Practice · Unified observability
What is unified observability?
Unified observability keeps logs, metrics, and traces in one place, correlated by shared context such as trace IDs, service names, and Kubernetes labels. Instead of copying a timestamp between three tools during an incident, you pivot from a latency spike to the slow trace to the exact log line in a few clicks.
How to get started with Unified observability
- 1 Propagate trace context so logs carry trace and span IDs.
- 2 Use the same resource attributes, such as service.name and Kubernetes labels, on every signal.
- 3 Store logs, metrics, and traces where you can query and pivot between them in one place.
- 4 Build dashboards that link from a metric spike to example traces and their logs.
The common mistake
What is the most common mistake with Unified observability?
Running three disconnected tools and copying timestamps between browser tabs at 3am.