Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development · Lección

Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas

Integre Telemetry en su aplicación para emitir métricas y obtener información sobre su comportamiento en tiempo de ejecución.

Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas es una lección gratuita de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development en CoddyKit. Esta es la lección 2 de 4. Puedes leer la lección completa abajo gratuitamente — luego la practicas en el navegador con un editor de código integrado y un tutor de IA 24/7. Forma parte de la ruta de aprendizaje de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development, y tu progreso se sincroniza en la web y la app de CoddyKit. El curso de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development incluye 4 lecciones en total.

Partes de esta lección aún no han sido traducidas y se muestran en inglés.

What is Elixir Telemetry?

In Elixir, Telemetry is a powerful, low-level event dispatching library. It helps you understand what's happening inside your running application.

It's built into Elixir/OTP, making it a standard way to observe systems.
Think of it as a central nervous system for your app's events.
It enables you to collect metrics, trace operations, and monitor performance.

It's crucial for building observable and maintainable applications.

Events: The Core of Telemetry

Telemetry works by emitting events. An event is a signal that something notable has happened in your application.

Each event has a unique name (a list of atoms, e.g., [:my_app, :user, :login]).
Events can carry measurements (numeric values like duration) and metadata (additional context like user ID).
You don't emit events directly; instead, you use functions that wrap your code.

Measuring Duration with Telemetry.span

One common use of Telemetry is to measure how long an operation takes. This is done using :telemetry.span/3.

It executes a given function and measures its execution time.
It emits two events: one when the span starts and one when it ends.
The end event includes the duration as a measurement.

This is great for profiling function calls or database queries.

Emitting Discrete Events with Telemetry.execute

Sometimes, you just want to signal that an action occurred, without necessarily measuring its duration. For this, use :telemetry.execute/3.

It emits a single event with specified measurements and metadata.
Useful for tracking things like cache hits/misses, background job completions, or specific API calls.
It's a simpler, more direct way to emit a single point-in-time event.

Code: Emitting a Telemetry Span

Let's see :telemetry.span/3 in action. This example simulates a 'processing' task and measures its duration.

We define a simple module and call a function that wraps its work in a span.

defmodule MyApp.Worker do
  require Logger

  def process_data(data) do
    Logger.info("Starting data processing...")
    :telemetry.span(
      [:my_app, :worker, :process_data],
      %{input_length: byte_size(data)},
      fn ->
        # Simulate some work
        :timer.sleep(100)
        result = String.upcase(data)
        {:ok, result}
      end
    )
  end
end

# --- Main execution for CoddyKit ---
Logger.info("Calling MyApp.Worker.process_data...")
{:ok, result} = MyApp.Worker.process_data("hello elixir")
IO.puts("Processed result: #{result}")
IO.puts("\n(No Telemetry output yet - we need a handler!)")

Attaching Telemetry Handlers

Emitting events is only half the story! To do something useful with them, you need to attach handlers.

A handler is a function that gets called whenever a specific Telemetry event is emitted.
You attach a handler using :telemetry.attach/4, specifying the event name and your handler function.
Handlers allow you to react to events: log them, send them to a metrics system, or trigger other actions.

They are the listeners of your application's internal signals.

Handler Function Structure

A Telemetry handler function must accept four arguments:

event_name: The name of the event (e.g., [:my_app, :user, :login]).
measurements: A map of numeric values associated with the event (e.g., %{duration: 123456}).
metadata: A map of additional context (e.g., %{user_id: 123}).
config: Any custom configuration passed during attachment.

Your handler logic will use these arguments to process the event.

Code: Attaching and Handling Events

Now let's add a handler to our previous example. This handler will simply log the event details.

Notice how :telemetry.attach/4 links our handler function to the specific event name.

defmodule MyApp.WorkerWithHandler do
  require Logger

  # Define our simple handler function
  def handle_event(event_name, measurements, metadata, _config) do
    Logger.info("\n--- Telemetry Event Received ---")
    Logger.info("Event: #{inspect(event_name)}")
    Logger.info("Measurements: #{inspect(measurements)}")
    Logger.info("Metadata: #{inspect(metadata)}")
    Logger.info("------------------------------")
  end

  # Function that emits a Telemetry event
  def process_data(data) do
    Logger.info("Starting data processing...")
    :telemetry.span(
      [:my_app, :worker, :process_data],
      %{input_length: byte_size(data)},
      fn ->
        :timer.sleep(100)
        result = String.upcase(data)
        {:ok, result}
      end
    )
  end
end

# --- Main execution for CoddyKit ---
# Attach the handler *before* emitting events
:telemetry.attach(
  "my-worker-handler",
  [:my_app, :worker, :process_data], # Event name to listen for
  &MyApp.WorkerWithHandler.handle_event/4, # Our handler function
  nil # Optional config
)
Logger.info("Telemetry handler 'my-worker-handler' attached.")

# Perform some work, which will now trigger the handler
{:ok, result} = MyApp.WorkerWithHandler.process_data("hello world")
IO.puts("Processed result: #{result}")

# Clean up: detach the handler (good practice in tests/scripts)
:telemetry.detach("my-worker-handler")
Logger.info("Telemetry handler 'my-worker-handler' detached.")

Telemetry as a Metrics Source

Telemetry is not a metrics system itself, but it's an excellent source for them. By attaching handlers, you can feed events into dedicated metrics libraries.

Libraries like telemetry_metrics can aggregate Telemetry events into counters, gauges, and histograms.
These aggregated metrics are then often exported to monitoring systems like Prometheus or Datadog.
This separation keeps Telemetry lightweight and flexible, allowing you to choose your preferred metrics backend.

Quick Check: Telemetry Handlers

You've learned about emitting and handling Telemetry events. Let's test your understanding.

Recap: Telemetry for Observability

In this lesson, we explored Elixir's Telemetry library:

Telemetry is an event dispatching system for internal application observability.
It uses events with unique names, measurements, and metadata.
:telemetry.span/3 measures code execution duration.
:telemetry.execute/3 emits discrete, point-in-time events.
Handlers are functions attached via :telemetry.attach/4 to process events.
Telemetry events are a prime source for building application metrics.

Mastering Telemetry is key to understanding and monitoring your Elixir applications effectively!

Preguntas frecuentes

¿La lección «Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas» es gratis?

Sí — el texto completo de «Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas» es gratis para leer aquí en la web. Para practicarla de forma interactiva (editor de código integrado y tutor de IA 24/7) y desbloquear el resto del curso de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development, actualiza a CoddyKit PRO. El curso de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development incluye 4 lecciones en total.

¿Qué aprenderé en «Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas»?

Integre Telemetry en su aplicación para emitir métricas y obtener información sobre su comportamiento en tiempo de ejecución. Practicas Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development con código real que ejecutas directamente en el navegador, y un tutor de IA 24/7 responde tus preguntas mientras trabajas en la lección.

¿Necesito experiencia previa para empezar Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development?

No se requiere experiencia previa. Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development en CoddyKit está estructurado para principiantes hasta estudiantes avanzados, así que puedes empezar aquí o desde el inicio y avanzar a tu ritmo. Esta es la lección 2 de 4.

¿Cuánto tiempo toma la lección «Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas»?

La mayoría de las lecciones de CoddyKit toman alrededor de 5–10 minutos. Cada una es compacta e interactiva, así que avanzas constantemente y retomas exactamente por donde dejaste en la web y la app.

¿Puedo escribir y ejecutar código en esta lección de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development?

Sí. Cada lección de Elixir & Phoenix: Scalable Backend Development incluye un editor de código integrado, así que escribes y ejecutas código real directamente en tu navegador y obtienes retroalimentación instantánea de IA — sin configuración local necesaria.

Todas las lecciones de este curso

Benchmarking y profiling de Elixir
Supervisión con Telemetry y métricas
Gestión de errores y registro estructurado
Trazabilidad distribuida con OpenTelemetry

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