Observability basics for small systems

Small systems do not need a huge monitoring stack to become easier to operate. They need a few consistent signals.

Logs

Logs should answer what happened, when it happened, and which request or job was involved.

Metrics

Start with request count, error count, latency, queue length, process memory, and disk usage.

Checks

A scheduled check should verify a real user path, not only that a process exists.