OpenSolaris

1. Project: Chime Visualization Tool for DTrace
   1. Installation
   2. Change Log
      1. Known Issues
   3. Displays
   4. Adding New Displays
      1. New Display Wizard
         1. Adding Drilldown
      2. Command Line
      3. XML Properties
   5. Java DTrace API
      1. jdtrace Example
   6. Announcements
   7. Discussions
   8. Leaders
   9. Observers
   10. Blogs
   11. Articles

OpenSolaris Project: Chime Visualization Tool for DTrace

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Chime

Chime is a graphical tool for visualizing DTrace aggregations. It provides an alternative to similar CLI-based tools (such as intrstat) that is more visually appealing and potentially more useful. In particular, its ability to display data over time adds a missing dimension to system observability. Among its recent new features is the ability to display moving averages.

An important feature of Chime is the ability to add new displays without re-compiling (displays are described in XML). A placeholder syntax allows DTrace program values to be substituted behind the scenes, enabling the user of Chime to select from a described range of program modifications without having to know about DTrace. The resulting (modified) programs are displayable, making the tool educational as an added benefit. Chime can function as a toolkit of canned displays, but also leverages some of the dynamic potential of DTrace to answer unanticipated questions prompted by the current display. Chime even provides some of the ad hoc capability of dtrace(1M) by allowing you to generate displays directly from the command line (using -n or -s to specify a program string or a program file just as you would with the dtrace command):

% /opt/OSOL0chime/bin/chime -kTn 'sysinfo:::readch { @bytes[execname] = sum(arg0); }' -t "Bytes Read"

The above command is modified from Brendan Gregg's DTrace One Liners. Generated displays can be saved, edited in a wizard, documented, and grouped into categories, making them easy to find and run later.

Chime is now available for download. If you create a useful or interesting display, please share it.