Logging and tracing in .NET

Implementing effective logging and observability in a .NET project enables diagnosing issues, understanding system behavior, and ensuring application health. Here are the top strategies to optimize logging and observability in your .NET applications:

• Use structured logging: Unlike plain text logs, structured logs use a standard format (like JSON) to represent log messages, making them easier to query and analyze. This approach allows you to attach additional context to each log message, such as user IDs, session info, or environment details. For example, Serilog is highly configurable and integrates with various sinks (outputs). It enables logs to be written to files, databases, or cloud services.
• Implement centralized logging: You should store logs from all sources in a centralized logging system, like Serilog, that allows you to send logs to various destinations known as sinks. For example, to integrate Serilog with Elasticsearch (a distributed...