Debugging Production: Tools and Techniques for Live Systems

Production bugs are different. You can't just restart the app and hope.

The Tools

Logs: Centralized in Cloud Logging. Searchable, filterable, essential.

Monitoring: Uptime Robot for basic checks. Custom scripts for business metrics.

Database Queries: Direct SQL access (carefully). Read-only user for safety.

Request Tracing: Every request gets a unique ID. Trace it through the system.

The Process

1. Reproduce the bug (if possible)
2. Check logs for errors
3. Trace the request path
4. Identify the failure point
5. Fix in dev
6. Test thoroughly
7. Deploy fix
8. Verify in production

The Gotchas

Don't Debug in Production: Tempting to test fixes live. Don't. Use staging.

Rollback Plan: Every deploy should be reversible.

Communication: Tell affected customers what's happening.

The Lesson

Good logging makes debugging possible. Without it, you're guessing.