eBPF for Enhanced Observability in Modern Systems

Effective observability is more important than ever as teams grapple with the complexities of managing microservices, containers, and distributed systems. The need for real-time insights to diagnose and resolve issues has never been greater.

One tool that has been a game-changer in this space is eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter), a technology rapidly gaining traction for its ability to provide deep observability without significant performance overhead.

In this blog, we’ll explore eBPF, how it works, and how it’s revolutionizing observability.

What is eBPF?

eBPF is a kernel technology that allows you to run sandboxed programs in the operating system kernel without changing the kernel code itself.

Originally designed for packet filtering, eBPF has evolved to become a versatile tool capable of monitoring system calls, tracing functions, gathering performance metrics, and even implementing custom network policies.

At its core, eBPF enables programs to run in response to events happening in the kernel, without the need for complex instrumentation.

This makes it an incredibly lightweight and powerful solution for observability, providing insights that were once difficult or impossible to obtain with traditional monitoring tools.

Optimizing Systems with the Observability Maturity Model | Last9

The Observability Maturity Model helps organizations optimize systems by advancing through stages to improve reliability, performance, and troubleshooting.

Last9Last9

How eBPF Improves Observability

1. Deep Visibility with Minimal Overhead

eBPF allows you to monitor your systems at a granular level, from the kernel to the application layer.

Unlike traditional agents that require deep instrumentation, eBPF operates at the kernel level, reducing the impact on performance.

This means you can get detailed metrics and trace data without sacrificing speed or efficiency.

2. Real-time Monitoring and Tracing

One of the standout features of eBPF is its ability to capture real-time events across your systems. Tracking system calls, function execution, or network traffic, eBPF programs provide a continuous stream of insights into system behavior.

This allows for fast identification of anomalies, helping teams resolve issues quickly before they escalate.

3. Full Stack Observability

eBPF’s flexibility makes it ideal for monitoring all layers of a system. From network traffic and application performance to low-level kernel operations, eBPF enables you to collect a wide variety of data.

This full-stack observability is crucial for understanding complex microservices architectures, as it helps correlate different metrics to build a comprehensive picture of your system’s health.

Full-Stack Observability for Better Application Performance | Last9

Achieve better application performance with full-stack observability, gaining real-time insights to troubleshoot, optimize, and enhance user experience.

Last9Last9

4. Custom Instrumentation

With eBPF, you can create custom monitoring tools tailored to your specific needs.

Building an observability platform or enhancing an existing solution becomes significantly more flexible with eBPF. It empowers teams to add custom probes and tracepoints directly into their workflows, all without the need to modify the existing codebase.

This adaptability makes it an invaluable asset for teams with unique or evolving observability requirements.

eBPF vs. Traditional Monitoring Tools

Traditional monitoring solutions often rely on agents that are installed on hosts or containers to collect data. While these tools can provide insights into system performance, they come with a few limitations.

They can introduce overhead, require regular updates, and may not offer the depth of visibility needed to troubleshoot complex issues.

eBPF, on the other hand, operates at the kernel level, offering a lighter and more efficient alternative.

Because it can capture data without the need for external agents, eBPF minimizes the performance impact, ensuring your system stays responsive even as you collect detailed observability data.

OpenTelemetry vs. Traditional APM Tools | Last9

This article explores OpenTelemetry vs. traditional APM tools, comparing their strengths, weaknesses, and use cases to help you choose wisely.

Last9

Key Benefits of eBPF Over Traditional Monitoring Tools

• Lower overhead: eBPF runs directly in the kernel, avoiding the need for external agents or instrumentation.
• Better granularity: eBPF enables fine-grained monitoring of system events, including function calls, memory usage, and network traffic.
• Dynamic instrumentation: eBPF programs can be dynamically loaded, allowing for real-time updates and the ability to add new probes without restarting services.

Integrating eBPF with Existing Observability Tools

eBPF isn’t a replacement for existing observability tools like Prometheus or OpenTelemetry; instead, it complements these technologies by providing an extra layer of visibility.

Integrating eBPF with tools like these enriches your observability stack, providing more detailed data to help you make more informed decisions about system health and performance.

For example, eBPF can provide low-level metrics that can be aggregated and visualized in platforms like Grafana or integrated with alerting systems to trigger automated responses to potential issues.

When paired with OpenTelemetry, eBPF can enhance the tracing and metrics collection process, offering deeper insights into system behavior.

Top Observability Best Practices for Microservices in 2024 | Last9

Practical tips for monitoring, analyzing, and improving system performance.

Last9

eBPF’s Relevance for Platform Teams and Application Developers

eBPF is transforming how platform teams and application developers approach observability, performance tuning, and security.

Weaving eBPF into their workflows allows teams to unlock deeper insights into both applications and infrastructure in production environments.

Here’s why eBPF is becoming a must-have tool for them:

1. Real-Time Observability

eBPF delivers unparalleled, low-overhead visibility into system behavior, operating directly at the kernel level.

This empowers teams to:

• Track system calls and kernel events that impact performance.
• Monitor resource utilization like CPU, memory, and disk to detect inefficient code or misconfigurations.
• Trace application metrics and follow requests through distributed systems, pinpointing bottlenecks and failures.

The result? Instant insights without relying on delayed signals like logs, enabling faster issue detection and resolution.

2. Simplified Troubleshooting in Production

For developers, debugging production issues often feel like chasing ghosts. eBPF changes the game, allowing real-time debugging without heavy instrumentation or local reproduction.

It shines in tasks like:

• Tracing latency by analyzing function calls and time spent in various application components.
• Diagnosing errors in system calls, network traffic, or inter-process communication that may elude traditional logging.
• Gaining a precise, real-world view of system behavior, reducing the guesswork in complex environments.

Last9’s Single Pane for High Cardinality Observability | Last9

Last9’s Telemetry Warehouse now supports Logs and Traces, offering a unified view for high cardinality observability to simplify monitoring and troubleshooting.

Last9

3. Performance Optimization Made Easy

Managing infrastructure or optimizing application code, eBPF offers granular insights to:

• Detect resource hogs, such as memory leaks or CPU-intensive processes.
• Monitor and optimize slow queries, reducing application response times.
• Minimize profiling overhead while still pinpointing root causes of performance degradation.

This means smoother operations for platform teams and faster, leaner applications for developers.

4. Strengthened Security Monitoring

Security is as much about observation as prevention, and eBPF excels here too. Its kernel-level capabilities help:

• Spot malicious activities like unauthorized file access or abnormal system calls.
• Enforce security policies by identifying suspicious system behaviors.
• Protect containerized environments by analyzing potential vulnerabilities in traffic, system calls, or resource usage.

With eBPF, developers can bake security into applications, while platform teams stay ahead of threats in real-time.

Why Golden Signals Matter for Monitoring | Last9

Golden Signals—latency, traffic, error rate, and saturation—help SRE teams monitor system health and avoid costly performance issues.

Last9Last9

5. Custom Observability for Unique Needs

eBPF’s flexibility is its superpower. Teams can design custom probes to monitor exactly what matters most to their environments, enabling:

• Tailored monitoring of unique application behaviors or system metrics.
• Seamless integration with tools like Prometheus and Grafana to enhance existing observability stacks.
• Precise control over monitored data, avoiding unnecessary overhead while maintaining deep insights.

This approach ensures no blind spots, offering visibility where off-the-shelf tools might fall short.

6. Faster Development and Troubleshooting Cycles

By removing bottlenecks in debugging and improving observability, eBPF accelerates the entire development lifecycle:

• Real-time issue identification reduces time wasted on log analysis and guesswork.
• Proactive problem detection allows teams to fix potential issues before they impact users.
• Simplified workflows lead to faster deployments, fewer production hiccups, and happier end users.

In short, eBPF isn’t just a tool—it’s an enabler for building robust, high-performing software at speed.

eBPF Adoption and Implementation Across Industries

As organizations embrace cloud-native technologies, eBPF has become a vital tool for observability and troubleshooting in production environments.

Its lightweight nature and powerful monitoring capabilities make it an attractive choice for optimizing system performance, security, and reliability.

Let’s understand how eBPF is making an impact across various industries:

Tech and SaaS Companies

Tech and SaaS companies were among the first to adopt eBPF, using it to gain deeper insights into distributed systems. With eBPF, they can monitor microservices, trace user requests, and pinpoint performance bottlenecks in real time.

In the competitive SaaS landscape, where uptime and responsiveness are critical, eBPF helps maintain high performance while minimizing system overhead.

Financial Services

Security and performance are paramount in the financial industry, and eBPF delivers on both fronts.

Providing real-time visibility into system behavior, financial institutions can detect fraud, identify latency issues, and ensure regulatory compliance.

eBPF’s low-latency monitoring and secure data collection make it invaluable for high-stakes environments handling high-frequency transactions.

E-Commerce and Retail

For e-commerce platforms, particularly during high-traffic events like Black Friday, performance and uptime are everything.

eBPF helps monitor infrastructure health, analyze resource usage, and resolve issues like slow page loads or failed transactions before they affect customers. This proactive approach enhances user experience, even during peak demand.

Telecommunications

Telecom providers rely on eBPF for monitoring packet flows, detecting network anomalies, and diagnosing issues like congestion or packet loss.

This enables faster resolution times and improved service reliability, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity—an essential for customer satisfaction in this industry.

Healthcare

Healthcare organizations are using eBPF to monitor IT infrastructures like patient data systems and medical device networks.

With real-time performance insights, healthcare providers can ensure smooth operations and detect unusual patterns that might indicate security threats or system failures.

eBPF’s low-impact monitoring also helps maintain compliance with privacy regulations, safeguarding sensitive data.

Gaming

In the gaming industry, eBPF is enhancing the performance and user experience of online and multiplayer games.

Monitoring network traffic, tracing server performance, and identifying issues like packet loss or lag allows gaming companies to deliver smooth gameplay, ensuring player satisfaction and quick issue resolution.

Cloud and Hosting Providers

Cloud service providers are embracing eBPF to enhance observability across vast, dynamic infrastructures.

eBPF provides deep visibility into network and host systems, offering insights into resource usage, load balancing, and downtime reduction.

For multi-tenant environments, eBPF’s telemetry and tracing capabilities simplify troubleshooting in complex setups.

A Guide to Database Optimization for High Traffic | Last9

Learn how to optimize your database for high traffic, ensuring performance, scalability, and reliability under heavy load.

Last9Last9

Manufacturing and IoT

As IoT adoption grows in manufacturing, eBPF is becoming indispensable for monitoring connected devices.

It enables real-time insights into sensor data, machine performance, and network traffic, helping reduce downtime and improve predictive maintenance.

Additionally, eBPF enhances security by detecting potential breaches or unauthorized access to critical systems.

Practical Use Cases of eBPF in System Observability

eBPF's versatility makes it applicable in a wide range of observability scenarios, each offering unique advantages.

Here are some key use cases where eBPF can significantly enhance system monitoring:

Performance Monitoring

eBPF enables granular monitoring of system resources, allowing you to track CPU usage, memory consumption, disk I/O, and network throughput at a fine level of detail.

Capturing real-time performance data with eBPF helps identify bottlenecks or resource hogs within the system, enabling proactive performance optimization without adding significant overhead.

Distributed Tracing

eBPF excels at tracing requests as they move through a distributed system.

It allows teams to track the lifecycle of a request as it passes between services, identifying latencies and failures that are difficult to detect with traditional monitoring tools.

Visualizing service dependencies and response times with eBPF enables efficient troubleshooting and helps optimize the overall architecture.

Network Observability

With eBPF, you can gain deep visibility into network traffic, capturing detailed data on packet flows, connection statuses, and protocol usage.

This visibility is crucial for diagnosing network-related issues, whether it’s identifying dropped packets, slow connections, or anomalous traffic patterns.

It also helps in detecting potential security threats, such as DDoS attacks or unauthorized data transfers.

Security Monitoring

eBPF can be used to monitor system calls and detect unusual or unauthorized activities. For instance, eBPF can track access patterns to sensitive files or monitor abnormal system behavior that might indicate a security breach.

Capturing and analyzing low-level events, eBPF provides real-time alerts for potential vulnerabilities or exploit attempts, making it a vital tool for enhancing system security.

Why Cloud Security Monitoring is Crucial for Your Business | Last9

Cloud security monitoring is essential to protect data, ensure compliance, and safeguard against growing cyber threats in cloud environments.

Last9Last9

Container and Kubernetes Monitoring

In containerized environments like Kubernetes, eBPF provides visibility into the inner workings of containers without the need to install agents within them.

Monitoring system calls and resource usage on a per-container basis, eBPF helps teams track how containers interact with each other and the underlying infrastructure, facilitating performance troubleshooting and improving system reliability.

Custom Observability Tools

One of the strengths of eBPF is its flexibility. Teams can create custom probes for specific metrics or events, providing highly specialized observability that traditional tools may not cover.

eBPF can be adapted to track specific function calls or monitor unique network protocols, making it ideal for teams with unique observability needs.

Latency Analysis

eBPF can be employed to monitor the latency at every stage of a process, from kernel to user space.

Tracing function calls and network requests allows teams to pinpoint the components causing delays. This visibility is crucial for optimizing performance in time-sensitive applications, ensuring that latency bottlenecks are detected and resolved in real-time.

Tail Latency: Key in Large-Scale Distributed Systems | Last9

Tail latency significantly impacts large-scale systems. This blog covers its importance, contributing factors, and effective reduction strategies.

Last9Book a Demo

System Resource Allocation

eBPF also provides insights into how system resources are allocated and utilized by different processes.

Analyzing CPU scheduling, memory allocation, or disk access with eBPF allows teams to track resource consumption over time and correlate it with system behavior. This helps in understanding resource utilization patterns and ensuring that system resources are distributed optimally.

Challenges and Considerations

While eBPF offers immense power and flexibility, it comes with its own set of challenges. For teams new to this technology, writing and debugging eBPF programs can be complex.

Additionally, environments requiring kernel-level access may not always be compatible with eBPF, such as certain managed environments or older systems.

Another critical consideration is optimizing eBPF programs to avoid unnecessary overhead.

While eBPF is designed to be lightweight, poorly written programs can introduce performance bottlenecks. This makes careful implementation and rigorous testing essential to fully harness its capabilities.

API Monitoring: A Comprehensive Guide for Developers | Last9

Learn how to keep your APIs running smoothly! From tracking performance to boosting reliability, this guide has everything developers need.

Last9Last9

Community and Educational Resources for eBPF

The eBPF ecosystem is buzzing with energy, offering a wealth of resources to help both beginners and seasoned pros sharpen their skills.

Here are some great places to learn, connect, and stay in the loop with eBPF:

1. eBPF Summit

Think of the eBPF Summit as the ultimate yearly meetup for eBPF enthusiasts. It’s packed with expert talks, cutting-edge use cases, and plenty of best practices.

Can’t attend in person? There are many sessions available online, making it a go-to resource for keeping up with the latest and greatest in eBPF.

2. The eBPF Project GitHub

If you like your learning hands-on, the eBPF GitHub is a treasure trove. It’s got everything from official code and tools to documentation and tutorials.

If you're looking to experiment, contribute, or build custom programs, this is the ideal place to begin.

3. BPF Compiler Collection (BCC)

The BPF Compiler Collection simplifies the magic of eBPF, offering tools for performance tuning and troubleshooting.

The BCC GitHub repository is packed with examples and guides—perfect for developers wanting to put eBPF to work in real-world scenarios.

4. eBPF in Action (Book)

Written by Brendan Gregg, a well-known expert in performance analysis, eBPF in Action is a comprehensive guide that covers both the basics and more advanced topics like tracing, networking, and security.

It’s a great resource for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of eBPF.

Logging Errors in Go with ZeroLog: A Simple Guide | Last9

Learn how to log errors efficiently in Go using ZeroLog with best practices like structured logging, context-rich messages, and error-level filtering.

Last9Last9

5. eBPF.io

eBPF.io is your one-stop shop for all things eBPF. It’s got everything: tutorials, documentation, blogs, and links to community resources. Whether you’re dipping your toes or need in-depth technical guides, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.

6. eBPF Slack Channel

The eBPF Slack channel is a lively space where the community connects. It’s a great place to ask questions, share experiences, and learn from others in real-time, making it perfect for both newcomers and experienced users.

7. Tutorials and Blogs

Blogs and tutorials bring eBPF to life through practical examples.

Check out resources like Brendan Gregg’s blog and Linux Observability by Aravind Putrevu for deep dives into real-world scenarios.

8. Online Courses and Webinars

Prefer structured learning? Platforms like these have you covered:

• Linux Foundation Training: Offers professional courses, including Linux kernel and eBPF essentials.
• Udemy: Features courses catering to both beginners and advanced users.
• YouTube: A treasure chest of eBPF tutorials, summit talks, and demos.

9. eBPF Weekly Newsletter

Stay in the know with the eBPF Weekly Newsletter. It’s your curated digest of tools, blog posts, and updates, helping you keep a finger on the pulse of the eBPF ecosystem.

10. Online Communities and Forums

For Q&A and general geekery, check out forums like:

• Stack Overflow: Perfect for technical questions and solutions.
• Reddit (r/linux): Great for discussions and tips from fellow developers.

Crontab Logs: Track, Debug, and Optimize Your Cron Jobs | Last9

Crontab logs help you keep your cron jobs in check. Learn how to track, debug, and optimize your cron jobs with crontab logs.

Last9Last9

Conclusion

eBPF has transformed how we approach observability, security, and performance optimization. Its ability to deliver granular insights with minimal overhead makes it a vital tool for teams navigating the challenges of distributed systems.

FAQs

What is eBPF, and how does it work?
eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) is a technology that allows programs to run safely in the Linux kernel. It enables real-time data collection and system behavior analysis without modifying kernel code.

Why is eBPF useful for observability?
eBPF provides detailed visibility into system calls, network traffic, and application performance, all with minimal overhead. This level of insight helps teams troubleshoot, optimize, and secure their systems more effectively.

Do I need to modify my applications to use eBPF?
No, eBPF operates at the kernel level and doesn’t require changes to your application code. It works seamlessly across the system, providing insights without disrupting your workflows.

Can eBPF be used in production environments?
Absolutely. eBPF is designed for real-time monitoring and debugging in production. It allows developers to collect data, trace functions, and diagnose issues without impacting application performance.

How does eBPF enhance system security?
eBPF monitors system calls, network activity, and process behaviors, enabling teams to detect and respond to abnormal patterns or potential threats in real-time.

Where can I find learning resources for eBPF?
Start with the eBPF.io website, GitHub repositories, and resources like eBPF in Action by Brendan Gregg. You can also explore tutorials, webinars, and community discussions to deepen your knowledge.

Does eBPF work only on Linux?
Currently, eBPF is primarily supported on Linux systems. However, its growing popularity has spurred efforts to expand its capabilities to other platforms.

How do I start using eBPF?
Begin with tools like the BPF Compiler Collection (BCC) or explore the eBPF GitHub repositories for code examples and tutorials. Joining community forums and Slack channels is also a great way to learn and collaborate.