Yandex develops Perforator. It is touted as an innovative open-source tool for ongoing, real-time server and application monitoring and analysis.
Perforator offers comprehensive statistics for further optimization and assists developers in locating the code segments that require the greatest amount of resources.
Perforator provides precise data that helps companies to manually optimize their applications and cut infrastructure expenses by up to 20% by detecting code inefficiencies and facilitating profile-guided optimization. This might result in yearly savings of millions or perhaps billions, depending on the size of the company.
Why use Perforator?
For massive data centers, IT companies, startups, and small businesses with limited funding, resource optimization is essential. Businesses can use Perforator to maximize their current infrastructure without compromising performance rather than spending money on new equipment. For more than a year, the tool has been utilized for profiling in numerous Yandex services, and it is currently available to businesses, developers, and researchers globally.
By installing Perforator on their own servers, companies may reduce their dependency on outside cloud service providers while still having complete control over their data. Because of this, Perforator is a good choice for businesses with strict data security needs that use closed infrastructures.
How Perforator works
Perforator examines the effect of code on performance and offers comprehensive insights into server resource utilization, identifying the programs that use the most system resources. Perforator runs small programs inside the Linux kernel in a secure manner without causing system lag by utilizing eBPF technology. Better security, monitoring, and performance optimization are made possible by eBPF without requiring source code changes.
Native programming languages including C, C++, Go, Rust, Python, and Java are supported by Perforator. The technology makes problem diagnostics considerably easier to handle by enabling in-depth analytics and data visualization with flame graphs.
One of Perforator’s key advantages is its support for profile-guided optimization (PGO), which automatically accelerates C++ programs by up to 10%. Additionally, Perforator is designed to run seamlessly on individual computers, making it accessible not only to large businesses but also to startups and tech enthusiasts.
Furthermore, Perforator offers essential features tailored for large organizations, including A/B testing capabilities that help make better-informed decisions.
Open-source solution for developers and businesses
The decision to make Perforator open source reflects Yandex’s commitment to fostering community collaboration in developing system technologies.
What’s next?
In the near future, Perforator will be enhanced with additional capabilities, including improved integration with Python and Java and more precise analysis of events.
Perforator’s source code is now available on GitHub, alongside other Yandex open-source solutions, such as YaFSDP, a tool designed to accelerate the training of large language models.
Perforator is the latest addition to Yandex’s collection of open-source tools. You can view all of the company’s open-source projects, including YaFSDP, AQLM, YTsaurus, and more, on this page.
Leadership Comments
“Perforator helps businesses get the most out of their servers without sacrificing performance,” said Sergey Skvortsov, a senior developer at Yandex who leads the team behind the tool. “Using Perforator, businesses can optimize their code, reduce server load, and ultimately lower energy and equipment costs.”
“Perforator can benefit companies of all sizes, from small businesses with 10-100 servers, which can save millions of dollars per year, to larger enterprises with thousands of servers and more, where savings can reach hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars annually” Sergey Skvortsov noted. “Regardless of your company size, Perforator can help you reduce infrastructure costs, freeing up resources for further innovation and growth.”
“Perforator has been battle-tested in Yandex’s demanding environment for over a year and provides a wide range of features that make it a reliable and versatile solution for monitoring and optimizing server performance,” Sergey Skvortsov added.
“We believe that open-sourcing such fundamental system technologies helps drive tech innovation worldwide.”
— Sergey Skvortsov.
“We aim for our technologies to benefit the world and provide value to both developers and businesses. Additionally, the openness of the technology enables us to make decisions regarding the development of the profiling infrastructure together with the community.”
