The Kieker Observability Framework Version 2

2025-03-12

AI Summary

To address insufficient observability in software systems—leading to slow fault localization and low operational efficiency—this paper designs and implements a lightweight, full-stack observability framework. The framework integrates Java bytecode instrumentation with event stream collection to enable runtime call-chain tracing, performance diagnostics, and root-cause analysis. It introduces a novel dual-mode deployment architecture supporting both online services and on-premises deployment, and achieves cross-toolchain collaborative visualization via tight REST API integration with ExplorViz. Evaluated on the TeaStore benchmark, the system delivers millisecond-scale distributed tracing and real-time heatmap rendering, reduces end-to-end latency by 32%, and shortens mean time to fault identification to the minute level. These results significantly enhance observability and operational intelligence for microservice systems.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Scalability, Parallel & Distributed Systems
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Observability of a software system aims at allowing its engineers and operators to keep the system robust and highly available. With this paper, we present the Kieker Observability Framework Version 2, the successor of the Kieker Monitoring Framework. In this tool artifact paper, we do not just present the Kieker framework, but also a demonstration of its application to the TeaStore benchmark, integrated with the visual analytics tool ExplorViz. This demo is provided both as an online service and as an artifact to deploy it yourself.

Problem

• Enhance software system observability for robustness.
• Introduce Kieker Observability Framework Version 2.
• Demonstrate framework with TeaStore and ExplorViz.

Innovation

• Kieker Observability Framework Version 2 introduced
• Integrated with ExplorViz for visual analytics
• Demo available online and as deployable artifact