Definition
Event correlation relates discrete changes or occurrences to telemetry from the affected system.
Signals
Why use it
Check whether a configuration change coincided with a service degradation.
Common use cases
- Investigate restarts
- compare feature flag changes with errors
- reconstruct incident timelines.
Benefits
- Adds operational context to numeric trends.
Limitations
- Temporal proximity is a hypothesis, not proof. Delayed ingestion and inaccurate clocks can distort ordering.
Practical pattern
Record event time, affected service, environment, change type, and an event identifier. Compare the same scope before and after the event.
Supported by
Documented examples, not an exhaustive compatibility list. Features require suitable instrumentation and configuration; availability can depend on the runtime, backend, and subscription.
- Grafana — Dashboard annotations overlay events on metric charts.
Related concepts
Investigation patterns
Related guides
FAQ
Are events the same as logs?
An event is a discrete occurrence. It may be recorded as a log, annotation, or dedicated event object.