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Logging is often an afterthought when we put our apps in production. It's there, it's configured by default and it's... good enough? If you have ever tried to debug a production issue by digging in your application logs, you know that it is a challenge to find the information you need in the gigabyte-sized haystack that is the default rails log output. In this talk, let's explore how we can use structured logging to turn our logs into data and use dedicated tools to ask — and answer — some non-obvious questions of our logs.
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In the talk titled "Ask your logs," Youssef Boulkaid discusses the importance of structured logging in Ruby on Rails applications and how it can significantly enhance the insights derived from logs. The session is aimed at engineers who wish to improve their understanding and utilization of logs to address common issues faced when analyzing unstructured data. Key points discussed include: - **Logging Issues**: Youssef recounts an experience where his team faced a CPU usage crisis due to over 800,000 jobs in progress, highlighting the inadequacies of unstructured logs, which are hard to analyze and lack essential insights. - **Structure Matters**: The talk emphasizes transforming logs from unstructured text into structured data, which allows for effective querying and analysis. The use of gems like Lograge and Semantic Logger are recommended for consolidating logs into single-line JSON documents. - **Questions Over Answers**: Youssef argues that formulating the right questions is more important than deriving answers. Questions should focus on user actions, job queues, API endpoint usage, and performance impacts of feature flags. - **Four Problems with Current Logs**: Boulkaid identifies four main issues with existing logs: they are multi-line, unstructured, lacking essential data, and uncorrelated across systems. He provides solutions to each of these problems to enable better log management and data extraction. - **Log Correlation**: The importance of correlating logs from various systems is underscored, particularly in distributed environments where multiple services interact. Use of correlation IDs to track requests is shared as a practical solution. - **Insight Derivation**: The talk transitions to how structured logs can be analyzed using tools like Kibana to gain actionable insights, demonstrating how to ask specific questions about user actions and job processing. - **Broader Context**: Boulkaid points out that structured logging isn't a new idea. Companies like Heroku, Stripe, Shopify, and others have recognized its value for years, yet many in the Ruby community have yet to embrace this approach. The main takeaway from the presentation is that adopting structured logging practices can transform how developers perceive and interact with logs, enabling them to extract valuable insights quickly and efficiently. Boulkaid encourages the audience to start implementing structured logging in their Rails applications to ask meaningful questions and carry out better data analysis.
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