Jaeger Essentials: Performance Blitz with Jaeger

In the exploration of improving system performance, the article shares insights into the application of Jaeger, an open-source distributed tracing tool, to address challenges faced with performance issues in a complex, multi-cloud system. Initially, extensive logging proved insufficient due to the sheer volume of data and difficulty in pinpointing specific issues, leading to the adoption of Jaeger for better visibility into service communication paths. Through Jaeger's tracing capabilities, the team identified and resolved key performance bottlenecks, such as serial call sequences and uncached database queries, which had previously eluded detection. The article emphasizes the importance of correlating logs with traces using unique identifiers and suggests best practices like prioritizing critical service instrumentation and utilizing duration filtering to isolate problematic traces. The team aims to enhance observability by integrating tracing with logging and telemetry, offering seamless transitions between tools like Kibana and the Jaeger UI for efficient troubleshooting and system monitoring.