Stories with Tag logging

• Telescope – an open-source web-based log viewer for logs stored in ClickHouse

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  Posted: 2025-02-26 08:28:21

  Verbose tl;dr

  Telescope is an open-source, web-based log viewer designed specifically for ClickHouse. It provides a user-friendly interface for querying, filtering, and visualizing logs stored within ClickHouse databases. Features include full-text search, support for various log formats, customizable dashboards, and real-time log streaming. Telescope aims to simplify the process of exploring and analyzing large volumes of log data, making it easier to identify trends, debug issues, and monitor system performance.

  Telescope is an open-source, web-based log viewer specifically designed for efficiently querying and visualizing logs stored within ClickHouse, a high-performance column-oriented database management system. It provides a user-friendly interface for exploring and analyzing vast quantities of log data, enabling users to quickly identify trends, pinpoint errors, and gain deeper insights into their application's behavior.

  Key features of Telescope include:

  • ClickHouse Integration: Telescope is tightly coupled with ClickHouse, leveraging its powerful analytical capabilities for fast and efficient log processing. This allows for interactive querying and analysis of massive datasets, making it suitable for handling the high volume of logs generated by modern applications.

  • Intuitive Web Interface: The project offers a clean and intuitive web UI, enabling users to easily browse, search, and filter logs without needing to write complex ClickHouse queries. The interface simplifies the process of navigating through large log files and facilitates quick identification of relevant information.

  • Real-time Log Streaming: Telescope supports real-time log streaming, providing up-to-date visibility into application activity. This allows users to monitor live logs and immediately detect and react to emerging issues.

  • Customizable Dashboards and Visualizations: Users can create custom dashboards and visualizations to track key metrics and gain a comprehensive overview of their application's performance. This allows for tailored insights based on specific needs and facilitates the identification of patterns and anomalies.

  • Search and Filtering: Telescope offers robust search and filtering capabilities, allowing users to quickly locate specific log entries based on various criteria. This includes filtering by timestamps, log levels, keywords, and other relevant attributes.

  • Open Source and Extensible: Being open-source, Telescope allows for community contributions and customization. Users can adapt the tool to their specific requirements and integrate it seamlessly into their existing logging infrastructure.

  • Simplified Log Management: By centralizing log viewing and analysis within a single web interface, Telescope simplifies log management and reduces the complexity of working with ClickHouse directly.

  In essence, Telescope bridges the gap between the raw power of ClickHouse and the need for an accessible and user-friendly log exploration tool. It empowers users to harness the performance of ClickHouse for log analysis without requiring in-depth knowledge of ClickHouse query language or database administration. This makes Telescope a valuable tool for developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone dealing with large volumes of log data stored in ClickHouse.

  • ClickHouse
  • log viewer
  • log analysis
  • web-based
  • open-source
  • Telescope
  • logging
  • Monitoring
  • Observability
  • Data Visualization
  • real-time logs

  Summary of Comments ( 36 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43181862

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users generally praised Telescope's clean interface and the smart choice of using ClickHouse for storage, highlighting its performance capabilities. Some questioned the need for another log viewer, citing existing solutions like Grafana Loki and Kibana, but acknowledged Telescope's potential niche for users already invested in ClickHouse. A few commenters expressed interest in specific features like query language support and the ability to ingest logs directly. Others focused on the practical aspects of deploying and managing Telescope, inquiring about resource consumption and single-sign-on integration. The discussion also touched on alternative approaches to log analysis and visualization, including using command-line tools or more specialized log aggregation systems.

  The Hacker News post for Telescope, an open-source web-based log viewer for ClickHouse, has several comments discussing its features, alternatives, and potential use cases.

  Several commenters express interest in the project and its capabilities. One user highlights the benefit of having a GUI for ClickHouse, especially for tasks like filtering logs. Another appreciates the straightforward setup process and the user-friendly interface, contrasting it with more complex alternatives. The simplicity of Telescope compared to Grafana is also mentioned favorably.

  Some discussion revolves around comparisons to other existing tools. One commenter mentions using Kibana with ClickHouse, while another brings up Grafana and Loki as a comparable setup. The discussion points out that Telescope is specifically designed for ClickHouse, unlike more general-purpose tools. This focus potentially offers a more tailored and efficient experience for users working exclusively with ClickHouse.

  The ability to write SQL queries within Telescope is highlighted as a major advantage. This direct access to ClickHouse's power is seen as a significant plus for those familiar with SQL.

  A few comments delve into more technical aspects. One user asks about the performance implications of running Telescope, particularly regarding resource usage. Another commenter inquires about the support for distributed ClickHouse setups, showcasing interest in scaling the log viewing capabilities.

  The thread also touches upon the potential uses of Telescope. One commenter mentions using a similar setup (ClickHouse and a custom web UI) for security log analysis, while others discuss the general benefits of having a visual tool for navigating large log datasets. This illustrates the broad applicability of Telescope in various domains.

  Finally, there's some discussion around the project's open-source nature and future development. Users express interest in contributing and suggest features like adding authentication or improving performance. This active community engagement suggests a healthy and evolving project.

• Every System is a Log: Avoiding coordination in distributed applications

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  Posted: 2025-01-24 13:57:10

  Verbose tl;dr

  The blog post "Every System is a Log" advocates for building distributed applications by treating all systems as append-only logs. This approach simplifies coordination and state management by leveraging the inherent ordering and immutability of logs. Instead of complex synchronization mechanisms, systems react to changes by consuming and interpreting the log, deriving their current state and triggering actions based on observed events. This "log-centric" architecture promotes loose coupling, fault tolerance, and scalability, as components can independently process the log at their own pace, without direct interaction or shared state. This also facilitates debugging and replayability, as the log provides a complete and ordered history of the system's evolution. By embracing the simplicity of logs, developers can avoid the pitfalls of distributed consensus and build more robust and maintainable distributed applications.

  The blog post "Every System is a Log: Avoiding coordination in distributed applications" explores an alternative approach to building distributed systems that prioritizes minimizing coordination between components. Traditional distributed systems often rely heavily on intricate coordination mechanisms like distributed consensus or locking, introducing complexity, performance bottlenecks, and potential points of failure. The author proposes a paradigm shift by conceptualizing every system as essentially a log, where state changes are appended as immutable records.

  This "log-centric" perspective facilitates a simplified architectural model centered around asynchronous communication. Instead of relying on real-time interactions and shared state, components communicate by appending events to their respective logs. These logs capture the complete history of state transitions within each component, enabling independent operation and decoupling. Downstream components can then subscribe to and process these logs at their own pace, reacting to changes as they become available. This asynchronous, event-driven approach inherently reduces the need for complex coordination protocols.

  The blog post delves into the practical implications of this log-oriented design. It describes how components can rebuild their state from the log, ensuring fault tolerance and enabling efficient state synchronization. The immutability of log entries provides a strong foundation for reasoning about system behavior and simplifies debugging. The author highlights the concept of "derived state," where the current state of a component is computed from its log, eliminating the need for centralized state management.

  The post also discusses how this approach can simplify complex operations, such as distributed transactions and data consistency. By representing operations as a sequence of log entries, it becomes possible to ensure ordering and atomicity without relying on traditional distributed consensus algorithms. This leads to a more robust and scalable system, as components can operate independently and recover from failures gracefully.

  Finally, the author acknowledges potential challenges associated with adopting a log-centric architecture, such as managing log size and dealing with potential performance bottlenecks related to log processing. The blog post concludes by suggesting that, despite these challenges, the benefits of reduced coordination, improved fault tolerance, and increased scalability make the log-centric approach a compelling alternative for building next-generation distributed applications, especially in contexts where high availability and independent component operation are paramount.

  • distributed systems
  • coordination
  • logging
  • application design
  • scalability
  • performance
  • event sourcing
  • CQRS
  • system architecture
  • software engineering
  • asynchronous communication
  • message queues
  • Microservices

  Summary of Comments ( 23 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42813049

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users generally praised the article for clearly explaining the benefits of log-structured systems, with several highlighting its accessibility even to those unfamiliar with the concept. Some commenters offered practical examples and pointed out existing systems that utilize similar principles, like Kafka and FoundationDB. A few discussed the potential downsides, such as debugging complexity and the performance implications of log replay. One commenter suggested the title was slightly misleading, arguing not every system should be a log, but acknowledged the article's core message about the value of append-only designs. Another commenter mentioned the concept's similarity to event sourcing, and its applicability beyond just distributed systems. Overall, the comments reflect a positive reception to the article's explanation of a complex topic.

  The Hacker News post titled "Every System is a Log: Avoiding coordination in distributed applications" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42813049) has generated a moderate amount of discussion, with several commenters offering their perspectives on the log-based approach to building distributed systems.

  One of the most compelling threads discusses the practical implications and limitations of this approach. A commenter points out that while the log-centric model simplifies certain aspects, it doesn't magically solve all distributed systems problems. They highlight the challenges of dealing with non-commutative operations and the need for careful consideration when applying this pattern in real-world scenarios. This sparks further discussion about the nuances of ordering and consistency guarantees within a log-based system. Another commenter adds to this by mentioning the complexities of garbage collection in an append-only log, particularly in long-running systems, and questions the efficiency compared to traditional databases for specific use cases.

  Another interesting comment thread focuses on the relationship between this concept and event sourcing. Commenters draw parallels between the log-based architecture described in the article and the principles of event sourcing, where changes to application state are captured as a sequence of events. They discuss the benefits of this approach, such as auditability and the ability to reconstruct past states, and also acknowledge the potential drawbacks, including the increased complexity of querying data. One commenter mentions Kafka as a practical implementation of these ideas, specifically using Kafka Streams for state management.

  Several commenters also share their own experiences and use cases where a log-based approach has proven beneficial. One commenter mentions using this pattern for building a real-time analytics pipeline, emphasizing the advantages of simplified data ingestion and processing. Another discusses its applicability in building collaborative editing software, highlighting how the log naturally captures the sequence of changes made by different users.

  Finally, some commenters offer alternative perspectives and point out related concepts. One commenter mentions the similarities to the Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) pattern, where commands that modify state are separated from queries that retrieve data. Another commenter suggests exploring the concept of "Change Data Capture" (CDC), which is often used in databases to track and capture changes to data over time.

  In summary, the comments on the Hacker News post reveal a generally positive reception to the log-based approach for building distributed systems, but also acknowledge the practical challenges and limitations. The discussion covers various aspects, including consistency guarantees, garbage collection, the relationship to event sourcing and CQRS, and practical use cases. The commenters offer valuable insights and alternative perspectives, enriching the understanding of the core concepts presented in the linked article.