What is Jaeger?
Jaeger is an open-source tool that helps you track how requests move through a complex system, especially in microservices. It records the path, timing, and any errors so you can see where things might be slowing down.
Let's break it down
- Open-source: Free for anyone to use, modify, and share.
- Tool: A piece of software that does a specific job.
- Track how requests move: Follow a single user action (like clicking a button) as it travels through many different services.
- Microservices: Small, independent parts of a larger application that talk to each other.
- Records the path, timing, and errors: Saves where the request went, how long each step took, and if anything went wrong.
Why does it matter?
Understanding the flow of requests lets developers quickly find bottlenecks, fix errors, and improve performance, which leads to happier users and lower operating costs.
Where is it used?
- Monitoring e-commerce platforms to see why a checkout page sometimes stalls.
- Debugging API calls in a mobile banking app that involve several backend services.
- Optimizing video-streaming services by pinpointing slow transcoding steps.
- Observing data pipelines in analytics platforms to ensure timely processing.
Good things about it
- Free and community-driven, so no licensing fees.
- Works with many languages and frameworks (Java, Go, Python, etc.).
- Provides visual trace graphs that are easy to read.
- Scales from small test environments to large production clusters.
- Integrates with other monitoring tools like Prometheus and Grafana.
Not-so-good things
- Requires extra infrastructure (storage, collectors) which adds complexity.
- High-volume traffic can generate large amounts of data, leading to storage and performance concerns.
- Setup and configuration can be steep for teams new to distributed tracing.
- Limited out-of-the-box support for some proprietary or legacy systems.