logs, traces, and metrics

why is it important to know what these are

Logs, traces and metrics are know as the three pillars of observability so it is important to be aware of what observability tools we can leverage for software systems.

logs

Logs are records that are related to events. This includes general information, errors, warnings, etc.

metrics

Metrics are a numerical record which allows us to monitor performance, pinpoint performance and detect anomalies. We can use this information to get information about the health of our system. An example of metrics is records about about CPU and Memory utilization

traces

Traces are used to track end-to-end behavior of a request that moves through your software system. We us traces to provide insight onto how a request behaves at specific points in our app