Observability in distributed systems relies on three key pillars: logs, metrics, and traces, with distributed tracing gaining traction through innovations like OpenTelemetry and the Jaeger project. Jaeger, a widely used open-source tool for distributed tracing, provides crucial insights into system performance, especially in complex microservices architectures. Deploying Jaeger in production involves setting up its key components—Agent, Collector, and Query—and choosing appropriate deployment strategies, such as all-in-one, production, or streaming setups, depending on the environment's scale and requirements. Agents can be installed as sidecars or daemonsets in Kubernetes, while Jaeger supports various backend storage solutions like Elasticsearch and Cassandra. Though typically recommended to use Jaeger Agent for data collection, certain scenarios may require direct data submission to the Collector, such as serverless environments or when using Zipkin instrumentation. Installation tools like Kubernetes Operator and Helm Chart aid in deploying Jaeger, with Helm offering package management advantages. Despite its youth, Jaeger's development is supported by a strong community, and services like Logz.io provide managed solutions to simplify its adoption for organizations.