Application Metrics and Tracing

In Chapter 2, Application Logging, we looked at logging, and how we use logging inside our backend Go code. In this chapter, we will proceed to look at monitoring and tracing. To monitor and trace the application, we will look into different open source tools and libraries.

We have started building our application, and now we need to start looking into how we are going to support it. Once an application is running in production, we need to see what’s happening in the application. Having this kind of visibility will allow us to understand problems that come up. In software systems, we will often come across the concept of observability. The concept refers to the ability of software systems to capture and store data used for analysis and troubleshooting purposes. This includes the processes and tools used in order to achieve the goal of allowing users to observe what’s happening in the system.

In this chapter, we’ll be covering...