OpenObservability Talks

Charting New Territory: OpenTelemetry Embraces Profiling - OpenObservability Talks S4E10

Mar 28, 2024

Discover the revolutionary addition of Continuous Profiling to OpenTelemetry, enhancing application behavior understanding and performance optimization. Hear from experts on the Profiling SIG, the standardization of profiling data, and the evolution of profiling in software development. Explore the process of merging COTEP 239 into the Signal group and community feedback on profiling formats within OpenTelemetry. Engage with ongoing conversations and upcoming events for insights into the importance of profiling in observability.

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Quick takeaways

OpenTelemetry introduces Continuous Profiling, expanding observability signals beyond traditional pillars.

Profiling in OpenTelemetry correlates with other signals like tracing, providing deeper insights during incidents and resource analysis.

Merging OTLP 239 signifies a significant step towards experimental profiling, enhancing interoperability and standardization in observability.

Deep dives

Growing Interest in Continuous Profiling

Since the dedicated episode on continuous profiling back in 2021, there has been a surge in interest in profiling within the observability domain. Both startups and large vendors have shifted focus towards profiling, leading to a significant milestone with the inclusion of profiles in the OpenTelemetry project's core signals.

Intro

3min

The Evolution and Importance of Profiling in Software Development

16min

Standardizing Profiling Data for Improved Observability

26min

Exploring Continuous Profiling Reference Implementation and Language Support

5min

Discussion on the Merger Process of COTEP 239 within the Signal Group

2min

Exploring Community Feedback on Profiling Formats within OpenTelemetry

5min

Engaging with Ongoing Conversations and Community Events

10min

OpenTelemetry is expanding beyond the traditional “three pillars of observability” and introduces a groundbreaking addition to its signals - Continuous Profiling. The new Profiling Special Interest Group (SIG) that was formed to lead the topic has already made significant advancements, to be featured at KubeCon Europe. Join us in this special panel episode of OpenObservability Talks as we explore the significance of this new dimension in understanding application behavior, optimizing performance, and gaining deeper insights into your systems. Our expert guests, Felix Geisendörfer and Ryan Perry, members of the OpenTelemetry Profiling SIG, share their insights into how Profiling enhances the OpenTelemetry framework, and update on the work for open specification and implementation.

This special episode hosts a panel of two distinguished members of OpenTelemetry’s Profile SIG, and prominent members of the observability vendor ecosystem. Felix Geisendörfer is a Senior Staff Engineer at Datadog where he works on Continuous Profiling and contributes to the Go runtime. Before that he was working at Apple, co-founded Transloadit, contributed to node.js and inspired a generation of mad scientists to program flying robots with it. Ryan Perry is Principal Product Manager at Grafana Labs. He has built a career at various startups while actively contributing to open source projects and advancing open telemetry initiatives. Most recently he built Pyroscope, an open source continuous profiling project/company, which has been acquired by Grafana Labs.

The episode was live-streamed on 7 March 2024 and the video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGM67RT12gQ

OpenObservability Talks episodes are released monthly, on the last Thursday of each month and are available for listening on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube.

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Show Notes:

00:00 - show intro

01:03 - episode and guests intro

04:02 - trends and advancements in the Profiling space

05:42 - from cost and performance into broader observability

11:27 - turning profile data into metrics

12:45 - runtime vs. full host profilers and eBPF use

18:44 - pprof JFR and other existing profile standards

21:19 - profile visualizations - from flame graphs to timeline view

22:37 - entrepreneur PoV on the profiling market

26:54 - OpenTelemetry adds profiles as a new signal

32:22 - OTel choosing a pprof extended standard