DevOps Intermediate

Observability Strategy — Metrics, Logs, Traces¶

ObservabilityMonitoringStrategySRE 5 min read

Observability strategy for modern systems. Three pillars, correlation, tools and implementation plan.

Three Pillars¶

• Metrics — numerical values over time (Prometheus). Fast, cheap, aggregated.
• Logs — text records of events (Loki, ELK). Detailed context.
• Traces — a request’s path through the system (Tempo, Jaeger). Cross-service debugging.

No single pillar is sufficient on its own. The power lies in correlation.

Correlation¶

Connect the three pillars through shared identifiers:

# In Grafana: exemplars link metric → trace
# In Loki: trace_id label links log → trace
# In Tempo: service.name links trace → metrics

# Example: structured log with trace_id
{"level":"error","msg":"payment failed",
 "trace_id":"abc123","span_id":"def456",
 "service":"order-service","user_id":"u789"}

# LogQL → Tempo
{app="order-service"} | json | trace_id != ""
| line_format "{{.trace_id}}"

Implementation Plan¶

1. Phase 1: Metrics + alerting (Prometheus + Alertmanager)
2. Phase 2: Centralized logs (Loki + Promtail)
3. Phase 3: Distributed tracing (OTel + Tempo)
4. Phase 4: Correlation and dashboards (Grafana)
5. Phase 5: SLO/SLI + Error Budgets

Summary¶

Implement your observability strategy iteratively: metrics first, then logs, then traces. Correlation between pillars is key for fast debugging.

Need Help with Implementation?¶

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