Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation: Zero-Code Observability Under 2% Overhead
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation: Zero-Code Observability Under 2% Overhead
What if you could achieve complete observability coverage—every HTTP request, database query, and gRPC call—without touching application code? Jordan and Alex investigate eBPF instrumentation for OpenTelemetry, revealing how kernel-level hooks deliver under 2% CPU overhead versus traditional APM agents' 10-50%. Discover the May 2025 inflection point, the TLS encryption challenge, and a practical framework for combining eBPF with SDK instrumentation.
In this episode:
- eBPF instrumentation achieves under 2% CPU overhead by observing kernel operations already happening—versus 10-50% for traditional APM agents
- Grafana donated Beyla to OpenTelemetry in May 2025, making eBPF instrumentation part of the core ecosystem
- eBPF captures protocol-level data (HTTP, gRPC, SQL) but cannot access application context like user IDs or feature flags—use SDKs for business-critical paths
Perfect for senior platform engineers, sres, devops engineers with 5+ years experience looking to level up their platform engineering skills.
Episode URL: https://platformengineeringplaybook.com/podcasts/00028-opentelemetry-ebpf-instrumentation
View all episodes
By vibesreWhat if you could achieve complete observability coverage—every HTTP request, database query, and gRPC call—without touching application code? Jordan and Alex investigate eBPF instrumentation for OpenTelemetry, revealing how kernel-level hooks deliver under 2% CPU overhead versus traditional APM agents' 10-50%. Discover the May 2025 inflection point, the TLS encryption challenge, and a practical framework for combining eBPF with SDK instrumentation.
In this episode:
- eBPF instrumentation achieves under 2% CPU overhead by observing kernel operations already happening—versus 10-50% for traditional APM agents
- Grafana donated Beyla to OpenTelemetry in May 2025, making eBPF instrumentation part of the core ecosystem
- eBPF captures protocol-level data (HTTP, gRPC, SQL) but cannot access application context like user IDs or feature flags—use SDKs for business-critical paths
Perfect for senior platform engineers, sres, devops engineers with 5+ years experience looking to level up their platform engineering skills.
Episode URL: https://platformengineeringplaybook.com/podcasts/00028-opentelemetry-ebpf-instrumentation