Pip Discussion Summary

[Zikai]

We presented Pip, a debugging tool for distributed system along with X-
Trace which is a similar tool. Therefore, I will focus on differences
between the two tools in this summary.

X-Trace does not need deep knowledge into design and implementation of
target distributed systems as Pip does because it works on networking
protocols which are mediums between distributed entities. This
determines two systems are good at handling different types of bugs.
Pip is able to handle both structural and performance bugs while X-
Trace can only handle previous ones. Pip can find bugs inside each
distributed host like the one in FAB while X-Trace focus more on an
architecture level. Pip’s results allow authors to identify bugs,
debug and optimize existing system while X-Trace is good only for
identification.

X-Trace is a cross-layer, cross-application and cross-administrative-
domain framework while Pip has no sense of layer and it is single-
application and single-domain system.

X-Trace has better extensibility then Pip. Because Pip’s expectation
and code annotation way need deep knowledge into design and
implementation, it is hard when there are multiple applications that
come from different vendors and go across different administrative
domains while X-Trace can be some kind of standard followed by all
networking service providers. Furthermore, if X-Trace include more
information in metadata like latency, it may handle more and deeper
bugs.