On a pbd file, avoid tracing the same method more than once

Products

• CA Application Performance Management Agent (APM / Wily / Introscope)
• INTROSCOPE

Issue/Introduction

On an Introscope agent pbd file, avoid tracing the same method more than once as it would accrue overhead that could cause performance issue.

When customizing a pbd, users have freedom to add tracers to the pbd on different Java class methods as well as on the same Java class methods.  Care should be taken not to duplicate the same tracers.

Environment

This would applies to agents that use the pbd file for instrumentation.

Resolution

Please avoid having tracers that trace the same method more than one time and reporting the data to different metrics.  For example:

TraceOneMethodOfClass: com.abc.def.ghi.ModifySubject getAlertTo BlamePointTracer "Alerts|ijk|{classname}|{method}"

TraceOneMethodOfClass: com.abc.def.ghi.ModifySubject getAlertTo BlamePointTracer "Alerts|xyz|{classname}|{method}"

 

undesirable outcomes:

1.) This would accrue extra overhead on the application.

2.) This would yield less meaningful transaction traces.

3.) When troubleshooting a performance issue, this cause of overhead would be not obvious and make troubleshooting more difficult.