New Tool Accepted: DynamicSpotter

Thursday, January 21, 2016 05:00

DynamicSpotter is a framework for measurement-based, automatic detection of software performance problems in Java-based enterprise software systems.

A new tool was accepted for SPEC RG's repository of peer-reviewed tools for quantitative system evaluation and analysis: DynamicSpotter

DynamicSpotter is a framework for measurement-based, automatic detection of software performance problems in Java-based enterprise software systems. DynamicSpotter combines the concepts of software performance anti-patterns with systematic experimentation.

DynamicSpotter utilizes the concept of hierarchically structuring performance problems in order to automate the search for recurring performance problems by systematically executing measurement experiments. The high level approach behind DynamicSpotter is the figure below. DynamicSpotter takes a hierarchy of symptoms, performance problem and root causes as input. For each node of that hierarchy, performance experts define a heuristic responsible to decide on the existence of the corresponding problem. To this end, a heuristic executes a series of experiments, observes certain performance metrics and analyzes them to make a decision. Traversing the problem hierarchy and applying corresponding heuristics for each performance problem of the hierarchy, DynamicSpotter generates a detection result report. The report states for each node in the hierarchy whether the corresponding problem exists in the SUT and, where appropriate, points to the root cause and location in the SUT of a detected problem.

More tools are currently under review and further submissions are encouraged. After a careful review process, the tools are published on the SPEC RG website. The tools are redistributed without modification and the submitter retains the associated rights and responsibilities.

Further information is available at /tools/.