Trace Analysis Report Template

1. Executive Summary

• Objective: Provide a concise overview of the goal of this trace analysis (e.g., identify performance bottlenecks, improve user experience, analyze dependencies).
• Summary of Findings: Briefly summarize the key findings from the trace analysis, including identified bottlenecks, critical latencies, and overall system performance.

2. Scope

• Application/Service Analyzed: Name and description of the application or services covered in the trace analysis.
• Timeframe: The time period for which traces were collected and analyzed.
• Tools Used: List of tracing and visualization tools utilized (e.g., AWS X-Ray, Amazon CloudWatch ServiceLens).

3. Trace Data Analysis

• Request Flow Overview: Describe the overall request flow, detailing how requests move through various components (services, databases, external APIs).
• Key Interactions: Visual representation or description of key interactions between components, including any external dependencies.

4. Findings

• Identified Bottlenecks: Specific services or components that introduce delays. Include metrics like latency, resource utilization, and throughput.
• Dependency Analysis: Analysis of dependencies between services, including latency data and potential points of failure.
• Error Rates and Failures: Details of any notable error rates, failed requests, or other anomalies observed.

5. Performance Metrics

• Latency Metrics: Breakdown of latency by component, highlighting any segments that exceed acceptable thresholds.
• Resource Utilization: Summary of resource usage (CPU, memory) for each component involved in request processing.
• Throughput: Number of processed requests over the analyzed timeframe, and any changes noticed.

6. Recommendations

• Optimization Suggestions: Specific actions to address identified bottlenecks or performance issues (e.g., caching, load balancing).
• Resource Adjustments: Suggestions for optimizing resource utilization, including scaling up or down of specific components.
• Dependency Improvements: Recommendations for improving communication and reducing latency between dependent services.

7. Visualizations

• Dependency Map: A visual representation of application components and their dependencies.
• Request Flow Diagram: Diagram that visually depicts the flow of requests through the system, pinpointing bottlenecks.

8. Action Plan

• Immediate Actions: Outline of actions to be taken in the short term, such as addressing critical bottlenecks or errors.
• Long-Term Strategy: Recommendations for ongoing optimization and performance monitoring.

9. Appendix

• Trace Data Logs: Raw trace data or selected examples of traces.
• Additional Metrics: Any additional metrics or visualizations that were not included in the main report but may be useful for further analysis.