On Mon, 4 Dec 2023 13:28:21 +0100, Eric Dumazet <eduma...@google.com> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 4, 2023 at 12:43 PM Philo Lu <lu...@linux.alibaba.com> wrote: > > > > Add 3 tracepoints, namely tcp_data_send/tcp_data_recv/tcp_data_acked, > > which will be called every time a tcp data packet is sent, received, and > > acked. > > tcp_data_send: called after a data packet is sent. > > tcp_data_recv: called after a data packet is receviced. > > tcp_data_acked: called after a valid ack packet is processed (some sent > > data are ackknowledged). > > > > We use these callbacks for fine-grained tcp monitoring, which collects > > and analyses every tcp request/response event information. The whole > > system has been described in SIGMOD'18 (see > > https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3183713.3190659 for details). To > > achieve this with bpf, we require hooks for data events that call bpf > > prog (1) when any data packet is sent/received/acked, and (2) after > > critical tcp state variables have been updated (e.g., snd_una, snd_nxt, > > rcv_nxt). However, existing bpf hooks cannot meet our requirements. > > Besides, these tracepoints help to debug tcp when data send/recv/acked. > > This I do not understand. > > > > > Though kretprobe/fexit can also be used to collect these information, > > they will not work if the kernel functions get inlined. Considering the > > stability, we prefer tracepoint as the solution. > > I dunno, this seems quite weak to me. I see many patches coming to add > tracing in the stack, but no patches fixing any issues.
We have implemented a mechanism to split the request and response from the TCP connection using these "hookers", which can handle various protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, Redis, and MySQL. This mechanism allows us to record important information about each request and response, including the amount of data uploaded, the time taken by the server to handle the request, and the time taken for the client to receive the response. This mechanism has been running internally for many years and has proven to be very useful. One of the main benefits of this mechanism is that it helps in locating the source of any issues or problems that may arise. For example, if there is a problem with the network, the application, or the machine, we can use this mechanism to identify and isolate the issue. TCP has long been a challenge when it comes to tracking the transmission of data on the network. The application can only confirm that it has sent a certain amount of data to the kernel, but it has limited visibility into whether the client has actually received this data. Our mechanism addresses this issue by providing insights into the amount of data received by the client and the time it was received. Furthermore, we can also detect any packet loss or delays caused by the server. https://help-static-aliyun-doc.aliyuncs.com/assets/img/zh-CN/7912288961/9732df025beny.svg So, we do not want to add some tracepoint to do some unknow debug. We have a clear goal. debugging is just an incidental capability. Thanks. > > It really looks like : We do not know how TCP stack works, we do not > know if there is any issue, > let us add trace points to help us to make forward progress in our analysis. > > These tracepoints will not tell how many segments/bytes were > sent/acked/received, I really do not see > how we will avoid adding in the future more stuff, forcing the > compiler to save more state > just in case the tracepoint needs the info. > > The argument of "add minimal info", so that we can silently add more > stuff in the future "for free" is not something I buy. > > I very much prefer that you make sure the stuff you need is not > inlined, so that standard kprobe/kretprobe facility can be used.
