Logging Case Study

In this lesson, we’ll examine and understand logs from a real back-end server that plays a crucial role in an enterprise software product. The name of the product is “hostd.” It is the backend that implements the VMWare’s ESX server. We’ll explore various components of the log message, the purpose they serve, and how and why they are helpful.

Disclaimer: we will borrow the hostd’s log format and fields for the log snippets. Most of the values in the logs used in this lesson are fake.

The log stamp above is created when invoking an API that the back-end server implements. In the log snippet, one can see:

• A timestamp when the log snippet was created.

• The log level of the log message. ...