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Lies, Damn Lies, and Metrics (Distill 2014)

Lies, Damn Lies, and Metrics (Distill 2014)

Metrics are great, and measuring things can provide tremendously useful insights. But there's a problem: metrics lie to you. Metrics just report the numbers that were measured. Analyzing those numbers is up to us, and that analysis can go wrong in so, so many ways. Learn how to arm yourself against human intuition, interpreter pauses, routing, instrumentation lag, and other issues. Don't get so caught up in instrumenting that you lose sight of why metrics exist! Make sure your metrics are telling you actionable information, instead of just accurate numbers.

André Arko

August 08, 2014
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  1. Lies, Damn Lies,
    and Metrics

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  2. André Arko
    @indirect

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  3. View Slide

  4. Bundler

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  5. Metrics

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  6. Metrics
    are important

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  7. Metrics
    tell you what
    is happening

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  8. you rn →

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  9. Metrics
    convince you
    you understand

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  10. you later →

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  11. Averages
    convince you
    you understand

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  12. Averages
    are lie-candy
    for your brain

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  13. “Normal”
    5
    -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
    0
    0.1
    0.2
    0.3
    0.4

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  14. “Normal”
    5
    -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
    0
    0.1
    0.2
    0.3
    0.4

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  15. Real Life
    5
    -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
    0
    0.1
    0.2
    0.3
    0.4

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  16. brendangregg.com

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  17. brendangregg.com

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  18. just heard
    “w
    e
    have
    a
    great average” →

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  19. Averages
    mask problems

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  20. 10
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    250
    0
    50
    100
    150
    200

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  21. Graph
    the median

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  22. 10
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    250
    0
    50
    100
    150
    200

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  23. Graph
    95th percentile

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  24. 10
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    250
    0
    50
    100
    150
    200

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  25. Graph
    99th percentile

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  26. 10
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    1000
    0
    250
    500
    750

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  27. Aggregate graphs
    another average

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  28. View Slide

  29. Breakout graphs
    show each source

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  31. Aggregate alerts
    more dead servers
    than alive servers

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  32. site’s up if any
    servers are up!

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  33. Breakout alerts
    first dead server
    not all the servers

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  34. Servers

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  35. Servers
    you have no idea
    what is going on

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  36. really.

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  37. Runtime lag

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  38. Runtime lag
    how do you tell you
    lost consciousness?

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  39. Runtime lag
    you have it.

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  40. Runtime lag
    you have it.
    how bad is it?

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  41. VM lag

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  42. VM lag
    do you have it?

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  43. VM lag
    do you check for it?

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  44. VM lag
    do you know how
    to check for it?

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  45. Routing

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  46. Routing
    your app has this

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  47. Routing
    how does it work?

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  48. Development
    App
    You

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  49. Production
    People Router
    Server
    App
    App
    Router
    Server
    App
    App
    Router

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  50. Routing
    how slow is it?

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  51. Routing
    does it back up?

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  52. Request time

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  53. Request time
    not the time
    you measure

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  54. Request time
    wall-clock time
    from real clients

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  55. Request time
    make requests from
    around the world

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  56. metrics are good
    So, in the end

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  57. know what you
    are measuring
    So, in the end

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  58. @indirect
    [email protected]
    Questions?

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