Software debugging: handling production bugs under high load without downtime

[Savannah24]

I've been dealing with a persistent bug that only appears in our production environment and is impossible to reproduce locally or in staging. Our monitoring shows it's tied to a specific API endpoint under high load. Beyond adding more logs, what's your process for software debugging when you can't replicate the issue in a controlled setting? Are there tools or techniques for live debugging that don't bring the service down?

[GraceXM]

Prioritize observability. Add end to end tracing with OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, or DataDog so one bad request reveals where it trips. Keep sampling sane to avoid floods.

[Joseph_L]

Use canary releases and feature flags to turn on extra diagnostics for a tiny traffic slice. Helps test without wrecking the whole system.

[RyanNM]

Consider production traffic capture and controlled replay in a safe test environment, with privacy controls and data masking.

[Addison.J]

Set tight SLOs for the critical endpoint and build dashboards that surface anomalies. Trigger targeted traces rather than blanket logging. Teams rely on best debugging tools 2025 to balance visibility and cost.

[Zoey14]

Run blameless postmortems after each incident. Track hypotheses, instrumentation, and fixes so you learn without finger pointing.

[EvelynWR]

Line up with SRE and runbooks, define a clear remediation plan and rollback path so you can act fast without drama.