OpsForDevs

devops bootcamp material that I have taught at previous companies

---

Project maintained by debaghtk Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Monitoring and Logging

Monitoring and logging are essential practices in maintaining and troubleshooting software systems, especially in complex, distributed environments.

Monitoring

Monitoring involves collecting, processing, aggregating, and displaying real-time quantitative data about a system.

Key Aspects of Monitoring:

1. Metrics Collection: Gathering data points about system performance, resource utilization, and business-specific indicators.

2. Alerting: Setting up notifications for when certain thresholds are breached or anomalies are detected.

3. Dashboards: Visual representations of system health and performance.

4. Trend Analysis: Observing patterns over time to predict future issues or capacity needs.

Common Monitoring Tools:

• Prometheus
• Grafana
• Datadog
• New Relic
• Nagios

Logging

Logging involves recording events that occur in a software system, providing an audit trail for debugging and analysis.

Key Aspects of Logging:

1. Log Generation: Creating detailed records of events, errors, and transactions within the system.

2. Log Aggregation: Collecting logs from multiple sources into a central location.

3. Log Analysis: Searching, filtering, and deriving insights from log data.

4. Log Retention: Storing logs for a defined period for compliance and historical analysis.

Common Logging Tools:

• ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
• Splunk
• Graylog
• Papertrail
• Loggly

Best Practices

1. Monitor and log at all levels: infrastructure, application, and business metrics.
2. Implement structured logging for easier parsing and analysis.
3. Use correlation IDs to track requests across distributed systems.
4. Set up alerts for critical issues, but avoid alert fatigue.
5. Regularly review and update monitoring and logging strategies.

Effective monitoring and logging are crucial for maintaining system health, troubleshooting issues, and gaining insights into system behavior and user interactions.