Logentries identified the top five most common ways that log data is used for monitoring and analyzing system performance.
Our research team looked across more than 25,000 log management and analytics users, tracking more than 200,000 shared patterns, and identified the top five areas that are most frequently analyzed for performance-related issues. The top five pattern categories for performance monitoring included:
1. Slow Response Times
Response times are one of the most common and useful performance measures that are available from your log data. They give you an immediate understanding of how long a request is taking to be returned.
2. Memory Issues and Garbage Collection
Out-of-memory errors can be catastrophic when they occur as they often result in an application crashing due to lack of resources.
3. Deadlocks and Threading Issues
Deadlocks can occur in many shapes and sizes and can have negative effects when they occur - from bringing your system to a complete halt to simply slowing it down.
4. High Resource Usage (CPU/Disk/ Network)
In many cases, lower system performance may not be a result of any major software flaw, but can be a simple case of system load increasing without increasing resources available to manage the increased demand.
5. Database Issues and Slow Queries
One of the most common areas for slow system performance can be a result of long-running database queries. Once identified, these queries can be optimized for significant performance improvements. Setting acceptable thresholds for query time and reporting on anything that exceeds these thresholds can help you quickly identify when your users experience is being effected.
Trevor Parsons, PhD, is Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Logentries.
