Selective Server-Side Request Tracing for Data Volume Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current server-side tracing methods generate excessive and irrelevant data when all user requests are traced, leading to inefficient troubleshooting, as it is unclear which server processes a specific request and requires laborious isolation of servers for tracing, resulting in costly and burdensome data generation.
Innovation Solution
Implement selective server-side tracing by extracting identifying information from user requests and comparing it with tracing criteria to determine which requests should be traced, enabling tracing only for requests matching specific criteria, thereby reducing unnecessary tracing data generation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If server-side tracing is enabled on all servers to troubleshoot user requests, then troubleshooting capability is improved, but tracing data volume increases excessively and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates only the tracing data relevant to the specific user request being troubleshooted. By identifying the particular user request causing issues and extracting only its associated tracing data from the server logs, the system avoids collecting excessive tracing data from all user requests, thus resolving the contradiction between comprehensive troubleshooting capability and excessive data volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making tracing data collection selective rather than uniform. Instead of enabling tracing uniformly across all servers and all user requests, the system enables tracing only for the specific local context of the problematic user request, thereby improving troubleshooting effectiveness while minimizing unnecessary data generation.
2Loss of information
If server-side tracing is enabled for all user requests, then complete troubleshooting information is obtained, but data processing time and storage costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential tracing information related to the specific problematic user request. By identifying and extracting only the relevant tracing data entries that pertain to the user request in question, the system obtains complete troubleshooting information for that specific case while avoiding the time-consuming processing of unrelated tracing data from other users.
3Quantity of substance
If a small number of servers are isolated for tracing, then tracing data generation is controlled, but coordination complexity and labor requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling the server system to automatically identify and isolate the specific server processing the problematic user request without requiring manual coordination. The system autonomously traces the user request through the server cluster, automatically identifies which server handled it, and isolates that server for tracing purposes, thereby controlling data generation while eliminating the need for laborious manual coordination between administrators and users.
Data Source
AI summary
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for selective server-side tracing of user requests that match tracing criteria. For example, internal server processing data and/or a server-side perspective of web traffic data associated with a server processing a user request may be generated server-side as tracing data. The tracing data may be utilized in troubleshooting issues that may arise between a client machine and the server (e.g., error in uploading a photo to a website hosted by the server). Because a web-based resource (e.g., website) may be hosted by a large number of servers configured to process numerous user requests over time, an overwhelming amount of tracing data may be produced in the absence of weeding out requests for which tracing data is not needed. Thus, utilizing tracing criteria to selectively trace particular user requests promotes efficient troubleshooting.