Agent >= 2.13.0

1. Add the datadog gem to your Gemfile or gems.rb file:

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   gem 'datadog', '~> 2.0'

   Blackfire utilizes the open source Datadog profiler to collect continuous profiling traces and, via its agent, sends it directly to Blackfire's ingesters where we process and analyze the data for your observability needs.

2. Install the gems running the bundle install command.

3. Enable the Ruby Continuous Profiler by defining these environment variables:

   • DD_PROFILING_ENABLED=true: controls the activation of the continuous profiler.
   • DD_SERVICE=my-ruby-app: sets the application name.
   • DD_PROFILING_ALLOCATION_ENABLED=1: enables allocation profiling

   • DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL=unix:///var/run/blackfire/agent.sock: has Blackfire

     Agent collect traces.

4. Add the ddprofrb exec command to your Ruby application start command:

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   bundle exec ddprofrb exec ruby myrubyapp.rb
   
   # Rails example
   bundle exec ddprofrb exec bin/rails s

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require 'datadog/profiling/preload'

There is also some additional configuration that can be done using environment variables:

• BLACKFIRE_LOG_FILE: Sets the log file. The default is logging to stderr.
• BLACKFIRE_LOG_LEVEL: Sets the log level. The default is logging only errors.