Create an effective strategy to optimize the integration of your logging and monitoring solutions by using the following best practices:
Enable both methods to work together
If your ultimate goal is to optimize the benefits of analyzing log data and application metrics, facilitate that process by configuring your system to send log data directly to your monitoring tool. Storing log messages on the disk or sending them solely to a logging tool creates more of a drain on resources as well as a potential workflow bottleneck.
Make sure that your monitoring tool supports your application's programming language to ensure compatibility and ease of use.
Log the right data
Log data needs to tell a succinct but complete story. Data should be selective, descriptive, and provide the correct context to assist with troubleshooting. Helpful log data generally includes actionable items, and includes information such as a timestamp, user IDs, session IDs, and resource-usage metrics. Collecting a full range of applicable data enhances the information obtained from your monitoring tool.
Use structured log data
Streamline your data by making it easier to search, index, and store be ensuring that it is structured. Structured data provides a more complete view as to what happened, and can provide your monitoring tool with unique identifiers such as which customer ID experienced the error. Providing customer ID information obtained via logging enables your monitoring tool to see how that specific user was affected, and what other issues they may be experiencing as a result.
Take full advantage of log data
Logging offers more than simple troubleshooting and debugging. Identify application and system trends by applying statistical analysis to system events. Log data contains important information about your applications and underlying infrastructure, including all of your databases. Use the historical information provided by log data to determine averages that will make it easier to definitively identify anomalies, or to group event types in a way that allows for accurate comparisons. This data can also be beneficial for collecting, aggregating and viewing this data according to your enterprises’ needs.
Having statistical data sets for review allows for a more accurate analysis and an improved opportunity to make informed business decisions.
