Instrumentation

Instrumentation is the practice of adding code or tools to a software system to collect data about its performance, behavior, and usage. It involves inserting probes, metrics, logs, and traces into applications to monitor and analyze their runtime characteristics. This enables developers and operators to gain insights into system health, diagnose issues, and optimize performance.

Also known as: Monitoring, Observability, Telemetry, Profiling, Metrics Collection

Why learn Instrumentation?

Developers should learn instrumentation to build observable and maintainable systems, especially in distributed or microservices architectures where debugging can be complex. It is crucial for performance monitoring, error detection, and ensuring reliability in production environments, such as in cloud-native applications or large-scale web services.

Learning Resources

• docs: OpenTelemetry Documentation
• course: Instrumentation and Observability Course by Coursera
• video: Introduction to Instrumentation - YouTube Tutorial
• book: Distributed Systems Observability by Cindy Sridharan