AP is proud to sponsor “The complete guide to Solving Java Application Errors in Production” written by Alex Zhitnitsky at our friends OverOps. This blog is the final part of a 3-part series looking at each of the chapters. The first blog in the series is here.

The last two chapters of the book are related so I cover both of them here. The third chapter’s title is “Production Data Crunch: 1,000 Java Applications, 1 Billion Logged Errors”. Here we learn that a staggering 97% of logged errors are caused by just 10 unique errors. Top of the pile is the NullPointerException. Our log files are full of them. We are drowning in them. Want to reduce the error count, storage and operational noise by 97%? Read chapter 3 and install OverOps. I have always been a fan of continuous improvement and making sure “errors didn’t happen” i.e. removing the need to log them in the first place. With any luck you can also remove your log-monitoring solution - or at least dramatically reduce the amount of data you send to it. The fourth chapter’s title is “Know Your Enemy: The Top 10 Exceptions Types in Production”. This chapter dives into more details about the top exception types introduced in chapter 3. This is an enjoyable, well-written book. I encourage you to read it and, even better, try the product.