Grafana

When it comes to observability Grafana is the go-to tool for visualization. A Grafana dashboard consists of various forms of visualizations which are usually backed by a database. This is not always the case. Sometimes instead of pushing the data from the database as is, you might want to refine the data. This cannot always be achieved through the functionalities the DB provides. For example, you might want to fetch results from a proprietary API. This is where the grafana-infinity-datasource…

When deploying Kubernetes resources in a cluster, it is sometimes necessary to deploy them in a specific order. For example, a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) must exist before any custom resources of that type can be created. Sveltos can help you solve this problem by allowing you to specify the order in which Kubernetes resources are deployed. ClusterProfile Order A ClusterProfile is a Kubernetes custom resource definition (CRD) that defines the resources that you want to deploy on a set…

One of my current talks focuses on Observability in general and Distributed Tracing in particular, with an OpenTelemetry implementation. In the demo, I show how you can see the traces of a simple distributed system consisting of the Apache APISIX API Gateway, a Kotlin app with Spring Boot, a Python app with Flask, and a Rust app with Axum. Earlier this year, I spoke and attended the Observability room at FOSDEM. One of the talks demoed the Grafana stack: Mimir…

Intro to Istio Observability Using Prometheus Istio service mesh abstracts the network from the application layers using sidecar proxies. You can implement security and advance networking policies to all the communication across your infrastructure using Istio.  But another important feature of Istio is observability. You can use Istio to observe the performance and behavior of all your microservices in your infrastructure (see the image below). One of the primary responsibilities of Site reliability engineers (SREs) in large organizations is to…

In the digital age, where data breaches and cyber threats loom large, ensuring the security of your digital assets is paramount. Businesses are in dire need of robust tools that not only detect threats in real time but also provide actionable insights to mitigate risks. Grafana, a leading open-source platform for monitoring and observability, has emerged as a critical player in enhancing security postures through real-time security analytics and alerts. This article delves into how Grafana can be leveraged to…

The OpenTelemetry Collector sits at the center of the OpenTelemetry architecture but is unrelated to the W3C Trace Context. In my tracing demo, I use Jaeger instead of the Collector. Yet, it’s ubiquitous, as in every OpenTelemetry-related post. I wanted to explore it further. In this post, I explore the different aspects of the Collector: The data kind: logs, metrics, and traces Push and pull models Operations: reads, transformations, and writes First Steps A long time ago, observability as we…

Logs often take up the majority of a company’s data assets. Examples of logs include business logs (such as user activity logs) and Operation and Maintenance logs of servers, databases, and network or IoT devices. Logs are the guardian angel of business. On the one hand, they provide system risk alerts and help engineers quickly locate root causes in troubleshooting. On the other hand, if you zoom them out by time range, you might identify some helpful trends and patterns,…

Companies use software to run their business in today’s digital world. With the increased use of microservices, containers, and cloud-based technologies, traditional methods of monitoring and solving problems are no longer enough. That’s where observability comes in. Observability and monitoring are often confusing. While monitoring refers to regular observation and recording of activities taking place within a project, observability watches and understands how a system performs and behaves in real time. Leveraging observability allows developers to better understand the system…

In today’s era of Agile development and the Internet of Things (IoT), optimizing performance for applications running on cloud platforms is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Agile IoT projects are characterized by rapid development cycles and frequent updates, making robust performance optimization strategies essential for ensuring efficiency and effectiveness. This article will delve into the techniques and tools for performance optimization in Agile IoT cloud applications, with a special focus on Grafana and similar platforms. Need for Performance…