Observability in distributed systems is crucial for understanding and managing complex architectures. It involves collecting and analyzing data to gain insights into system behavior, diagnose issues, and ensure overall system health. The three primary pillars of observability are logging, metrics, and tracing. Each pillar plays a unique role in providing a comprehensive view of the system.
1. Logging
Purpose: Logs capture detailed information about events and states within a system. They are essential for debugging, troubleshooting, and understanding the historical context of issues.
Logs provide a record of events that have occurred in the system. They are useful for debugging issues, auditing and compliance, and security monitoring. Logs can be thought of as a “black box” recording of the system’s behavior.
Types of Logs:
- Application logs: Logs generated by the application code, such as errors, warnings, and informational messages.
- System logs: Logs generated by the underlying system, such as operating system logs, network logs, and database logs.
- Security logs: Logs related to security events, such as authentication attempts, access control decisions, and intrusion detection.
