End-to-end tracing providers and session management

A system for end-to-end tracing, the system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• a data repository for storing a plurality of provider lists;
• instructions for causing the computer processor to:
• receive, from a user node, a request for a tracing session, the request comprising an argument and a provider identifier for the tracing session;
• obtaining a user identifier for the request;
• determine that a number of pending tracing sessions for the user identifier is less than a maximum number of allotted tracing sessions for the user identifier;
• in response to determining that the number of pending tracing sessions is less than the maximum number of allotted tracing sessions, initiate tracing of at least one application executing on a plurality of compute nodes by sending the argument to a provider identified by the provider identifier, the provider located on each of the plurality of compute nodes,
• wherein the provider issues a call to an agent that enables a plurality of probes in the at least one application, and
• wherein the provider comprises a spans specification comprising a predefined start event type that triggers a start of a span and a predefined end event type that triggers an end of the span;
• receive a plurality of event reports from the plurality of compute nodes;
• combine the plurality of event reports into a tracing information for the tracing session;
• and
• send the tracing information to the user node.

A non-transitory computer readable medium for end-to-end tracing, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code for:

• receiving, from a user node, a request for a tracing session, the request comprising an argument and a provider identifier for the tracing session;
• obtaining a user identifier for the request;
• determining that a number of pending tracing sessions for the user identifier is less than a maximum number of allotted tracing sessions for the user identifier;
• in response to determining that the number of pending tracing sessions is less than the maximum number of allotted tracing sessions, initiating tracing of at least one application executing on a plurality of compute nodes by sending the argument to a provider identified by the provider identifier, the provider located on each of the plurality of compute nodes,
• wherein the provider issues a call to an agent that enables a plurality of probes in the at least one application, and
• wherein the provider comprises a spans specification comprising a predefined start event type that triggers a start of a span and a predefined end event type that triggers an end of the span;
• receiving a plurality of event reports from the plurality of compute nodes;
• combining the plurality of event reports into a tracing information for the tracing session;
• and
• sending the tracing information to the user node.