What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introducing Observability and the Grafana Stack, provides an introduction to the Grafana product stack in relation to observability as a whole. You will learn about the target audiences and how that impacts your design. We will take a look at the roadmap for observability tooling and how Grafana compares to alternative solutions. We will explore architectural deployment models, from self-hosted to cloud offerings. Inevitably, you will have answers to the question “Why choose Grafana?”.
Chapter 2, Instrumenting Applications and Infrastructure, takes you through the common protocols and best practices for each telemetry type at a high level. You will be introduced to widely used libraries for multiple programming languages that make instrumenting an application simple. Common protocols and strategies for collecting data from infrastructural components will also be discussed. This chapter provides a high-level overview of the technology space and aims to be valuable for quick reference.
Chapter 3, Setting Up a Learning Environment with Demo Applications, explains how to install and set up a learning environment that will support you through later sections of the book. You will also learn how to explore the telemetry produced by the demo app and add monitoring for your own service.
Chapter 4, Looking at Logs with, Loki, takes you through working examples to understand LogQL. You will then be introduced to common log formats, and their benefits and drawbacks. Finally, you will be taken through the important architectural designs of Loki, and best practices when working with it.
Chapter 5, Monitoring with Metrics Using Grafana Mimir and Prometheus, discusses working examples to understand PromQL with real data. Detailed information about the different metric protocols will be discussed. Finally, you will be taken through important architectural designs backing Mimir, Prometheus, and Graphite that guide best practices when working with the tools.
Chapter 6, Tracing Technicalities with Grafana Tempo, shows you working examples to understand TraceQL with real data. Detailed information about the different tracing protocols will be discussed. Finally, you will be taken through the important architectural designs of Tempo, and best practices when working with it.
Chapter 7, Interrogating Infrastructure with Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, and Azure, describes the setup and configuration used to capture telemetry from infrastructure. You will learn about the different options available for Kubernetes. Additionally, you will investigate the main plugins that allow Grafana to query data from cloud vendors such as AWS, GCP, and Azure. You will look at solutions to handle large volumes of telemetry where direct connections are not scalable. The chapter will also cover options for filtering and selecting telemetry data before it gets to Grafana for security and cost optimization.
Chapter 8, Displaying Data with Dashboards, explains how you can set up your first dashboard in the Grafana UI. You will also learn how to present your telemetry data in an effective and meaningful way. The chapter will also teach you how to manage your Grafana dashboards to be organized and secure.
Chapter 9, Managing Incidents Using Alerts, describes how to set up your first Grafana alert with Alert Manager. You will learn how to design an alert strategy that prioritizes business-critical alerts over ordinary notifications. Additionally, you will learn about alert notification policies, different delivery methods, and what to look for.
Chapter 10, Automation with Infrastructure as Code, gives you the tools and approaches to automate parts of your Grafana stack deployments while introducing standards and quality checks. You will gain a deep dive into the Grafana API, working with Terraform, and how to protect changes with validation.
Chapter 11, Architecting an Observability Platform, will show those of you who are responsible for offering an efficient and easy-to-use observability platform how you can structure your platform so you can delight your internal customers. In the environment we operate in, it is vital to offer these platform services as quickly and efficiently as possible, so more time can be dedicated to the production of customer-facing products. This chapter aims to build on the ideas already covered to get you up and running quickly.
Chapter 12, Real User Monitoring with Grafana, introduces you to frontend application observability, using Grafana Faro and Grafana Cloud Frontend Observability for real user monitoring (RUM). This chapter will discuss instrumenting your frontend browser applications. You will learn how to capture frontend telemetry and link this with backend telemetry for full stack observability.
Chapter 13, Application Performance with Grafana Pyroscope and k6, introduces you to application performance and profiling using Grafana Pyroscope and k6. You will obtain a high-level overview that discusses the various aspects of k6 for smoke, spike, stress, and soak tests, as well as using Pyroscope to continuously profile an application both in production and test environments.
Chapter 14, Supporting DevOps Processes with Observability, takes you through DevOps processes and how they can be supercharged with observability with Grafana. You will learn how the Grafana stack can be used in the development stages to speed up the feedback loop for engineers. You will understand how to prepare engineers to operate the product in production. Finally, You will learn when and how to implement CLI and automation tools to enhance the development workflow.
Chapter 15, Troubleshooting, Implementing Best Practices, and More with Grafana, closes the book by taking you through best practices when working with Grafana in production. You will also learn some valuable troubleshooting tips to support you with high-traffic systems in day-to-day operations. You will also learn about additional considerations for your telemetry data with security and business intelligence.
