Exploring Service Observability
Service Observability helps operations teams triage and manage incidents in a complex and distributed production system. It combines telemetry from external application performance monitoring (APM) systems with related data in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). It displays both in a single workflow in the Service Operations Workspace (SOW).
Service Observability overview
Service Observability displays health metrics in the SOW related to a given service. Metrics can be ingested from an external APM system and displayed alongside information for related configuration items in the CMDB.
- Datadog
- Dynatrace
- New Relic
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
After you have connected an APM instance to Service Observability, you map services in the CMDB to the APM metrics using existing tags on the APM data.
With this data mapping, Service Observability can display metrics in one place from APM entities associated with your service, like a host or database, along with information from related CIs. Operators use the APM metrics, related CI information, and helpful contextual information, like current incidents and alerts related to the service, to understand the health of the service.
For example, say you use Dynatrace to monitor your checkout service, and metrics from your database and host use the tag checkout-service to denote requests coming from that service. By mapping the
checkout service CI to the APM data tagged with checkout-service, Service Observability retrieves metrics for those databases and hosts and CIs related to the service, then displays them together. Operators can pinpoint issues on entities related to the service and narrow down the
mitigation process without having to leave the SOW.
Service Observability users
| User | Description |
|---|---|
| System admin |
Version 1.5 only. System admins configure users and teams, register services to be monitored, connect Service Observability to APMs, and then map those services to that data. They can also view the data in the SOW |
| Service Observability admin | Version 1.6.x and later. Service Observability admins can configure users and teams, connect Service Observability to APMs, and then map services to that data. They can also view the data in the SOW. Admins can also customize dashboard templates used to display metrics and related information. |
| Operator/operations manager | Operators use Service Observability when triaging incidents in the SOW. They can view basic health metrics for a service, along with related incidents, alerts, and changes. They can get more detailed information by navigating to the Observability tab to view additional service metrics, along with metrics from related entities, such as a host or database. |
Service Observability workflow
Admins configure Service Observability by registering services, connecting APM metrics, and then mapping the services to that data. Operators use Service Observability to determine if another related entity is causing issues surfaced by the service's performance.
As an admin, you:
- Determine the services to be monitored by Service Observability based on business criticality.
- Connect existing APM instances to Service Observability.
- Map services with APM metric data based on APM-based tags used on that data.
- Customize the templates used to display metric charts.
As an operator or manager, you:
- Spot an issue with a service while working in the SOW, for example, from an alert, the Service dashboard, or Express List, then navigate to the Service Details page.
- View overall health metrics for the service, along with related incidents, alerts, and changes. If one of the metrics seems unhealthy, navigate to the Observability tab.
- View more detailed service metrics, as well as information from related entities, to start root cause investigation. When finding that the issue is further down the system's stack, identify the ownership for that entity to start remediation.
Service Observability benefits
| Benefit | Feature | Users |
|---|---|---|
Centralize critical signals and bridge workflows to increase agility and reliability:
|
. | Admins |
| Increase efficiency and reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) by viewing combined metrics from entities associated with a service. You can begin to determine blast radius and ownership of an incident. | View service health metrics | Operators |
| See related changes to the system and alerts associated with a service in one place. | View overall service health. | Operators |
| Customize dashboard templates. | Customize Service Observability dashboard templates | Admins |