Use BPF Tools to Optimize Performance, Fix Problems, and See Inside Running Systems

BPF-based performance tools give you unprecedented visibility into systems and applications, so you can optimize performance, troubleshoot code, strengthen security, and reduce costs. BPF Performance Tools: Linux System and Application Observability is the definitive guide to using these tools for observability.

Pioneering BPF expert Brendan Gregg presents more than 150 ready-to-run analysis and debugging tools, expert guidance on applying them, and step-by-step tutorials on developing your own. You’ll learn how to analyze CPUs, memory, disks, file systems, networking, languages, applications, containers, hypervisors, security, and the kernel. Gregg guides you from basic to advanced tools, helping you generate deeper, more useful technical insights for improving virtually any Linux system or application.

• Learn essential tracing concepts and both core BPF front-ends: BCC and bpftrace

• Master 150+ powerful BPF tools, including dozens created just for this book, and available for download

• Discover practical strategies, tips, and tricks for more effective analysis

• Analyze compiled, JIT-compiled, and interpreted code in multiple languages: C, Java, bash shell, and more

• Generate metrics, stack traces, and custom latency histograms

• Use complementary tools when they offer quick, easy wins

• Explore advanced tools built on BPF: PCP and Grafana for remote monitoring, eBPF Exporter, and kubectl-trace for tracing Kubernetes

• Foreword by Alexei Starovoitov, creator of the new BPF

BPF Performance Tools will be an indispensable resource for all administrators, developers, support staff, and other IT professionals working with any recent Linux distribution in any enterprise or cloud environment.

BPF and related observability tools give software professionals and students alike unprecedented visibility into software, helping them analyze operating system and application performance, troubleshoot code, and strengthen security.  BPF Performance Tools: Linux System and Application Observability is the industry’s most comprehensive guide to using these tools for observability. Brendan Gregg, author of the industry’s definitive guide to system performance, introduces powerful new methods and tools for doing analysis that leads to more robust, reliable, and safer code. 

This authoritative guide:

• Explores a wide spectrum of software and hardware targets
• Thoroughly covers open source BPF tools from the Linux Foundation iovisor project’s bcc and bpftrace repositories
• Summarizes performance engineering and kernel internals you need to understand
• Provides and discusses 150+ bpftrace tools, including 80 written specifically for this book: tools you can run as-is, without programming – or customize and develop further, using diverse interfaces and the bpftrace front-end

Students will learn how to use BPF (eBPF) tracing tools to analyze CPUs, memory, disks, file systems, networking, languages, applications, containers, hypervisors, security, and the Linux kernel. Students will move from basic to advanced tools and techniques, producing new metrics, stack traces, custom latency histograms, and more. It’s like having a superpower: with Gregg’s guidance and tools, students can analyze virtually everything that impacts system performance, so they can improve virtually any Linux operating system or application. 

• Deeper, more in-depth coverage than any other eBPF resource
• Quickly analyze everything that impacts Linux system performance: ask questions and get fast answers in production environments
• Learn by example, with tools you can use to find performance wins and then customize for even more power
• Covers invaluable, in-demand technology: eBPF was the subject of over two dozen talks at the recent Linux Plumbers developer’s conference
• Downloadable source code includes 80+ new BPF analysis tools created for this book

Use BPF/eBPF tracing and observability tools to improve system performance, reduce costs, resolve software issues, and gain unprecedented visibility into running systems

• Deeper, more in-depth coverage than any other eBPF resource
• Quickly analyze everything that impacts Linux system performance: ask questions and get fast answers in production environments
• Learn by example, with tools you can use to find performance wins and then customize for even more power
• Covers invaluable, in-demand technology: eBPF was the subject of over two dozen talks at the recent Linux Plumbers developer’s conference
• Downloadable source code includes 80+ new BPF analysis tools created for this book

About the Author

Brendan Gregg, Netflix senior performance engineer, is a major contributor to BPF (eBPF) who has helped develop and maintain both main BPF front-ends, pioneered BPF's use for observability, and created dozens of BPF-based performance analysis tools. Previously a kernel engineer and professional technical trainer, his books include the best-seller Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud.