Tracing CORBA applications using interceptors

Contents

1. Motivation
2. Tracing in general
3. Interceptors
4. Tracing using interceptors
5. Conclusion

Motivation

1. Technical development:

Distributed, heterogeneous environment

Object-oriented integration → CORBA

Motivation

2. Applications:

e-Business

Embedded systems

Motivation

3. Growing competition:

Functional and reliability requirements

Time-to-market pressure

Contents

1. Motivation
2. Tracing in general
3. Interceptors
4. Tracing using interceptors
5. Conclusion

Tracing vs. debugging

Aims of tracing (use cases)

1. Checking correct behaviour

2. Locating bugs

3. Better

Current tracing mechanisms

Current solutions are bound to particular programming languages.

Synchronization,

Current tracing mechanisms

State of the art in distributed systems:

+ Central tracer

–

Contents

1. Motivation
2. Tracing in general
3. Interceptors
4. Tracing using interceptors
5. Conclusion

CORBA interceptor

An object implementing the interceptor interface

without actually modifying the

Callback methods

methodX()

methodX()

Client Server

Definitions & implementations

First definition: CORBA 2.3
Incompatible implementations
September 1998: OMG RFP
December 1999:

Other possible solutions

Smart proxies
Servant managers
Pluggable protocols
ORB event handlers
…

Contents

1. Motivation
2. Tracing in general
3. Interceptors
4. Tracing using interceptors
5. Conclusion

Tracing using interceptors

send_request()

receive_request()

send_reply()

receive_reply()

The resulting architecture

Automatic instrumentation

Open system

Until then: a slight

Overhead

In interactive mode: ~ 500 % communication overhead
In local mode: ~

Contents

1. Motivation
2. Tracing in general
3. Interceptors
4. Tracing using interceptors
5. Conclusion

Results

A tracing architecture satisfying the previously defined requirements
A tool

Future plans

Improving interoperability
Extending the architecture for other middleware systems, such as