Visualizing Request-Flow Comparison to Aid Performance Diagnosis in Distributed Systems

Raja R. Sambasivan, Ilari Shafer, Michelle L. Mazurek, Gregory R. Ganger
2013 IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics  
Distributed systems are complex to develop and administer, and performance problem diagnosis is particularly challenging. When performance degrades, the problem might be in any of the system's many components or could be a result of poor interactions among them. Recent research e orts have created tools that automatically localize the problem to a small number of potential culprits, but e ective visualizations are needed to help developers understand and explore their results. is paper compares
more » ... side-by-side, di , and animation-based approaches for visualizing the results of one proven automated localization technique called request-ow comparison. Via a -person user study, which included real distributed systems developers, we identify the unique bene ts that each approach provides for di erent usage modes and problem types. Acknowledgements: We thank the members and companies of the PDL Consortium (including Acti o,
doi:10.1109/tvcg.2013.233 pmid:24051813 fatcat:euccs3ezg5ayrbxpl7oo3ng54y