Vnode: Low-overhead Transparent Tracing of Node.js-based Microservice Architectures

Tracing serves as a key method for evaluating the performance of microservices-based architectures, which are renowned for their scalability, resource efficiency, and high availability. Despite their advantages, these architectures often pose unique debugging challenges that necessitate trade-offs, including the burden of instrumentation overhead. With Node.js emerging as a leading development environment, recognized for its rapidly growing ecosystem, there is a pressing need for innovative approaches that reduce the telemetry data collection efforts, and the overhead incurred by the environment instrumentation. In response, we introduce a new approach designed for transparent tracing and seamless deployment of microservices in cloud settings. This approach is centered around our newly developed Internal Transparent Tracing and Context Reconstruction (ITTCR) algorithm. ITTCR is adept at correlating internal metrics from various distributed trace files, to reconstruct the intricate execution contexts of microservices operating in a Node.js environment. Our method achieves transparency by directly instrumenting the Node.js virtual machine, enabling the collection and analysis of trace events in a transparent manner. This process facilitates the creation of visualization tools, enhancing the understanding and analysis of microservice performance in cloud environments

Advanced Strategies for Precise and Transparent Debugging of Performance Issues in In-Memory Data Store-Based Microservices

The rise of microservice architectures has revolutionized application design, fostering adaptability and resilience. These architectures facilitate scaling and encourage collaborative efforts among specialized teams, streamlining deployment and maintenance. Critical to this ecosystem is the demand for low latency, prompting the adoption of cloud-based structures and in-memory data storage. This shift optimizes data access times, supplanting direct disk access and driving the adoption of non-relational databases. Despite their benefits, microservice architectures present challenges in system performance and debugging, particularly as complexity grows. Performance issues can readily cascade through components, jeopardizing user satisfaction and service quality. Existing monitoring approaches often require code instrumentation, demanding extensive developer involvement. Recent strategies like proxies and service meshes aim to enhance tracing transparency, but introduce added configuration complexities. Our innovative solution introduces a new framework that transparently integrates heterogeneous microservices, enabling the creation of tailored tools for fine-grained performance debugging, especially for in-memory data store-based microservices. This approach leverages transparent user-level tracing, employing a two-level abstraction analysis model to pinpoint key performance influencers. It harnesses system tracing and advanced analysis to provide visualization tools for identifying intricate performance issues. In a performance-centric landscape, this approach offers a promising solution to ensure peak efficiency and reliability for in-memory data store-based cloud applications

Fractured sternal wire causing a cardiac laceration

Abstract Background Hemopericardium is a serious complication that can occur after cardiac surgery. While most post-operative causes are due to inflammation and bleeding, patients with broken sternal wires and an unstable sternum may develop hemopericardium from penetrating trauma. Case presentation We present the case of a 62-year-old male who underwent triple coronary bypass surgery and presented five months later with sudden anterior chest wall pain. Chest computed tomography revealed hemopericardium with an associated broken sternal wire that had penetrated into the pericardial space. The patient underwent a redo-sternotomy which revealed a 3.5 cm bleeding, jagged right ventricular laceration that correlated to the imaging findings of a fractured sternal wire projecting in the pericardial space. The laceration was repaired using interrupted 4 − 0 polypropylene sutures in horizontal mattress fashion between strips of bovine pericardium. The patient’s recovery was uneventful and he was discharged on post-operative day four without complications. Conclusion Patients with broken sternal wires and an unstable sternum require careful evaluation and management as these may have potentially life-threatening complications if left untreated

Additional file 1 of Fractured sternal wire causing a cardiac laceration

Supplementary Material