defmodule Telemetry.Sampler do @moduledoc """ Allows to periodically collect measurements and dispatch them as `Telemetry` events. Measurements are MFAs called periodically by the Sampler process. These MFAs should collect a value (if possible) and dispatch an event using `Telemetry.execute/3` function. If the invokation of the MFA fails, the measurement is removed from the Sampler. See the "Example - (...)" sections for more concrete examples. ## Starting and stopping You can start the Sampler using the `start_link/1` function. Sampler can be alaso started as a part of your supervision tree, using both the old-style and the new-style child specifications: # pre Elixir 1.5.0 children = [Supervisor.Spec.worker(Telemetry.Sampler, [[period: 5000]])] # post Elixir 1.5.0 children = [{Telemetry.Sampler, [period: 5000]}] Supervisor.start_link(children, [strategy: :one_for_one]) You can start as many Samplers as you wish, but generally you shouldn't need to do it, unless you know that it's not keeping up with collecting all specified measurements. Measurements need to be provided via `:measurements` option. ## VM measurements The `vm_measurements/1` function returns common measurements related to Erlang virtual machine metrics. See its documentation for more information. ## Example - measuring message queue length of the process Measuring process' message queue length is a good way to find out if and when the process becomes the bottleneck. If the length of the queue is growing, it means that the process is not keeping up with the work it's been assigned and other processes asking it to do the work will get timeouts. Let's try to simulate that situation using the following GenServer: defmodule Worker do use GenServer def start_link(name) do GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, [], name: name) end def do_work(name) do GenServer.call(name, :do_work, timeout = 5_000) end def init([]) do {:ok, %{}} end def handle_call(:do_work, _, state) do Process.sleep(1000) {:reply, :ok, state} end end When assigned with work (`handle_call/3`), the worker will sleep for 1 second to imitate long running task. Now we need a measurement dispatching the message queue length of the worker: defmodule ExampleApp.Measurements do def message_queue_length(name) do with pid when is_pid(pid) <- Process.whereis(name), {:message_queue_len, length} <- Process.info(pid, :message_queue_len) do Telemetry.execute([:example_app, :message_queue_length], length, %{name: name}) end end end Let's start the worker and Sampler with just defined measurement: iex> name = MyWorker iex> {:ok, pid} = Worker.start_link(name) iex> Telemetry.Sampler.start_link( ...> measurements: [{ExampleApp.Measurements, :message_queue_length, [MyWorker]}], ...> period: 2000 ...> ) {:ok, _} In order to observe the message queue length we can install the event handler printing it out to the console: iex> defmodule Handler do ...> def handle([:example_app, :message_queue_length], length, %{name: name}, _) do ...> IO.puts("Process #\{inspect(name)} message queue length: #\{length}") ...> end ...> end iex> Telemetry.attach(:handler, [:example_app, :message_queue_length], Handler, :handle) :ok Now let's start assigning work to the worker: iex> for _ <- 1..1000 do ...> spawn_link(fn -> Worker.do_work(name) end) ...> Process.sleep(500) ...> end iex> :ok :ok Here we start 1000 processes placing a work order, waiting 500 milliseconds after starting each one. Given that the worker does its work in 1000 milliseconds, it means that new work orders come twice as fast as the worker is able to complete them. In the console, you'll see something like this: ``` Process MyWorker message queue length: 1 Process MyWorker message queue length: 3 Process MyWorker message queue length: 5 Process MyWorker message queue length: 7 ``` and finally: ``` ** (EXIT from #PID<0.168.0>) shell process exited with reason: exited in: GenServer.call(Worker, :do_work, 5000) ** (EXIT) time out ``` The worker wasn't able to complete the work on time (we set the 5000 millisecond timeout) and `Worker.do_work/1` finally failed. Observing the message queue length metric allowed us to notice that the worker is the system's bottleneck. In a healthy situation the message queue length would be roughly constant. ## Example - tracking number of active sessions in web application Let's imagine that you have a web application and you would like to periodically measure number of active user sessions. defmodule ExampleApp do def session_count() do # logic for calculating session count ... end end To achieve that, we need a measurement dispatching the value we're interested in: defmodule ExampleApp.Measurements do def dispatch_session_count() do Telemetry.execute([:example_app, :session_count], ExampleApp.session_count()) end end and tell the Sampler to invoke it periodically: Telemetry.Sampler.start_link(measurements: [ {ExampleApp.Measurements, :dispatch_session_count, []} ]) If you find that you need to somehow label the event values, e.g. differentiate between number of sessions of regular and admin users, you could use event metadata: defmodule ExampleApp.Measurements do def dispatch_session_count() do regulars = ExampleApp.regular_users_session_count() admins = ExampleApp.admin_users_session_count() Telemetry.execute([:example_app, :session_count], regulars, %{role: :regular}) Telemetry.execute([:example_app, :session_count], admins, %{role: :admin}) end end > Note: the other solution would be to dispatch two different events by hooking up > `ExampleApp.regular_users_session_count/0` and `ExampleApp.admin_users_session_count/0` > functions directly. However, if you add more and more user roles to your app, you'll find > yourself creating a new event for each one of them, which will force you to modify existing > event handlers. If you can break down event value by some feature, like user role in this > example, it's usually better to use event metadata than add new events. This is a perfect use case for Sampler, because you don't need to write a dedicated process which would call these functions periodically. Additionally, if you find that you need to collect more statistics like this in the future, you can easily hook them up to the same Sampler process and avoid creating lots of processes which would stay idle most of the time. """ use GenServer require Logger @default_period 10_000 @default_vm_measurements [ :total_memory, :processes_memory, :processes_used_memory, :binary_memory, :ets_memory ] @vm_memory_measurements [ :total_memory, :processes_memory, :processes_used_memory, :system_memory, :atom_memory, :atom_used_memory, :binary_memory, :code_memory, :ets_memory ] @type t :: GenServer.server() @type options :: [option()] @type option :: {:name, GenServer.name()} | {:period, period()} | {:measurements, [measurement()]} @type period :: pos_integer() @type measurement() :: mfa() @type vm_measurement() :: :total_memory | :processes_memory | :processes_used_memory | :system_memory | :atom_memory | :atom_used_memory | :binary_memory | :code_memory | :ets_memory ## API @doc """ Returns a child specifiction for Sampler. It accepts `t:options/0` as an argument, meaning that it's valid to start it under the supervisor as follows: alias Telemetry.Sampler # use default options Supervisor.start_link([Sampler], supervisor_opts) # use default options # customize options Supervisor.start_link([{Sampler, period: 10_000}], supervisor_opts) # modify the child spec Supervisor.start_link(Supervisor.child_spec(Sampler, id: MySampler), supervisor_opts) """ # Uncomment when dropping support for 1.4.x releases. # @spec child_spec(term()) :: Supervisor.child_spec() def child_spec(term) def child_spec(options) do %{ id: __MODULE__, start: {__MODULE__, :start_link, [options]} } end @doc """ Starts a Sampler linked to the calling process. Useful for starting Samplers as a part of a supervision tree. ### Options * `:measurements` - a list of measurements used by Sampler. For description of possible values see `Telemetry.Sampler` module documentation; * `:period` - time period before performing the same measurement again, in milliseconds. Default value is #{@default_period} ms; * `:name` - the name of the Sampler process. See "Name Registragion" section of `GenServer` documentation for information about allowed values. """ @spec start_link(options()) :: GenServer.on_start() def start_link(options \\ []) when is_list(options) do {sampler_opts, gen_server_opts} = parse_options!(options) GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, sampler_opts, gen_server_opts) end @doc """ Stops the `sampler` with specified `reason`. See documentation for `GenServer.stop/3` to learn more about the behaviour of this function. """ @spec stop(t(), reason :: term(), timeout()) :: :ok def stop(sampler, reason \\ :normal, timeout \\ :infinity) do GenServer.stop(sampler, reason, timeout) end @doc """ Returns a list of measurements used by the sampler. """ @spec list_measurements(t()) :: [measurement()] def list_measurements(sampler) do GenServer.call(sampler, :get_measurements) end @doc """ Returns measurements dispatching events with Erlang virtual machine metrics It accepts a list `t:vm_measurement/0`s and returns a list of `t:measurement/0`s which can be provided to `start_link/1`'s `:measurements` option. Do not rely on the exact values returned by this function - the only guarantee is that they are of type `t:measurement/0` and their modification will not be considered a breaking change, unless the shape of events dispatched by returned measurements changes. Returned measurements are unique. ## Available measurements ### Memory See documentation for `:erlang.memory/0` function for more information about each type of memory measured. * `:total_memory` - dispatches an event with total amount of currently allocated memory, in bytes. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :total]` and event metadata is empty; * `:processes_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory cyrrently allocated for processes, in bytes. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :processes]` and event metadata is empty; * `:processes_used_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently used for processes, in bytes. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :processes_used]` and event metadata is empty. Memory measured is a fraction of value collected by `:processes_memory` measurement; * `:binary_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently allocated for binaries. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :binary]` and event metadata is empty; * `:ets_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently allocated for ETS tables. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :ets]` and event metadata is empty; * `:system_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of currently allocated memory not directly related to any process running in the VM, in bytes. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :system]` and event metadata is empty; * `:atom_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently allocated for atoms. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :atom]` and event metadata is empty; * `:atom_used_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently used for atoms. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :atom_used]` and event metadata is empty; * `:code_memory` - dispatches an event with amount of memory currently allocated for code. Event name is `[:vm, :memory, :code]` and event metadata is empty; ## Default measurements The 0-arity version of this function includes `:total_memory`, `:processes_memory`, `:processes_used_memory`, `:binary_memory` and `:ets_memory` measurements by default. ## Examples alias Telemetry.Sampler Sampler.start_link( measurements: Sampler.vm_measurements() ++ Sampler.vm_measurements(:atom_memory) ) """ @spec vm_measurements([vm_measurement()]) :: [measurement()] def vm_measurements(vm_measurements \\ @default_vm_measurements) when is_list(vm_measurements) do measurements = parse_vm_measurements!(vm_measurements) Enum.uniq(measurements) end ## GenServer callbacks @impl true def init(options) do state = %{ measurements: Keyword.fetch!(options, :measurements), period: Keyword.fetch!(options, :period) } schedule_measurement(0) {:ok, state} end @impl true def handle_info(:collect, state) do new_measurements = make_measurements_and_filter_misbehaving(state.measurements) schedule_measurement(state.period) {:noreply, %{state | measurements: new_measurements}} end @impl true def handle_call(:get_measurements, _, state) do {:reply, state.measurements, state} end ## Helpers @spec parse_options!(list()) :: {Keyword.t(), Keyword.t()} | no_return() defp parse_options!(options) do gen_server_opts = Keyword.take(options, [:name]) measurements = Keyword.get(options, :measurements, []) validate_measurements!(measurements) period = Keyword.get(options, :period, @default_period) validate_period!(period) {[measurements: measurements, period: period], gen_server_opts} end @spec validate_measurements!(term()) :: :ok | no_return() defp validate_measurements!(measurements) when is_list(measurements) do Enum.each(measurements, &validate_measurement!/1) :ok end defp validate_measurements!(other) do raise ArgumentError, "Expected :measurements to be a list, got #{inspect(other)}" end @spec validate_measurement!(term()) :: measurement() | no_return() defp validate_measurement!({m, f, a}) when is_atom(m) and is_atom(f) and is_list(a) do :ok end defp validate_measurement!(invalid_measurement) do raise ArgumentError, "Expected measurement, got #{inspect(invalid_measurement)}" end @spec validate_period!(term()) :: :ok | no_return() defp validate_period!(period) when is_integer(period) and period > 0, do: :ok defp validate_period!(other), do: raise(ArgumentError, "Expected :period to be a postivie integer, got #{inspect(other)}") @spec schedule_measurement(collect_in_millis :: non_neg_integer()) :: :ok defp schedule_measurement(collect_in_millis) do Process.send_after(self(), :collect, collect_in_millis) :ok end @spec make_measurements_and_filter_misbehaving([measurement()]) :: [measurement()] defp make_measurements_and_filter_misbehaving(measurements) do Enum.map(measurements, fn measurement -> result = make_measurement(measurement) {measurement, result} end) |> Enum.filter(fn {_measurement, ok_or_error} -> ok_or_error == :ok end) |> Enum.map(&elem(&1, 0)) end defp make_measurement({m, f, a} = measurement) do apply(m, f, a) :ok catch kind, reason -> Logger.error( "Error when calling MFA defined by measurement #{inspect(measurement)}:\n" <> "#{Exception.format(kind, reason, System.stacktrace())}" ) :error end @spec parse_vm_measurements!([term()]) :: [measurement()] | no_return() defp parse_vm_measurements!(vm_measurements) do Enum.map(vm_measurements, &parse_vm_measurement!/1) end @spec parse_vm_measurement!(term()) :: [measurement()] | no_return() defp parse_vm_measurement!(memory) when memory in @vm_memory_measurements do vm_measurement(memory) end defp parse_vm_measurement!(other) do raise ArgumentError, "Expected VM measurement, got #{inspect(other)}" end @spec vm_measurement(function :: atom(), args :: list()) :: measurement() defp vm_measurement(function, args \\ []) do {Telemetry.Sampler.VM, function, args} end end