Performance Anomaly Detection and Bottleneck Identification

In order to meet stringent performance requirements, system administrators must effectively detect undesirable performance behaviours, identify potential root causes, and take adequate corrective measures. The problem of uncovering and understanding performance anomalies and their causes (bottlenecks) in different system and application domains is well studied. In order to assess progress, research trends, and identify open challenges, we have reviewed major contributions in the area and present our findings in this survey. Our approach provides an overview of anomaly detection and bottleneck identification research as it relates to the performance of computing systems. By identifying fundamental elements of the problem, we are able to categorize existing solutions based on multiple factors such as the detection goals, nature of applications and systems, system observability, and detection methods.