Is Dynamic Tracing in Postgres running on Ubuntu a good choice?

From: Bharath Rupireddy <bharath(dot)rupireddyforpostgres(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Is Dynamic Tracing in Postgres running on Ubuntu a good choice?
Date: 2022-05-02 17:55:12
Message-ID: CALj2ACV1Y7JbiSFQC2jseGV_TyArfe845zp2DHW7T57-qopJ1w@mail.gmail.com
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Hi,

I'm exploring the Dynamic Tracing [1] facility that postgres provides and
planning to set it up in a reliable way on postgres running on Ubuntu. It
looks like SystemTap is available on Ubuntu whereas DTrace isn't. I have no
experience in using any of these tools. I would like to hear from hackers
who have knowledge in this area or set it up previously.

In general, I have the following questions:

1) Can the Dynamic Tracing reliably be used in production servers without
impacting the performance? In other words, will the Dynamic Tracing incur
extra costs(CPU or IO) that may impact the postgres performance eventually?
2) Does it fare better in terms of postgres observability? If yes, is it a
better choice than the existing way that postgres emits server logs and
provides stats via views, pg_stat_statements etc.?

My motivation is to see if Dynamic Tracing is a better way to get the
important information out of a running postgres server.

Please provide your thoughts here?

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/dynamic-trace.html

Regards,
Bharath Rupireddy.

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