GlitchTip on GKE Autopilot

GlitchTip is an open-source, Sentry-compatible error-tracking and performance-monitoring platform (Django/Python). Your applications send exceptions and traces to GlitchTip's Sentry-protocol ingest endpoint, and GlitchTip stores, deduplicates, and alerts on them. This module deploys GlitchTip on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services GlitchTip uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

GlitchTip runs as a Python web workload served by Granian on port 8080. The all_in_one server role runs the web server, the Celery worker, and Celery beat inside the one pod container. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Django/Granian pods, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default; minimum 1 replica keeps the worker/beat alive
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — GlitchTip does not support MySQL or other engines
Task queue & cache	Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)	VALKEY_URL = "" routes the Celery queue, cache, and sessions through Postgres; Redis is optional
Object / file storage	Cloud Storage + NFS	A storage data bucket; NFS mounted at /opt/glitchtip/storage for uploaded attachments
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Django SECRET_KEY and the initial superuser password; database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer; selecting any other engine breaks startup.
• The image is a thin custom build. GlitchTip is built FROM glitchtip/glitchtip:6.2.0 with a cloud entrypoint that composes DATABASE_URL from the injected DB_* vars and disables Valkey/Redis before handing off to ./bin/start.sh. On GKE the entrypoint sees DB_HOST = 127.0.0.1 (the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar) and connects over loopback TCP.
• No Redis by default. VALKEY_URL = "" means the Celery queue, cache, and sessions all use PostgreSQL. Enable Redis only when you separate the worker fleet at higher volumes.
• Minimum 1 replica is maintained. GKE does not support scale-to-zero, and the in-process Celery worker/beat must keep running for event ingestion and the daily retention purge.
• Session affinity is ClientIP by default. Keeps a browser session pinned to one pod for the dashboard.
• NFS is enabled by default (enable_nfs = true) at /opt/glitchtip/storage for uploaded attachments, so the workload deploys with the Recreate strategy to avoid two pods contending on the shared volume during an update.
• SECRET_KEY and the superuser password are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager, materialised into the namespace via the Secret Store CSI driver.
• The initial owner is seeded, not self-registered. glitchtip-migrate creates admin@techequity.cloud; ENABLE_OPEN_USER_REGISTRATION defaults to false.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the GlitchTip workload

GlitchTip pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts; a PodDisruptionBudget protects availability during node upgrades.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the GlitchTip workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa,pdb -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

GlitchTip stores all application data (projects, issues, events, users, and the Celery queue) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over loopback (127.0.0.1); no public IP is exposed. On first deploy the db-init and glitchtip-migrate Jobs create the database and user, run migrations, and create the superuser.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are surfaced in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage & NFS

A dedicated Cloud Storage data bucket (storage suffix) is provisioned automatically, and the workload service account is granted access. GlitchTip's uploaded attachments are stored on NFS mounted at /opt/glitchtip/storage (enable_nfs = true). The nfsserver network tag (set by default) is required for pod access to the NFS server VM.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets; Compute Engine for the NFS server VM.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  kubectl describe pod -n "$NAMESPACE" <pod> | grep -A3 nfs

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

D. Redis / Valkey (optional)

Redis is disabled by default (VALKEY_URL = "" → PostgreSQL-backed queue and cache). Setting enable_redis = true points GlitchTip's Celery broker and cache at Redis/Valkey; leaving redis_host empty with enable_nfs = true uses the NFS server VM's IP.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -i valkey

E. Secret Manager

Two secrets are generated automatically: the Django SECRET_KEY and the initial superuser password (consumed by the migrate job). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP (service_type = LoadBalancer). A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled (enable_custom_domain = true), and a static IP is reserved by default so the address survives redeploys.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. GlitchTip Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. The db-init Job (postgres:15-alpine) connects through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy and idempotently creates the application database and user, grants privileges, and re-owns the public schema. It is safe to re-run and signals the proxy sidecar (/quitquitquit) so the Job pod completes.
• Migrations + superuser bootstrap. The glitchtip-migrate Job runs on the built GlitchTip image (depends_on = ["db-init"]). It composes DATABASE_URL, runs ./manage.py migrate --noinput, then createsuperuser --noinput using SUPERUSER_EMAIL (admin@techequity.cloud) and the Secret Manager superuser password. The initial admin password is in Secret Manager (secret-<prefix>-<app>-superuser-password).
• all_in_one server role. SERVER_ROLE = all_in_one runs the web server, Celery worker, and beat in one pod. GKE keeps at least 1 replica so background ingestion and the daily event-retention purge keep running.
• NFS-backed updates use Recreate. With NFS enabled, App_GKE sets the Deployment strategy to Recreate so an update never runs two pods against the shared attachment volume simultaneously.
• SECRET_KEY should not be rotated casually — it signs sessions/cookies; rotating it logs everyone out.
• Event ingestion needs the external IP. Application SDKs POST events to the ingest endpoint on the LoadBalancer/custom-domain URL. Set a custom domain and managed certificate for a stable ingest host.
• Health path. Startup and liveness probes target / by default. Allow several minutes on first boot while migrations run.

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for GlitchTip are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment (use gke to run alongside the Cloud Run variant).
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	glitchtip	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	GlitchTip Error Tracking	Human-readable name shown in the Console.
application_description	GlitchTip Open-source Error Tracking on GKE Autopilot	Brief description of the application.
application_version	6.2.0	GlitchTip image tag; drives the FROM glitchtip/glitchtip:<tag> build.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	custom	GlitchTip is a thin custom build; keep custom.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum replicas; keep ≥ 1 to keep the worker/beat alive.
max_instance_count	5	Maximum replicas (HPA upper bound).
container_port	8080	GlitchTip/Granian listens on 8080.
container_resources	2 vCPU / 4 GiB	CPU/memory requests and limits.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar (required on GKE).
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the base image into Artifact Registry.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. Do not set SECRET_KEY, DATABASE_URL, or VALKEY_URL here.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	How the Kubernetes Service is exposed.
workload_type	null	Deployment (default) or StatefulSet.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Sticky routing for dashboard sessions.
network_tags	["nfsserver"]	Required when enable_nfs = true.
termination_grace_period_seconds	60	Seconds after SIGTERM before SIGKILL.
enable_network_segmentation	false	Create Kubernetes NetworkPolicy resources.

Group 7 — StatefulSet

Variable	Default	Description
stateful_pvc_enabled	null	Enable per-pod PVCs. Not needed — GlitchTip state lives in PostgreSQL/NFS.
stateful_pvc_size / stateful_pvc_mount_path / stateful_pvc_storage_class	10Gi / /data / standard-rwo	PVC template settings.

Group 8 — Resource Quota

Variable	Default	Description
enable_resource_quota	false	Create a namespace ResourceQuota.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	""	Must use binary units ("4Gi") — bare integers are bytes and block scheduling.

Group 9 — Reliability Policies

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Protect availability during node upgrades.
pdb_min_available	1	Minimum pods available during voluntary disruptions.
enable_topology_spread / topology_spread_strict	false	Spread pods across zones/nodes.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP / 60s delay, 30 × 15s failure window	Startup probe. Allow several minutes on first boot.
liveness_probe	HTTP / 60s delay	Liveness probe.
startup_probe_config / health_check_config	HTTP /, same timings	App_GKE-level infrastructure probes.
uptime_check_config	disabled (enabled=false, path /)	Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 11 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init + glitchtip-migrate jobs.
cron_jobs	[]	Scheduled Kubernetes CronJobs.
additional_services	[]	Sidecar or helper services.

Group 12 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	NFS attachment storage.
nfs_mount_path	/opt/glitchtip/storage	Mount path inside the container.
nfs_volume_name	nfs-data-volume	Kubernetes volume name.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Create additional GCS buckets beyond the auto-provisioned data bucket.
storage_buckets	(data bucket)	A storage data bucket is declared by GlitchTip_Common.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse volume mounts via the CSI driver.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	7 / true / 30	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 15 — Redis Cache & Queue

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Use Redis/Valkey for the queue and cache instead of PostgreSQL.
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. Leave empty to use the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true).
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed — GlitchTip requires PostgreSQL 15.
application_database_name	glitchtip	PostgreSQL database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	glitchtip	Application database user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	off	DB password rotation.

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 18 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	true	Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains	[]	Hostnames to serve.
reserve_static_ip	true	Stable external IP across redeploys.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

Warning: Enabling IAP requires Google identity authentication for all inbound requests, including SDK event ingestion. Only enable IAP for a dashboard-only deployment where SDKs use a separate ingest path.

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of GlitchTip.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access.
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret	""	Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive).

Group 21 — Cloud Armor

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
cloud_armor_policy_name	default-waf-policy	Policy name.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the GKE Ingress backend.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
stage_service_cluster_ips	Map of ClusterIPs for stage-specific services.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach GlitchTip.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup (db-init, glitchtip-migrate) and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD GitHub details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_GKE foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a read replica without its primary, IAP with no authorized identities, a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, a database_type that does not match an enabled extension, an out-of-range redis_port/backup_retention_days. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
application_database_name / application_database_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all stored events and projects.
SECRET_KEY (auto-generated)	Never rotate casually	High	Rotating it invalidates all sessions, logging every user out.
min_instance_count	1	High	GKE requires min ≥ 1; keeping 1 keeps the in-process worker/beat alive so ingestion and the retention purge run.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	High	The Auth Proxy sidecar is required for PostgreSQL connectivity; disabling it is blocked by a plan-time validation guard.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi)	Critical	Bare integers are bytes and block all pod scheduling in the namespace.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
enable_iap	dashboard-only deployments	High	IAP blocks all unauthenticated requests, including SDK event ingestion.
ENABLE_OPEN_USER_REGISTRATION (fixed false)	n/a	High	Not exposed as a variable on this variant — GlitchTip_Common always sets it false, so signup stays admin-invite-only.
network_tags includes nfsserver	keep default	High	Removing it while enable_nfs = true blocks pod access to the NFS server VM → pods stuck mounting.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Medium	Without stickiness, dashboard sessions bounce between pods.
container_resources memory	4Gi	Medium	Below ~1 GiB the Django + worker + beat processes risk OOM under event bursts.
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Medium	Disabling allows GKE to evict all pods simultaneously during maintenance.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. GlitchTip-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in GlitchTip_Common.