How do monitoring and analysis systems collect and record information about the operation of applications and infrastructure?

Monitoring and analysis systems collect and record information about the operation of applications and infrastructure using agents and tools that gather metrics, logs, and traces.

Main data collection methods:

• Metrics — numerical indicators (e.g., CPU load, number of requests, response time). Metrics are collected using agents (Prometheus Node Exporter, Telegraf) or built-in libraries.
• Logs — text records of events, errors, and application actions. Logs are collected through loggers and sent to centralized systems (ELK Stack, Fluentd).
• Tracing — detailed information about call sequences and delays in distributed systems (e.g., Jaeger, Zipkin).

Data is collected using:

• Agents installed on servers or containers.
• Tools integrated into the application (SDKs for metrics and tracing).
• APIs and exporters that periodically send data to the monitoring system.

After collection, data is aggregated, stored, and visualized on dashboards for analysis and alerts.