Observability enables understanding system behavior from external outputs. This guide covers implementing the three pillars: logs, metrics, and traces.
The Three Pillars
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OBSERVABILITY │
├─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┤
│ LOGS │ METRICS │ TRACES │
│ │ │ │
│ What happened │ How much/ │ Request flow │
│ in detail │ how often │ across │
│ │ │ services │
└─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
Structured Logging
Logger Implementation
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Request Logging Middleware
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Error Logging
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Metrics with Prometheus
Custom Metrics
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Metrics Middleware
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Business Metrics
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Distributed Tracing
OpenTelemetry Setup
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Custom Spans
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Context Propagation
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Alerting
Alert Rules (Prometheus)
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Dashboards
Key Metrics to Display
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Best Practices
- Use structured logging: JSON logs are easier to query
- Include correlation IDs: Track requests across services
- Alert on symptoms, not causes: Focus on user impact
- Use high-cardinality data wisely: Traces, not metrics
- Set up SLOs: Define and monitor service level objectives
Conclusion
Observability requires investment across all three pillars. Start with structured logging, add key metrics, then implement tracing for request flow visibility. The goal is reducing time to detect and resolve issues.