concept#Architecture#Software Engineering#Software Quality#System Monitoring
Health Checks
Health Checks are systematic assessments of the health of software applications and systems.
Health Checks are procedures for verifying and ensuring the functionality of software.
Maturity
Established
Cognitive loadMedium
Classification
- ComplexityMedium
- Impact areaTechnical
- Decision typeTechnical
- Organizational maturityIntermediate
Technical context
Integrations
AWS CloudWatchGrafanaPrometheus
Principles & goals
Regularity of checksIntegration into existing systemsConsider user feedback
Value stream stage
Run
Organizational level
Team, Domain
Use cases & scenarios
Use cases
Scenarios
Compromises
Risks
- Overlooking critical errors
- Incorrect configuration of health checks
- Lack of resources for monitoring
Best practices
- Conduct regular tests
- Automate monitoring
- Integrate security audits
I/O & resources
Inputs
- Credentials to systems
- Monitoring tools
- Technical documentation
Outputs
- Diagnostic reports
- Monitoring data
- System status reports
Description
Health Checks are procedures for verifying and ensuring the functionality of software. They help identify potential issues early on and guarantee system stability.
✔Benefits
- Early detection of issues
- Improved system performance
- Increased reliability
✖Limitations
- Limited testing scenarios
- Dependency on monitoring tools
- Possible false alarms
Trade-offs
Metrics
- Response Time
The time taken to respond to a request.
- Availability Rate
The proportion of time the system is available.
- Error Rate
The percentage of errors that occur during use.
Examples & implementations
Monitoring a microservice
A company implements health checks for its microservices to ensure availability.
Automated tests
Automated tests help to conduct health checks efficiently.
Continuous Integration
Health checks are part of the CI process to identify errors early.
Implementation steps
1
Planning the implementation
2
Integrating health checks into existing systems
3
Reviewing and testing the implementation
⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks
Technical debt
- Outdated monitoring systems
- Lack of automation
- Non-optimized infrastructure
Known bottlenecks
Latency issuesResource bottleneckTechnological dependencies
Misuse examples
- Not checking the configuration
- Ignoring warnings
- Setting health checks without testing
Typical traps
- Implementing too many checks
- Choosing the wrong metrics
- Insufficient team knowledge
Required skills
Knowledge of networking technologyFamiliarity with monitoring toolsProgramming skills
Architectural drivers
UsabilitySystem integrationPerformance assurance
Constraints
- • Restricted software versions
- • Operating system dependencies
- • Limited infrastructure resources