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Links for 2015-09-24

  • Byteman

    a tool which simplifies tracing and testing of Java programs. Byteman allows you to insert extra Java code into your application, either as it is loaded during JVM startup or even after it has already started running. The injected code is allowed to access any of your data and call any application methods, including where they are private. You can inject code almost anywhere you want and there is no need to prepare the original source code in advance nor do you have to recompile, repackage or redeploy your application. In fact you can remove injected code and reinstall different code while the application continues to execute. The simplest use of Byteman is to install code which traces what your application is doing. This can be used for monitoring or debugging live deployments as well as for instrumenting code under test so that you can be sure it has operated correctly. By injecting code at very specific locations you can avoid the overheads which often arise when you switch on debug or product trace. Also, you decide what to trace when you run your application rather than when you write it so you don’t need 100% hindsight to be able to obtain the information you need.

    (tags: tracing java byteman injection jvm ops debugging testing)

  • Henry Robinson on testing and fault discovery in distributed systems

    ‘Let’s talk about finding bugs in distributed systems for a bit. These chaos monkey-style fault testing systems are all well and good, but by being application independent they’re a very blunt instrument. Particularly they make it hard to search the fault space for bugs in a directed manner, because they don’t ‘know’ what the system is doing. Application-aware scripting of faults in a dist. systems seems to be rarely used, but allows you to directly stress problem areas. For example, if a bug manifests itself only when one RPC returns after some timeout, hard to narrow that down with iptables manipulation. But allow a script to hook into RPC invocations (and other trace points, like DTrace’s probes), and you can script very specific faults. That way you can simulate cross-system integration failures, *and* write reproducible tests for the bugs they expose! Anyhow, I’ve been doing this in Impala, and it’s been very helpful. Haven’t seen much evidence elsewhere.’

    (tags: henry-robinson testing fault-discovery rpc dtrace tracing distributed-systems timeouts chaos-monkey impala)

  • The Best Bourbon Cocktail You’ve Never Heard Of

    The “Paper Plane”, by Sam Ross of Chicago’s “Violet Hour”: .75 oz Bourbon .75 oz Aperol .75 oz Amaro Nonino .75 oz Fresh lemon juice ice-filled shaker, shake, strain.

    (tags: bourbon drinks cocktails recipes aperol amaro-nonino lemon)

  • Seastar

    C++ high-performance app framework; ‘currently focused on high-throughput, low-latency I/O intensive applications.’ Scylla (Cassandra-compatible NoSQL store) is written in this.

    (tags: c++ opensource performance framework scylla seastar latency linux shared-nothing multicore)

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