Logging microservice requests and responses to MongoDB asynchronously using AOP or Solace?

Question

I have multiple Java REST microservice APIs and I would like to log their requests and responses to MongoDB. Do I create a separate logging API with an asynchronous service method and call it from all other microservice controller classes using AOP? Or Do I use event brokers like Solace/Kafka where the microservices publish the logs to a topic and a separate service picks and stores in MongoDB? Which is the better way, I can afford to lose some logs without being stored in MongoDB but I cannot afford to affect the performance of my microservices.

Answer 1

There are definitely advantages to using an event broker to handle log data, since it can serve as a buffer during times when the logging API isn't available or slow. Note that AOP could also be used with an event broker, it would just use a event endpoint, rather than an HTTPS endpoint.

A couple other related points:

• Have you considered persistence layers other than MongoDB? OpenTelemetry backends are made to address exactly the sort of use case you have, and provide some very useful tooling for auditing/troubleshooting microservices.
• Rather than using REST, how about connecting the microservices themselves through an event broker. It could provide some very nice performance benefits, and make your microservices more agile.

Best, Jesse