Logging Events & Monitoring Metrics

Quick Reference: Anomaly Detection


Quick Reference

ComponentPurposeTools
LoggingEvent recordsELK, Splunk, CloudWatch
MetricsNumerical measurementsPrometheus, Grafana, Datadog
TracingRequest flowJaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry

Clear Definition

Logging records discrete events. Metrics measure system performance over time. Tracing tracks requests across services. Together they provide observability into system behavior.

šŸ’” Key Insight: Logs tell you what happened, metrics tell you how much, tracing tells you where.


Core Concepts

Logging

  • Levels: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR
  • Structured Logging: JSON format
  • Centralized: Aggregate logs
  • Retention: Store appropriately

Metrics

  • Counters: Incrementing values
  • Gauges: Current values
  • Histograms: Distribution
  • Dashboards: Visualize metrics

Distributed Tracing

  • Spans: Individual operations
  • Traces: Request flows
  • Context Propagation: Track across services

Best Practices

  1. Structured Logging: Use JSON
  2. Appropriate Levels: Don't log everything
  3. Metrics: Track business and technical metrics
  4. Sampling: Sample traces for performance

Quick Reference Summary

Logging: Record events for debugging and auditing.

Metrics: Measure performance and system health.

Tracing: Track requests across distributed systems.

Key: Combine all three for complete observability.


Next Topic: Anomaly Detection →

Back to: Step 9 Overview | Main Index