Page 12 of 15

All Components Working Together

From user request to debugging - see how all four tools integrate seamlessly.

Complete Observability Flow

End-to-End Flow

  1. User Request → Frontend: User submits request to frontend service
  2. Frontend logs to ELK: Generates request_id and logs to Logstash
  3. Frontend queries Consul: Discovers available backend instances
  4. Consul returns healthy backends: List of 3 healthy instances
  5. Frontend calls Backend with MDC headers: Propagates request_id via X-Request-ID
  6. Backend logs to ELK: Uses same request_id from headers
  7. Services expose metrics to Prometheus: /actuator/prometheus endpoints
  8. Grafana visualizes metrics: Real-time dashboards from Prometheus data
  9. Developers use Kibana + Grafana: Combined view for debugging

Color-Coded Components

Logs (Blue)

ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)

Metrics (Green)

Prometheus + Grafana

Traces (Orange)

MDC Propagation (request_id)

Discovery (Purple)

Consul Service Registry

Key Message

"Four tools, one cohesive system"

Each component serves a specific purpose, but they all work together to provide complete observability.

Key Takeaways

  • All four components work together seamlessly
  • Logs (blue), Metrics (green), Traces (orange), Discovery (purple)
  • Single request flows through entire stack
  • Complete visibility from frontend to backend