Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

September 2020

Exploring Node.js Async Hooks

Have you ever heard of Node.js async hooks module? If the answer is no, then you should get familiar with it. Even though it’s new stuff (released along with Node.js 9) and the module is still in experimental mode, which means it’s not recommended for production, you should still get to know it a bit better. In short, Node.js async hooks, more specifically the async_hooks module, provides a clear and easy-to-use API to track async resources in Node.js.

Monitoring Any System with StatsD and AppSignal's Standalone Agent

Application monitoring alone is not always enough to get the full picture of your systems. Frequently, services running in satellite apps (or supporting apps) can have an acute impact on your day-to-day operations. Database servers are well-known examples of this. Backup scripts and other background jobs can also slow systems and are often overlooked. AppSignal does not watch these satellite processes by default.

The Diagnose: How Support Works at AppSignal

Setting up AppSignal isn’t as complex as rocket science. Developer experience is really important to us, as AppSignal started as a way to scratch our itch. We also put a lot of effort in providing you with a first-class developer support. In fact, our developers are the ones answering all of your your technical questions. This is why we’ve added a diagnose tool to our Node.js integration.

Improved Pagerduty Integration with Detailed Alerts

AppSignal now supports the next API version of PagerDuty. 🎉 One of our devs was on support rotation the other day, and a customer asked whether we could add support for the next API version of PagerDuty. We won’t tell you who it was, but this developer typically answers questions by solving things as quickly as he can. So, two days later, boom! The improved integration for Pagerduty went live.

Node.js Resiliency Concepts: Recovery and Self-Healing

In an ideal world where we reached 100% test coverage, our error handling was flawless, and all our failures were handled gracefully — in a world where all our systems reached perfection, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Yet, here we are. Earth, 2020. By the time you read this sentence, somebody’s server failed in production. A moment of silence for the processes we lost.

Going from Consulting to SaaS

For many freelancers and small business owners, moving from consulting or freelance development work to operating a SaaS product is the Holy Grail. That makes sense: running a SaaS scales better and makes for a stable income. While there’s no guaranteed path to success, here’s what we learned taking AppSignal from a “20% time side-project” to a business serving thousands of developers around the globe. This article isn’t a blueprint.