Sunday, 21st April 2024: While working with different HPC performance tools, Linux perf has always intrigued me. Over the years I have curiously watched Brendan Gregg's talks and have learned a lot from various examples. As a performance engineer, I find Linux perf's capabilities fascinating. However, I have struggled to fully engage with Linux perf. This disconnect can be attributed to various factors. For instance, perf is often unavailable or lacks necessary permissions on HPC systems, its focus is primarily on single-server analysis rather than distributed applications executing on a large number of servers, etc.… Read the rest
Month: April 2024
Navigating the Complexity of Large Codebases Using Vtune + xdot (or perf + gprof2dot)
Sunday, 7th April 2024: Back in September 2013, when I started my journey at the Blue Brain, I was navigating relatively large codebases for the first time. I was eager to gain a comprehensive understanding of code structures, their execution workflow, and performance aspects. During this period I started using Intel Vtune with xdot/gprof2dot and found it extremely useful. With this combination, I could generate detailed execution call graphs of applications and then sit together to deep dive into both the structural and performance aspects of the code with the senior engineers.… Read the rest