Interview with Lukas Berk
Ubiquitous Performance Analysis and System Introspection. An introduction to Performance Co-Pilot and Systemtap
Q: Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Sure, I’m a software engineer on the performance tools team at Red Hat. I mainly work on SystemTap and Performance Co-Pilot, and am the office nerf gun champion.
Q: What will your talk be about, exactly? Why this topic?
The talk will mainly be centered on introducing and providing potential solutions for monitoring performance across an entire network (with PCP), being able to narrow down performance issues to a few specific components and drilling deeper into malfunctioning programs (with Systemtap). With modern computer systems and networks, there is a huge amount of data available. PCP and SystemTap offer a chance to analyze and make sense of it all, in a quick and predictable manner, without sacrificing contextual information.
Q: what are some example scenarios where Performace Co-Pilot and SystemTap shine?
I think PCP really shines in its extensibility and modularity. It really is a full toolkit, not just a single, monolithic program. It’s completely open with the data it collects, and you can use as many or as few of the features as desired, incredibly flexible.
With SystemTap, I think one of the biggest strengths is being able to collect data concurrently from multiple points, system-wide. It doesn’t matter if it’s userspace, or in the kernel. Furthermore, being able to do so without stopping the programs of interest, can be incredibly useful.
Q: Which new features can we expect this year in PCP & SystemTap?
I think the most exciting feature for Performance Co-Pilot in this upcoming year is the new container functionality. With all the work being done with containers, sometimes it’s easy to get lost in all the new features. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring solid performance analysis to the picture as well.
Q: Have you enjoyed previous FOSDEM editions?
It’ll be my first time attending FOSDEM, so I’m looking forward to it!
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This interview is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Belgium License.