In the context of software engineering, it is imperative to focus
on ensuring the efficient execution and good functioning of the applications
that you are developing. It is here where the observability comes in, by implementing multiple techniques to watch over your systems. It
encompasses three crucial elements: tracking, measuring by the SLOs and monitoring.
1. Python Logging Trace: Capturing Application Events
What is
Python Logging?
Python
import logging
logger
= logging.getLogger(__name__)
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG) # Set desired logging level
#
Sample log messages
logger.debug("Starting
the application")
logger.info("Processing
data...")
logger.warning("Potential
resource shortage detected")
logger.error("An
unexpected error occurred!")
logger.critical("System failure! Shutting down.")
Logging Best
Practices
○ Clear and
Concise Messages: Improvise to make information even more useful since this
allows you to easily identify problems.
○ Structured
Logging: Enter words or objects in a dictionary which include necessary
environment (such user IDs, parameters of a request).
○ Appropriate
Level Selection: Select the log level that compromises details with substance.
○ Log
Rotation: Set up logs to rotate whenever they reach a size limit to stop
exhaustion of disk space.
2. Monitoring: Proactively Keeping Track of System Health
● What is Monitoring?
A logical progression from bare-bone logging, monitoring includes
the activity of not only collecting and analyzing online data from your
application as well as its environment, but also takes action and remediate
things like anomalies. It involves tools that can:
● Track
indicators (for example, machine usage and memory consumption) the state of
affairs as well as the response time.
● Green
thresholds generation creates alerts when any of the thresholds is exceeded.
● Provide
visual assistance to data for the clear representation.
Essential
Metrics and Tools:
○ Performance Metrics: CPU utilization, memory usage, response
times, transaction counts
○ Availability Metrics: Uptime, downtime, service latency
○ Error and Exception Rates: Track the frequency and nature of errors to
identify and fix issues
○ Monitoring Tools: Stackify retrace and prefix
● Example with Retrace and prefix:
○ Retrace can
scrape metrics from your application and store them as time series data.
○ Prefix can
then be used to create dashboards that visually represent these metrics,
enabling you to monitor application health in real- time.
3. SLOs:
Defining Performance Expectations
● What is an SLO (Service Level Objective)?
So you must
be wondering what does slo mean?
The SLO refers to an actual measure of performance or availability that is used to measure the quality of the service provided. It is a form of contractual agreement meant to furnish a link between the provider and the customers; this contract explicitly delineates the levels of service that must be constantly delivered.
● Components of an SLO:
○ Objective:
The functioning level under consideration is given (with examples like 99.9%
uptime, response time under 100ms on average) as wanted.
○ Indicators:
The corresponding indicators will be outlined (for instance, response time as a
key indicator along with error rate).
○ Targets: Although the exact thresholds to be associated with indicators may differ from one indicator to another (example: the response time below 150ms), there are generalizable rules that govern this case.
● Example SLO:
"The e-commerce checkout service will be
available 99.95% of the time, with an average response time under 2 seconds
during peak hours."
Bringing It
All Together: Building a Strong Observability Strategy
By integrating logging, monitoring, and SLOs (service level
objectives) you will have a powerful ability to watch and make certain that the
systems are operating on the best condition. Here's a consolidated approach:
● Logging
vs monitoring: Highlight important application events and errors,
this can help you to understand how it behaves.
● Set up
monitoring: Continually gather and evaluate metrics with the goal of finding
performance inefficiencies and potential lags.
● Define SLOs:
Set distinct output standards and requirements for the services you will
provide.
● Alert on deviations: Strategic actors can use social media to convey messages and warn against the potential risks.
If you have any doubt related this post, let me know