Development PracticesLunch Talk40min
Beyond system.out.println: Applying a Debugging Mindset at Scale
This talk explores debugging elusive, intermittent failures in large microservice and distributed systems. It argues for a shift from traditional logging and local debugging to structured observability, using tools like OpenTelemetry and Grafana to uncover root causes and gain deeper system insight.
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Cees BosOpenValue
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Tuesday, October 6, 12:40-13:20
TBA 3
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Debugging a consistently failing unit test is easy; you set a breakpoint and fix it. But how do you debug a "random" failure in a massive microservices landscape or a distributed monolith?
During an interview, I was once told, "You are more of a debugger than a coder." They were right: I thrive on the bugs that make others give up: the nasty, intermittent issues hidden under the carpet.
But you cannot solve these issues with 'System.out.println()' or a simple debugger attached to localhost.
Debugging at scale requires a shift in mindset and tooling. It requires moving from the paradigm of "5 Whys" and 'logger.info' to a structured observational approach based on observability data.
Based on production outages, I'll share how I uncovered the problems, the lessons I learned and how you can combine a debugging mindset with observability tooling like OpenTelemetry and the Grafana toolset to gain deeper insights.
During an interview, I was once told, "You are more of a debugger than a coder." They were right: I thrive on the bugs that make others give up: the nasty, intermittent issues hidden under the carpet.
But you cannot solve these issues with 'System.out.println()' or a simple debugger attached to localhost.
Debugging at scale requires a shift in mindset and tooling. It requires moving from the paradigm of "5 Whys" and 'logger.info' to a structured observational approach based on observability data.
Based on production outages, I'll share how I uncovered the problems, the lessons I learned and how you can combine a debugging mindset with observability tooling like OpenTelemetry and the Grafana toolset to gain deeper insights.
Cees Bos
Observability enthusiast and Grafana Champion, always looking for ways to improve software with better observability and what new insights can be gained. Delivering reliable software is always my priority. Combining existing tools often results in new ways to get an even better view. I work for OpenValue as a software & observability engineer and SRE.