Analyzing Performance Variability in Alibaba's Microservice Architecture: A Critical-Path-Based Perspective
Alireza Ezaz, Ghazal Khodabandeh, Naser Ezzati‐Jivan · 2024
In large-scale microservice architectures, such as those utilized by Alibaba, identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks is a significant challenge due to the complicated interactions between thousands of services. To navigate this challenge, we have developed a critical-path-based technique aimed at analyzing microservice interactions within these complex systems. This technique facilitates the identification of critical nodes where service requests experience the longest delays. Our contribution is the discovery of performance variability in service interactions' response times within these critical paths, and pinpointing specific interactions within the system that show a high degree of performance variability. This improves the ability to detect service performance issues and their root causes allowing for dynamic adjustment in data collection detail, and targets critical interactions for adaptive monitoring.