DTrace

DTrace

DTrace is a dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time. It allows administrators, developers, and service personnel to concisely answer arbitrary questions about the behavior of the
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tracing troubleshooting debugging

DTrace: Dynamic Tracing Framework for Troubleshooting

DTrace is a dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time, allowing administrators and developers to concisely answer arbitrary questions about the behavior of the operating system and user programs.

What is DTrace?

DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time. It gives administrators, developers, and service personnel a unified interface for concisely answering arbitrary questions about the behavior of the operating system and user programs.

Key capabilities of DTrace include:

  • Dynamic instrumentation - New probes can be created on production systems without recompiling code or rebooting.
  • Data integrity - DTrace instruments only the probes requested and minimizes overhead.
  • Post-processing - Traces can be saved and processed for later analysis.
  • Ease of use - Simple one-line programs can answer complex questions about system behavior.

DTrace can trace user processes, operating system kernel functions, device drivers, file systems, and other software modules without perturbing the system. Its use simplifies performance analysis and debugging by quickly drilling down through various software layers.

DTrace helps administrators quickly isolate systemic performance problems, understand workload characteristics, analyze latencies in I/O paths, monitor cpu usage, measure lock contention, and much more without requiring extensive knowledge of kernel internals.

DTrace Features

Features

  1. Dynamic instrumentation of running production systems
  2. Minimal overhead and performance impact
  3. Support for multiple programming languages
  4. Real-time diagnostics
  5. Root cause analysis

Pricing

  • Open Source
  • Free

Pros

Powerful troubleshooting capabilities

Low overhead

Easy to use

Integrated into Solaris and other OSes

Cons

Steep learning curve

Limited to Solaris-based systems without porting efforts

Can impact performance if misused


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Ftrace is an internal tracing tool built into the Linux kernel that can be used to observe, analyze, and debug the kernel's behavior and internals in real time. Some of the key things that ftrace can trace include:Kernel function calls and execution timesInterrupt handlingScheduling events and latenciesMemory allocation/freeingDisk I/O tracingFtrace...
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SystemTap is an open source scripting language and tool for dynamically tracing and monitoring Linux systems. It allows users to collect system information in real time to help diagnose performance or functional problems.Some key features of SystemTap include:Allows for dynamic instrumentation of a running Linux kernel without having to recompile...
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