The document discusses a modern open-source monitoring system for applications, emphasizing the importance of logging, time series data, and efficient management of resources. It highlights the advantages of using tools like InfluxDB, which offer simplicity, scalability, and a familiar query syntax. The piece concludes by acknowledging the challenges of managing such systems and invites questions from the audience.

1. The TICK stack for a modern and open source monitoring system.
Monitor your applications
and sleep

2. “Try again. Fail again.
Fail better.”
cit. Samuel Beckett

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Trust your system
To be familiar with your applications you need to know what they are
doing.

4. To predict the future.

5. Because we
are not John

6. 6

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2016/04/15 15:42:46 [warn] 2330#0: *167 using uninitialized variable,
client: 10.0.1.1, server: localhost.dev, request: "POST /auth HTTP/1.1",
host: "localhost"
2016/04/15 15:44:44 [error] 2330#0: *171 FastCGI sent in stderr: "
PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception
'RuntimeException' with message 'All broken)[500]'
in /var/www/my/project.php:237
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/index.php:45 ObjectService->flush()
#1 [internal function] ->save()

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Widespread Monitoring Tools
tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.live.log

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Logs are
¨ Expensive to store

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Logs are
¨ Difficult to index

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Difficult but not impossible
There are great solutions for this...

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Depends of your use case:
¨ They contain detailed information
¨ They are human readable
¨ … all kinds of great reasons

13. There is no war between
time series and logs.
They love each other!

14. Reduce your log to a
Timestamp + float or int value.
You will have something easier
to manage.

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[
{
"name": "log_lines",
"columns": ["time", "line"],
"point": [1400425947368, "here's some useful log info"]
}
]
I am here to speak about time series

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{
"name": "cpu_percent_use",
"columns": ["time", "value"],
"point": [1400425947368, 40]
}
Simplicity is everywhere

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“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more
complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius —
and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
Cit. Ernest F. Shumacher

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We already have some tools ready to be used:

19. T-Shirt time!

20. • Easy to get started with
• Familiar query syntax
• No external dependencies
• Open source
• Horizontally scalable
• Member of a cohesive time
series platform
Why Choose InfluxDB?

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Regular and Irregular time series

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Complete STACK to build your monitoring or event system.

23. Demo!

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Managing a monitoring system is not
for everyone

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Gianluca Arbezzano
SRE
@gianarb
Questions?