Trace-based Behaviour Analysis of Network Servers

Abstract

Analysing software and networks can be done using established tools, such as debuggers and packet analysers, but using established tools to analyse network software is difficult and impractical because of the sheer detail the tools present and the performance overheads they typically impose. This makes it difficult to precisely diagnose performance anomalies in network software to identify their causes (is it a DoS attack or a bug?) and determine what needs to be fixed.We present Flowdar: a practical tool for analysing software traces to produce intuitive summaries of network software behaviour by abstracting unimportant details and demultiplexing traces into different sessions’ subtraces. Flowdar can use existing state-of-the-art tracing tools for lower overhead during trace gathering for offline analysis. Using Flowdar we can drill down when diagnosing performance anomalies without getting overwhelmed in detail or burdening the system being observed.We show that Flowdar can be applied to existing real-world software and can digest complex behaviour into an intuitive visualisation.