What is needed for basic observability (metrics and logs)?

To achieve basic observability of a system, two key components are usually needed: metrics and logs.

Metrics are numerical indicators that reflect the state and performance of the system over time. For example:

• Service response time
• Number of requests per second
• CPU and memory usage
• Errors and exceptions

Metrics are typically collected using monitoring systems (Prometheus, Grafana, Zabbix).

Logs are textual records of events that occur in the application or infrastructure. They help understand what exactly happened during an error or anomaly.

For basic observability, you need:

• A tool for collecting and storing logs (e.g., ELK stack — Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
• A tool for collecting metrics (Prometheus, StatsD)
• Configure metric export from applications and infrastructure
• Set up centralized log collection with search and filtering capabilities

This set will allow quick detection and analysis of problems in the system's operation.