Monitoring tools

Typical monitoring tools include the following three key capabilities:

• The ability to retain and search logs
• The ability to visualize metrics through charts
• The ability to set up alerts

Let us briefly discuss each capability.

Collecting logs

Just as debugging started with print statements, monitoring systems started with log collection. Most monitoring systems allow you to collect, aggregate, and search logs from different parts of your system. Logs may also be the source of part or most of your application's telemetry data.

Creating charts

Charts are key to measuring your application performance and spotting anomalies quickly. The visual representation of data allows you to identify performance baselines, get a sense of how abnormal any particular spike is, and zoom in on a problematic time range.

Most monitoring tools today allow you to create custom charts and dashboards based on your application's telemetry, so that you can get the most valuable insight in the most readable form...