Logging System Migration (slog → tracing) Completed

During the development of the Iroh backend, the complete migration of the logging system from slog to tracing was finalized. This migration represents a significant modernization of GuardianDB’s observability infrastructure.

1. Performance and Efficiency

Zero-Cost Abstractions: tracing uses compile-time optimized abstractions, eliminating unnecessary overhead.
Async-First Design: Natively built for asynchronous environments, reducing contention and maximizing throughput.
Structured Logging: Efficiently structured and serialized logs improve analysis and filtering.

2. Advanced Observability

Distributed Tracing: Detailed span tracking across multiple components and threads.
Automatic Instrumentation: The #[instrument] macro adds precise, automatic instrumentation to functions.
Hierarchical Context: Nested spans provide full end-to-end visibility into complex execution flows.

3. Enhanced Integration

Full Compatibility: Seamless integration with Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, and others.
Tokio Integration: Native support for the asynchronous runtime widely used in the Iroh backend.
Advanced Filtering: Fine-grained log control with dynamic filters by level, module, or context.

Implementation in GuardianDB

All GuardianDB modules now use the new tracing system, fully replacing the previous slog-based pipeline.
This transition included adjustments in middleware, networking layers, access control, database, and Iroh backend instrumentation.

Observability Improvements

1. Distributed Tracing

Request Tracing: Full request tracking across the entire component chain.
Performance Profiling: Accurate bottleneck detection with span flamegraphs.
Correlation IDs: Automatic correlation between logs and metrics within the same operation.

2. Integrated Metrics

Span Metrics: Monitoring of duration, frequency, and error rate per operation.
Custom Metrics: Domain-specific metrics such as cache hit rate and connection pool usage.
Health Indicators: Health signals derived from span patterns and frequencies.

Tools for Development and Production

1. Debugging and Profiling

Tracing Subscriber: Flexible output configuration for different environments (dev, staging, prod).
Async Profiling: Visualization of await points and detailed analysis of async tasks.
Error Context: Rich, structured stack traces for efficient debugging.

2. Production Monitoring

OpenTelemetry Export: Automatic export to compatible observability systems.
Alerting Integration: Alert triggers based on span metrics and behavioral patterns.
Dynamic Dashboards: Ready-to-use panels for performance analysis and real-time visualization.

The full migration from slog to tracing has significantly modernized the observability infrastructure, providing distributed tracing, automatic instrumentation, and integration with modern monitoring tools.
This change not only enhances development and debugging experiences but also establishes a strong foundation for production-grade observability.