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0 pointsBackBlast4y ago0 comments

If I'm in Java, JavaScript, or Python and there is a code fault, the system provides me a stack trace of the call structure that lead to the error. If I catch the error I can output more related data as I deem necessary. This comes effectively, out of the box.

How do I do a similar stack trace in microservices to understand the path that led to this state? I've used microservices at a couple of companies and their methods were effectively, look at the request id and trace it through this mass of log files for each microservice we are running. It was terrible and could take hours to compile the same information.

What tooling exists to solve this problem with microservices? Genuinely want to know.

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whimsicalism4y ago

> If I'm in Java, JavaScript, or Python and there is a code fault, the system provides me a stack trace of the call structure that lead to the error. If I catch the error I can output more related data as I deem necessary. This comes effectively, out of the box.

Sure, if you are not writing a program using event-driven async style. Every monolith I've worked with has been in async style pretty much.

With global state in the monolith, this can become quite difficult to reason about. By contrast, with microservices, you can analyze the service as performing a small function with a single input and output without global state dependencies. This can be easier to debug.

BackBlastOP4y ago

It seems to me that you are comparing apples and oranges. If your code has no relevant state or coupling, a pure function. Sure, you can look at it in isolation. You could do the same in a monolith.

I've worked on plenty of monoliths with async style code and have found the stack traces to be plenty helpful. It's never been an issue. At least in JavaScript you retain all relevant scoped data and can dump it all if you like. Debugging gets much more interesting when there are no obvious such errors, yet error conditions are present.

I'm still not seeing any equivalent microservice tooling.

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