+++
title = "Enable diagnostics"
type = "docs"
[menu.docs]
weight = 200
+++

# Enable diagnostics

You can set up the `grafana-server` process to enable certain diagnostics when it starts. This can be helpful
when investigating certain performance problems. It's *not* recommended to have these enabled by default.

## Turn on profiling

The `grafana-server` can be started with the arguments `-profile` to enable profiling and  `-profile-port` to override
the default HTTP port (`6060`) where the `pprof` debugging endpoints are available, for example:

```bash
./grafana-server -profile -profile-port=8080
```

Note that `pprof` debugging endpoints are served on a different port than the Grafana HTTP server.

You can configure or override profiling settings using environment variables:

```bash
export GF_DIAGNOSTICS_PROFILING_ENABLED=true
export GF_DIAGNOSTICS_PROFILING_PORT=8080
```

Refer to [Go command pprof](https://golang.org/cmd/pprof/) for more information about how to collect and analyze profiling data.

## Use tracing

The `grafana-server` can be started with the arguments `-tracing` to enable tracing and `-tracing-file` to override the default trace file (`trace.out`) where trace result is written to. For example:

```bash
./grafana-server -tracing -tracing-file=/tmp/trace.out
```

You can configure or override profiling settings using environment variables:

```bash
export GF_DIAGNOSTICS_TRACING_ENABLED=true
export GF_DIAGNOSTICS_TRACING_FILE=/tmp/trace.out
```

View the trace in a web browser (Go required to be installed):

```bash
go tool trace <trace file>
2019/11/24 22:20:42 Parsing trace...
2019/11/24 22:20:42 Splitting trace...
2019/11/24 22:20:42 Opening browser. Trace viewer is listening on http://127.0.0.1:39735
```

See [Go command trace](https://golang.org/cmd/trace/) for more information about how to analyze trace files.