In this comprehensive tutorial on Kubernetes observability, the focus is on monitoring application performance with Elastic APM, which is part of the Elastic Observability suite. The guide emphasizes using Elastic APM for Application Performance Monitoring (APM), enabling the automatic measurement of key service-level indicators like request/response latency and errors, thereby facilitating rapid identification of performance issues. It highlights features such as distributed tracing, which measures the end-to-end latency of distributed components, and the integration of APM with logs and metrics to provide a holistic view of application health within Kubernetes. The tutorial also covers the deployment of APM agents alongside application components, the use of Java and Real User Monitoring (RUM) agents, and the visualization of custom metrics with Kibana’s Lens tool. Additionally, the significance of log correlation with APM traces is discussed, showcasing how the Elastic APM Java Agent enriches log data with trace identifiers, allowing for seamless integration and analysis of observability data. The series concludes by suggesting additional Elastic components like Heartbeat and Packetbeat to further enhance observability and offers resources for setting up and troubleshooting the monitoring system using Elastic Stack.