Event Buffer Logging for Performance Preservation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Full debug logging in computer systems can significantly impact performance, rendering them nearly useless, as it involves storing every event for analysis, which is inefficient and degrades system performance.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an event buffer in local high-performance memory that temporarily logs events, overwriting prior events, and transfers only a subset of log messages to secondary storage upon detecting a triggering event, such as an error, to minimize performance degradation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full debug logging is enabled to store every event for analysis, then measurement precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the logging system into two distinct components: a high-speed circular buffer in primary memory for temporary event storage, and secondary storage for persistent logging. This segmentation allows the system to maintain detailed event logs without the performance penalty of continuous writes to slow secondary storage, resolving the contradiction between logging completeness and system performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-allocating a circular buffer in primary memory before logging begins. Events are temporarily stored in this pre-prepared buffer with fast write speeds, eliminating the need for immediate secondary storage operations. This preliminary setup enables complete event capture without real-time performance degradation.
2Loss of information
If logging is enabled continuously to capture all events, then loss of information is reduced, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by transferring events from the circular buffer to secondary storage only when specific conditions are met (buffer full, error detected, or manual trigger). This periodic transfer mechanism reduces the frequency of secondary storage operations compared to continuous logging, thereby reducing energy consumption while still ensuring event data is preserved for analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The circular buffer acts as an intermediary between event generation and secondary storage. It temporarily holds events in high-speed memory, allowing the system to decouple the continuous event stream from the energy-intensive secondary storage operations. This intermediary buffer reduces logging overhead by batching transfers rather than writing every event immediately.
3Measurement precision
If a separate debug environment is created to reproduce errors, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by implementing automatic event buffering and conditional transfer mechanisms within the existing production environment. This eliminates the need to create separate debug environments, as the system automatically captures and preserves relevant events during normal operation, reducing device complexity while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The logging system provides self-service by automatically monitoring buffer conditions and triggering transfers to secondary storage when errors or significant events occur. This automatic operation eliminates the need for manual debug environment setup and operation, reducing complexity while maintaining the ability to diagnose errors with high precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed that allow for retroactively capturing a debug/trace-level log without experiencing the severe performance degradation that obtaining such a log would otherwise entail. Trace-level logging is performed by maintaining a buffer of log messages for application events. The buffer is allocated a memory having very fast write speeds, and writing such messages into the buffer has a negligible performance impact. Many of the messages written into the buffer may not be important or useful at the time they are written. However, when a failure occurs, the messages may be useful for figuring out what when wrong. Responsive to detecting a failure or other anomalous event, the buffer of messages is automatically written to a permanent storage. Although writing to the permanent storage may be slow, the performance degradation is only incurred when a failure occurs.