All guides

Filter by category, difficulty, or free text to find the right material for your team.

Metrics~45 min

Reduce Prometheus cardinality spikes with OpenTelemetry limits before the TSDB burns

Created: August 28, 2026 · Published: August 28, 2026

Learn how to find metrics that create runaway cardinality, separate SDK protection from real Prometheus cost, and apply safe mitigations in instrumentation, the Collector, and scrape config.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Monitor controller-runtime without melting the Kubernetes API server

Created: August 27, 2026 · Published: August 27, 2026

Learn how to monitor Kubernetes controllers built with controller-runtime using Prometheus, workqueue metrics, API server signals, promtool rules, and canary validation.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Fix Kubernetes memory alerts without falling for the page cache trap

Created: August 26, 2026 · Published: August 26, 2026

Learn how to redesign Kubernetes memory saturation alerts by comparing usage, working set, RSS, cache, limits, OOMKilled events, and promtool validation.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Debug Vector backpressure without losing incident searches

Created: August 24, 2026 · Published: August 24, 2026

Learn how to diagnose Vector pipelines when logs arrive late, malformed, or never show up, using internal metrics, VRL, disk buffers, canaries, and search validation.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Reduce duplicate logs with the OpenTelemetry Collector without hiding incident errors

Created: August 21, 2026 · Published: August 21, 2026

Learn how to roll out OpenTelemetry log deduplication with explicit guardrails, backend search parity, and rollback before changing the whole logging pipeline.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Scale OpenSearch shards online without spiking search latency

Created: August 19, 2026 · Published: August 19, 2026

Learn how to diagnose hot shards, decide whether primary shard scaling is justified, and run an online OpenSearch migration without losing writes or breaking searches.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Keep target churn and scrape gaps from blinding your burn-rate alerts

Created: August 17, 2026 · Published: August 17, 2026

Harden SLO burn-rate alerts against pod churn, scrape gaps, unstable endpoints, and no-data in Prometheus with PromQL, promtool, and measurable canaries.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Limit OpenTelemetry metric cardinality before Prometheus remote_write melts

Created: August 16, 2026 · Published: August 16, 2026

A practical guide to detecting and limiting OpenTelemetry metric cardinality with canaries, PromQL, attribute limits, SDK views, and remote_write validation.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Protect Loki incident searches from cardinality and query fairness before logs disappear

Created: August 14, 2026 · Published: August 14, 2026

A practical guide to reducing Loki cardinality, tuning query and ingestion limits, and proving critical incident searches still work.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Cut kube-state-metrics CustomResourceState noise without breaking alerts

Created: August 13, 2026 · Published: August 13, 2026

A practical guide to reducing kube-state-metrics and CustomResourceState cardinality with allowlists, metricRelabelings, impact PromQL, and rollback gates.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Migrate OpenTelemetry Collector to queuebatch without creating exporter backpressure

Created: August 12, 2026 · Published: August 12, 2026

An advanced guide for validating queuebatch in the OpenTelemetry Collector with queue metrics, memory_limiter, PromQL gates, and safe rollback before a fleet-wide rollout.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~40 min

Investigate log spikes with OpenSearch PPL without hot shards misleading you

Created: August 10, 2026 · Published: August 10, 2026

Combine PPL, Dev Tools, and cluster metrics to investigate error spikes without confusing an application issue with shard skew or search pressure.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Investigate CrashLoopBackOff with PromQL before blaming OOMKilled

Created: August 8, 2026 · Published: August 8, 2026

Learn how to move from a CrashLoopBackOff alert to a verifiable OOMKilled hypothesis with PromQL, kubectl, and validation rules that avoid false pages.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Roll out OpenTelemetry Collector configuration with OpAMP without breaking pipelines

Created: August 6, 2026 · Published: August 6, 2026

Learn how to treat OpAMP as a safe control plane for OpenTelemetry Collector fleets: local validation, canaries, queue metrics, rollback evidence, and backend ingestion checks before global rollout.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~35 min

Debug Vector pipeline backpressure without losing logs in transit

Created: August 4, 2026 · Published: August 4, 2026

Learn how to find where Vector events are delayed or dropped, separate parsing failures from sink pressure, and use a safe checklist before production changes.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Validate KEDA signals from OpenSearch before hot shards make autoscaling lie

Created: August 3, 2026 · Published: August 3, 2026

A practical guide to validating KEDA external metrics backed by OpenSearch before scaling services from signals biased by hot shards, noisy windows, or a saturated signal backend.

Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~40 min

Validate Collector OTTL filters without dropping telemetry through ambiguous context

Created: August 2, 2026 · Published: August 2, 2026

Learn how to roll out OpenTelemetry Collector OTTL filters with a canary, self-telemetry, and backend parity checks to avoid silent telemetry loss.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Control HTTP route cardinality in Prometheus before Kubernetes API golden signals lie

Created: August 1, 2026 · Published: August 1, 2026

Learn how to find explosive HTTP labels, normalize routes, protect remote_write, and validate dashboards and alerts before publishing Kubernetes API golden signals.

Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~38 min

Enrich telemetry with the OpenTelemetry lookup processor without cardinality spikes or backpressure

Created: July 31, 2026 · Published: July 31, 2026

Learn how to use lookups in the OpenTelemetry Collector without turning the pipeline into a source of latency, queues, or explosive attributes.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Controller-runtime golden signals: catch cache lag before blaming the API server

Created: July 30, 2026 · Published: July 30, 2026

Learn how to instrument and diagnose Kubernetes controllers with controller-runtime, workqueue, cache, and REST-client metrics before tuning concurrency or restarting pods blindly.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~35 min

Validate Linux host metrics with OpenTelemetry Collector before dashboards go empty

Created: July 28, 2026 · Published: July 28, 2026

Learn how to validate an OpenTelemetry Collector hostmetrics pipeline on Linux with systemd, self-telemetry, Prometheus, and rollout guardrails before trusting dashboards that have not proven anything yet.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Redact PII in Vector pipelines without losing incident forensics

Created: July 27, 2026 · Published: July 27, 2026

Learn how to validate Vector VRL redaction rules, measure PII leaks, and protect incident investigation before shipping logs to OpenSearch or Loki.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~35 min

Enable logdedup in OpenTelemetry Collector without hiding incidents

Created: July 26, 2026 · Published: July 26, 2026

A practical guide to using the OpenTelemetry Collector logdedup processor without turning volume reduction into lost incident evidence.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Control Kubernetes custom metric cardinality before HPA and remote_write lie to you

Created: July 25, 2026 · Published: July 25, 2026

Learn how to design, audit, and roll out Kubernetes custom metric exporters with label budgets, PromQL tests, remote_write guardrails, and HPA validation.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~35 min

Build Kubernetes incident timelines from OTel signals without inventing the root cause

Created: July 24, 2026 · Published: July 24, 2026

Learn how to reconstruct an operational timeline with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, logs, and Kubernetes events so you can separate cause, symptom, and mitigation without relying on intuition.

Linux
Intermediate
Read guide
Tracing~45 min

Prevent OpenTelemetry Collector tail sampling OOMKills without losing incident traces

Created: July 23, 2026 · Published: July 23, 2026

Learn how to control OpenTelemetry Collector tail sampling memory pressure without losing the traces you need during an incident.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Autoscale Kubernetes from OpenSearch signals without creating feedback loops

Created: July 22, 2026 · Published: July 22, 2026

Learn how to turn OpenSearch queries into KEDA external metrics without causing oscillation, expensive queries, or autoscaling from noise.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Clean kube-state-metrics noise before your dashboards drift

Created: July 21, 2026 · Published: July 21, 2026

Learn how to audit kube-state-metrics cardinality, design safe allowlists, validate alert parity, and roll out changes without breaking Kubernetes dashboards.

Linux
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~35 min

Fix Loki label cardinality before incident logs disappear

Created: July 12, 2026 · Published: July 12, 2026

Learn how to detect explosive Loki labels, move volatile context out of the index, and validate that critical logs remain available during incidents.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Detect ingestion backpressure between OpenTelemetry, Data Prepper, and OpenSearch before telemetry drops

Created: July 10, 2026 · Published: July 10, 2026

Validate Collector, Data Prepper, and OpenSearch with parity, queue, and rejection metrics so traces, logs, or metrics do not disappear before you can explain the incident.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Debug Vector pipelines when logs arrive late, broken, or never arrive

Created: July 9, 2026 · Published: July 9, 2026

Validate a Vector pipeline with evidence: config, VRL, tap, internal metrics, backpressure, canaries, and rollback criteria.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Diagnose OpenSearch vector-search hot shards before RAG latency spikes

Created: July 6, 2026 · Published: July 6, 2026

Learn how to detect hot shards in OpenSearch vector indices, prove whether they affect RAG retrieval, and apply safe mitigations with Dev Tools, metrics, and canaries.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~45 min

Guard Prometheus recording rules before cardinality spikes melt remote write

Created: July 3, 2026 · Published: July 3, 2026

Audit Prometheus recording rules, set a label budget, validate with promtool, and promote without melting remote write queues or dashboards.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~50 min

Roll out OpenTelemetry Collector declarative config without dropping telemetry

Created: July 2, 2026 · Published: July 2, 2026

Move to OpenTelemetry Collector declarative configuration with dry-runs, canaries, queue/exporter metrics, PromQL tests, and a prepared rollback.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Deduplicate OpenTelemetry logs before Loki limits hide incident evidence

Created: June 30, 2026 · Published: June 30, 2026

Learn how to detect duplicates, apply a safe OpenTelemetry Collector deduplication policy, and prove Loki stops discarding samples without losing incident evidence.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Tame Kubernetes target churn in Prometheus before scrape pools stall

Created: June 29, 2026 · Published: June 29, 2026

A practical guide to reducing Kubernetes target churn in Prometheus with PromQL, canary relabeling, promtool, and rollout guardrails.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~45 min

Diagnose OpenTelemetry Collector backpressure before signals are dropped

Created: June 28, 2026 · Published: June 28, 2026

Learn how to read OpenTelemetry Collector internal metrics, isolate slow exporters, test a safe canary, and prove queues drain without hiding critical spans, logs, or metrics.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Diagnose OpenSearch hot shards before indexing queues spiral

Created: June 27, 2026 · Published: June 27, 2026

Learn how to find OpenSearch hot shards with Dev Tools, queue metrics, and canary validation before search latency or bulk rejections ruin the morning.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Clean up kube-state-metrics noise before device metrics trigger Prometheus cardinality spikes

Created: June 26, 2026 · Published: June 26, 2026

Find which kube-state-metrics families inflate Prometheus, prune volatile labels with allowlists, and validate alerts and dashboards before rolling the change out.

Linux
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Debug Vector pipeline backpressure before buffers become log loss

Created: June 25, 2026 · Published: June 25, 2026

Learn how to diagnose delayed and dropped logs in Vector with internal metrics, `vector top`, PromQL rules, disk buffers, and a safe canary before changing production.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Diagnose Kubernetes API WATCH/LIST pressure before blaming etcd

Created: June 23, 2026 · Published: June 23, 2026

An actionable guide for detecting Kubernetes API WATCH/LIST pressure by combining API server, etcd, Prometheus, and client validation before timeouts spread.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Enrich Prometheus metrics with info() without triggering cardinality spikes

Created: June 22, 2026 · Published: June 22, 2026

A practical guide to testing Prometheus’ experimental info() function, building a metadata allowlist, measuring series impact, and proving alerts and SLOs still work.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~40 min

Troubleshoot Loki ingest limits and label policies before tenant rate limits drop logs

Created: June 20, 2026 · Published: June 20, 2026

Learn how to investigate Loki drops caused by label policies, rate limits, and excessive streams, then clean volatile labels and validate that critical searches still work.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~45 min

Control Vector cardinality before remote write and sinks backpressure

Created: June 19, 2026 · Published: June 19, 2026

A practical guide to contain explosive tags in Vector 0.56, separate cardinality from retries and buffers, and prove that Prometheus, logs, and SLOs still tell the truth.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~40 min

Use OTTL context inference in the Filter Processor without dropping critical telemetry

Created: June 18, 2026 · Published: June 18, 2026

A practical guide to filtering noisy logs, metrics, and traces with OTTL context inference while proving that errors, SLO signals, and incident evidence are still present.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~40 min

Validate OTel-Arrow without losing telemetry when pressure hits

Created: June 17, 2026 · Published: June 17, 2026

OTel-Arrow can make telemetry pipelines more efficient, but a safe rollout is not a benchmark victory lap. Prove that pressure is visible, queues drain, and hidden drops stay at zero.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Tracing~35 min

Use OBI header enrichment to scope incidents without leaking secrets

Created: June 16, 2026 · Published: June 16, 2026

Configure OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation to enrich traces with useful headers, obfuscate credentials, and validate that incident response gains context without exposing sensitive data.

Linux
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~42 min

Stop log bursts from turning OpenSearch rollover into hot shards

Created: June 15, 2026 · Published: June 15, 2026

Learn how to detect when OpenSearch log indices create hot shards during ingestion bursts, fix rollover with aliases and ISM, and validate recovery with real signals.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Debug Prometheus relabeling when targets disappear without creating cardinality spikes

Created: June 14, 2026 · Published: June 14, 2026

Fix Prometheus relabeling rules that remove useful targets or keep unstable labels, without breaking alerts or inflating the TSDB.

Linux
Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~40 min

Deduplicate logs in the OpenTelemetry Collector before queues start dropping telemetry

Created: June 13, 2026 · Published: June 13, 2026

Learn how to detect log pipeline pressure in the OpenTelemetry Collector, apply logdedup with safe conditions, and validate that queues, memory, and exporters stabilize without breaking audit streams or alerts.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Use Kubernetes PSI metrics to detect real API saturation without noisy paging

Created: June 12, 2026 · Published: June 12, 2026

A practical guide to adding PSI to Kubernetes API dashboards, correlating CPU/memory/IO pressure with SLIs, and designing alerts that page only on real impact.

Linux
Intermediate
Read guide
Metrics~35 min

Clean up kube-state-metrics noise before your dashboards and alerts start lying

Created: June 10, 2026 · Published: June 10, 2026

kube-state-metrics can turn Kubernetes state into a storm of series, labels, and dashboards that look precise but do not help. This guide shows how to measure the noise, remove unstable labels, keep critical signals, and validate Prometheus before touching production.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~40 min

Debug Vector pipelines before retries and buffers hide the real bottleneck

Created: May 1, 2026 · Published: May 1, 2026

A practical guide to using Vector internal metrics, config validation, and isolation tests when logs arrive late, get retried too often, or vanish.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Reduce Prometheus cardinality spikes without blinding your alerts

Created: April 30, 2026 · Published: April 30, 2026

A practical guide to spotting when Prometheus is swelling because of unstable labels, cutting cardinality in the right layer, and validating that your alerts still cover the real incident.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~40 min

Fix Loki label explosion without breaking the searches that actually matter

Created: April 29, 2026 · Published: April 29, 2026

A practical guide to spotting high-cardinality labels in Loki, taking them out of the hot path, and proving your searches still work.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~40 min

Diagnose hot shards in OpenSearch before latency and indexing queues spiral

Created: April 27, 2026 · Published: April 27, 2026

Learn how to confirm an OpenSearch hot shard, find the affected index and node, fix the actual cause, and validate that recovery is real.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~40 min

Understand Kubernetes memory metrics without firing false OOM alerts

Created: April 26, 2026 · Published: April 26, 2026

A practical guide to diagnosing Kubernetes container memory with Prometheus and Grafana without confusing usage, working set, RSS, or reclaimable page cache.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~35 min

Diagnosing backpressure in the OpenTelemetry Collector before you start losing telemetry

Created: April 25, 2026 · Published: April 25, 2026

An advanced troubleshooting guide to isolate whether the choke point is the exporter, the network, the backend, or the Collector process itself before telemetry starts dropping.

DockerLinux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~38 min

Clean up kube-state-metrics noise so your dashboards mean something again

Created: April 20, 2026 · Published: April 20, 2026

kube-state-metrics is still valuable, but in 2026 it exposes more surface area, more stable metrics, and recent defaults such as EndpointSlices. If your dashboards filled up with irrelevant series, fragile joins, or duplicated states, this guide shows how to reduce noise at the source, fix your queries, and validate that the cleanup does not break alerts or troubleshooting.

LinuxDocker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~55 min

Resolve hot shards in OpenSearch before the cluster starts melting

Created: April 19, 2026 · Published: April 19, 2026

An advanced guide to isolating hot shards in OpenSearch with node, shard, and ingest signals, then applying reversible mitigations before queues, timeouts, and backlogs take over.

LinuxDocker
Advanced
Read guide
Logs~24 min

Debug Vector pipelines when logs arrive late, broken, or not at all

Created: April 17, 2026 · Published: April 17, 2026

When a Vector pipeline starts delaying, duplicating, or dropping events, random tuning is usually the expensive path. This guide shows how to use internal metrics, config validation, and sink-side signals to find the real bottleneck and fix it with reversible changes.

DockerLinux
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~60 min

What to do when Loki sinks from label cardinality explosion

Created: April 13, 2026 · Published: April 13, 2026

Actionable guide to detect and fix high-cardinality labels that degrade or crash Loki: symptoms, metrics and logs to inspect, safe Promtail/ingest changes and validation steps.

DockerLinux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~60 min

Reducing Prometheus cardinality spikes without breaking alerts

Created: April 11, 2026 · Published: April 11, 2026

A hands-on guide to detect high-cardinality sources, apply safe relabeling and rollups, and confirm critical alerts remain effective.

DockerLinux
Advanced
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~35 min

Diagnosing backpressure in the OpenTelemetry Collector before you start losing telemetry

Created: April 10, 2026 · Published: April 10, 2026

An advanced troubleshooting guide to isolate whether the choke point is the exporter, the network, the backend, or the Collector process itself before telemetry starts dropping.

DockerLinux
Advanced
Read guide
Metrics~32 min

Metric downsampling with VictoriaMetrics in the free version

Created: April 10, 2026 · Published: April 10, 2026

VictoriaMetrics Enterprise provides native downsampling in cluster. On the free tier, you can approximate it with separate clusters, fan-out, and `-dedup.minScrapeInterval`.

Advanced
Read guide
Logs~28 min

Size OpenSearch shards from real ingestion

Created: April 9, 2026 · Published: April 9, 2026

Advanced guide for choosing `number_of_shards` and `max_size` from the real ingestion rate of an index.

Advanced
Read guide
Dashboards~20 min

Grafana to unify metrics, logs, and traces (cross-platform)

Created: April 7, 2026 · Published: April 7, 2026

Deploy Grafana, provision datasources, and keep one place to explore metrics, logs, and trace correlation.

Docker
Intermediate
Read guide
Logs~18 min

OpenSearch for centralized logs (cross-platform)

Created: April 6, 2026 · Published: April 6, 2026

Configure OpenSearch and Dashboards, load initial documents, and validate operational log-search workflows on any platform.

Docker
Beginner
Read guide
Metrics~16 min

Prometheus for system metrics (cross-platform)

Created: April 5, 2026 · Published: April 5, 2026

Deploy Prometheus and validate operational metrics with a reproducible workflow, independent of your operating system.

Docker
Beginner
Read guide
Reliability~12 min

SLO design for platform teams

Created: March 30, 2026 · Published: March 30, 2026

A short framework for choosing indicators and targets that help you negotiate reliability with product and engineering.

Intermediate
Read guide
OpenTelemetry~18 min

Observability foundations with OpenTelemetry

Created: March 21, 2026 · Published: March 21, 2026

A practical guide for moving from instrumentation by fashion to instrumentation that answers real operational questions.

Beginner
Read guide