Observability

How it is used

Logs, metrics and traces are often called the 'three pillars of observability'. OpenTelemetry is a common open standard for collecting this data. The short form 'o11y' appears in chats and tool names.

Example sentences

1. Monitoring told us the API was slow; good observability showed us exactly which query was the cause.

2. We're investing in observability before we split the monolith into microservices.

Common collocations

• observability platform
• improve observability
• three pillars of observability
• observability tools

Related terms

• monitoringContinuously collecting and checking data about systems, such as CPU use, error rates and response times, so that problems are noticed quickly.
• logA record of events written by an application or system, usually one line per event with a time, a level such as INFO or ERROR, and a message.
• metricA number measured regularly over time to show how a system is behaving, such as CPU use, memory, request count or error rate.
• tracingFollowing a single request as it passes through many services, recording how long each step takes, so you can see where time is lost or errors happen.
• dashboardA screen that shows the most important metrics and charts about a system in one place, so engineers can see its health at a glance.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• observability · Software Engineering

More terms: Monitoring and Logging

• alert
• health check