Apache SkyWalking

Website

skywalking.apache.org

$ Details

Categories

#Development #Tool #Monitoring Tools #Log Management #Exception Monitoring

Prometheus

Website

prometheus.io

$ Details

Categories

#Monitoring Tools #Performance Monitoring #Log Management #Application Performance Monitoring

Apache SkyWalking features and specs

• Comprehensive Observability
  Apache SkyWalking provides end-to-end observability of distributed systems including service, process, and container metrics, as well as logs and events, enabling holistic monitoring and performance optimization.
• Distributed Tracing
  SkyWalking offers robust distributed tracing capabilities that allow users to trace requests end-to-end across various services and platforms, aiding in root cause analysis and performance monitoring.
• Open Source
  Being an open-source project under the Apache umbrella, SkyWalking benefits from community contributions, regular updates, and improvements, offering transparency and flexibility.
• Wide Protocol Support
  SkyWalking supports a wide range of protocols and platforms, such as HTTP, gRPC, Dubbo, and supports multiple languages including Java, .NET, Python, and more, making it versatile across different tech stacks.
• Dashboarding and Visualization
  The platform provides powerful dashboards and visualization tools, allowing users to easily interpret data, create custom dashboards, and derive insights from visual metrics.

Possible disadvantages of Apache SkyWalking

• Complex Setup
  Setting up and configuring SkyWalking can be complex, especially for organizations unfamiliar with distributed observability tools, potentially requiring significant time and expertise.
• Scalability Challenges
  While SkyWalking is designed for distributed systems, scaling its deployment for very large environments might present challenges, necessitating careful architectural planning.
• Resource Intensive
  SkyWalking can be resource-intensive, as it collects a large amount of telemetry data, which might lead to high overhead on system resources like CPU and memory.
• Learning Curve
  Due to its comprehensive feature set and various configurations, there can be a steep learning curve associated with effectively utilizing SkyWalking, particularly for new users.
• Limited UI Customization
  The user interface, while functional, offers limited customization options compared to some commercial observability solutions, which might be a limitation for users needing highly tailored dashboards.

Prometheus features and specs

• Powerful Query Language
  Prometheus uses PromQL, a flexible and powerful query language that allows for complex and detailed queries.
• Dimensional Data Model
  Prometheus employs a multidimensional data model with time series data identified by metric name and key-value pairs, offering great flexibility in data organization.
• Auto-Discovery
  It supports service discovery mechanisms to automatically locate and scrape metrics from jobs, simplifying the monitoring process.
• Alerting
  Prometheus includes built-in alerting capabilities that allow you to trigger alerts based on PromQL queries, which can be integrated with different alert management systems.
• Scalability
  Its architecture, which uses independent single servers, scales well, allowing you to handle a large number of time series efficiently.
• Open Source
  Prometheus is open-source and supported by a large community, offering transparency, regular updates, and numerous integrations.
• Easy Integration
  Thanks to its compatibility with various data exporting standards and a myriad of existing exporters, integrating Prometheus into existing systems is streamlined.

Possible disadvantages of Prometheus

• Single Points of Failure
  Prometheus instances operate independently, meaning that if a server goes down, the metrics it monitored will be unavailable unless replicated manually.
• Storage Overhead
  Prometheus can consume significant storage, especially for high-resolution time series data, which might necessitate careful planning and management.
• Limited Long-Term Storage
  By default, Prometheus is not designed for long-term storage of metrics and may require integration with other systems like Thanos or Cortex for this purpose.
• Complexity for Beginners
  The sheer number of features and the complexities associated with PromQL can present a steep learning curve for newcomers.
• Scaling Write Operations
  In high-scale environments, write operations might become a bottleneck due to the single-server nature of the Prometheus architecture.
• Lack of Native High Availability
  While Prometheus supports running multiple instances, it does not provide built-in high availability features out-of-the-box, necessitating additional configurations.
• No Built-in Authentication and Authorization
  Prometheus lacks native support for secure authentication and authorization, which means these features must be externally managed.

Chapter04 Session10 - Apache Skywalking by Sheng Wu

More videos:

How Prometheus Monitoring works | Prometheus Architecture explained