eBPF-Enhanced HTTP Observability: L7 Metrics and Tracing with SkyWalking
Background
Apache SkyWalking is an open-source Application Performance Management system that helps users collect and aggregate logs, traces, metrics, and events for display on a UI. In a previous article, we introduced how to use Apache SkyWalking Rover to analyze lower-level (Layer 4) network performance issues in a service mesh environment. Since modern applications often use mature Layer 7 protocols, such as HTTP, for interactions between systems, it’s important to be able to quickly troubleshoot issues at Layer 7, as well. In this article, we will discuss how to use eBPF techniques to analyze performance bottlenecks of Layer 7 protocols and how to enhance the tracing system using network sampling.
This article will show how to use Apache SkyWalking with eBPF to enhance metrics and traces in HTTP observability.