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Moxtra observability7/14/2023 ![]() ![]() Lastly, do not get me started on timestamps. To all the vendors reading this: Please, for the love of logging, follow the syslog standards below! Syslog has well-defined standards that, if followed, work like magic in logging tools. Pushing random data over UDP/TCP is not syslog!.Continuous stream of random data over TCP is not syslog.Pushing structured data over UDP is not syslog.Unfortunately, many vendors routinely slap lipstick on a pig and call it “syslog.” Many applications and appliances use syslog as the default logging format. Every format adds overhead to the people, process and technology and makes data regulation compliance hard and user searching more difficult. Quality processes with a strong governance team can bring order out of the chaos.Įxamples of How People and Process Matter Format ManagementĮnterprises can have hundreds of log formats to manage across every device, appliance, and internal and third-party application. Metrics, events, logs and traces (MELT) are the most volatile data in most enterprises, and without clear rules, data issues quickly get out of control. How data rules and regulations are shared with the logging team. ![]() The logging team cannot personally work with every developer, OS owner, tool owner or anyone else who generates logs. Process starts with data governance and is required for logging to be successful in any mid to large enterprise. The rise of data privacy regulation is almost overwhelming, so the observability team needs a partnership with professionals who understand the issues and prioritize solving problems and removing roadblocks. The observability team also needs governance support to keep up with ever-changing rules around how data is managed in the United States and around the world. Observability is a strategic goal and needs to be treated as such across the enterprise. When the development team turns off logging because it is too much work, senior leadership has to get involved and work with development leaders to get the issue resolved. It takes a data/record governance team, an architecture team, legal support and a security team that reports to a high enough level in leadership so that concerns are addressed at the senior leadership level. Successful logging needs more than just the observability team. Let’s discuss common foundational steps to put observability teams in position to succeed. Learn from my mistakes and spend as much time on people and process as you would on the right hardware and network design. I learned the hard way that I should have spent more time working on putting sustainable processes in place to support long-term success. How will enterprises architect and design their observability tools to overcome these challenges and gain observability into the modern enterprise? Everything Still Starts with People and ProcessĪs a technology person, I originally believed tools should solve everything, but I discovered that people and processes are still the foundation to achieve significant change with any IT function. ![]() Complex data, high data volume and velocity, the rise of cloud computing, and rapidly changing application platforms such as Kubernetes make creating and getting value from the observability pipeline difficult without the right people, processes and technology. Gaining observability into modern IT environments is a challenge that an increasing number of enterprises are finding difficult to overcome. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on how observability design and architecture need to start with the fundamentals: keeping people and process at the center of it all. Ed is a passionate engineering advocate with more than 20 years of experience in instrumenting a wide variety of applications, operating systems and hardware for operations and security observability. ![]()
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