DTrace

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

Official Links