SystemTap for Linux Platforms

Question

SystemTap is a tracing programming language designed to provide the infrastructure for diagnosing/tracing a running Linux kernel and produce a detailed report of its status. This can enable system administrators and developers to write efficient scripts to identify where performance issues and/or bugs are caused. Prior to SystemTap, profiling a running Linux kernel was a long process consisting of adding very long instruments to the kernel, recompiling the whole kernel to generate a new kernel image with the custom monitoring instruction, then rebooting the Linux system to this kernel. In this Knowledge Sharing article, Khaled Ahmed, Shareef Bassiouny, and Mohamed Sohail describe how SysteTap eliminates all this, allowing users to gather the same information by simply running user-written SystemTap scripts. The authors: • Introduce users to System Tap, familiarize them with its architecture, and provide set up instructions. • Present how System Tap can be very useful for diagnosis, developing any of the EMC platforms running Linux, especially when generic tracing and troubleshooting tools seem insufficient in providing meaningful insight about a certain problem. • Provide examples of what SystemTap can do with sample general purpose scripts. • Offer tips and tricks with EMC Linux-based products. Read the full article.

mosohail · Answer

Very nice article. Good job Khaled and Shareef :)

mosohail · Answer

this URL is broken also

DGraci · Answer

Thank you Mohamed. As mentioned we are aware of the broken links with archived Knowledge Sharing articles. We are working diligently to resolve this as quickly as possible. We'll post an update as soon as we have more information.

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