Caution
Grafana Alloy is the new name for our distribution of the OTel collector. Grafana Agent has been deprecated and is in Long-Term Support (LTS) through October 31, 2025. Grafana Agent will reach an End-of-Life (EOL) on November 1, 2025. Read more about why we recommend migrating to Grafana Alloy.
Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.
pyroscope.ebpf
BETA: This is a beta component. Beta components are subject to breaking changes, and may be replaced with equivalent functionality that cover the same use case.
pyroscope.ebpf
configures an ebpf profiling job for the current host. The collected performance profiles are forwarded
to the list of receivers passed in forward_to
.
Note
To use thepyroscope.ebpf
component you must run Grafana Agent Flow as root and inside host pid namespace.
You can specify multiple pyroscope.ebpf
components by giving them different labels, however it is not recommended as
it can lead to additional memory and CPU usage.
Usage
pyroscope.ebpf "LABEL" {
targets = TARGET_LIST
forward_to = RECEIVER_LIST
}
Arguments
The component configures and starts a new ebpf profiling job to collect performance profiles from the current host.
You can use the following arguments to configure a pyroscope.ebpf
. Only the
forward_to
and targets
fields are required. Omitted fields take their default
values.
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
targets | list(map(string)) | List of targets to group profiles by container id | yes | |
forward_to | list(ProfilesReceiver) | List of receivers to send collected profiles to. | yes | |
collect_interval | duration | How frequently to collect profiles | 15s | no |
sample_rate | int | How many times per second to collect profile samples | 97 | no |
pid_cache_size | int | The size of the pid -> proc symbols table LRU cache | 32 | no |
build_id_cache_size | int | The size of the elf file build id -> symbols table LRU cache | 64 | no |
same_file_cache_size | int | The size of the elf file -> symbols table LRU cache | 8 | no |
container_id_cache_size | int | The size of the pid -> container ID table LRU cache | 1024 | no |
collect_user_profile | bool | A flag to enable/disable collection of userspace profiles | true | no |
collect_kernel_profile | bool | A flag to enable/disable collection of kernelspace profiles | true | no |
demangle | string | C++ demangle mode. Available options are: none , simplified , templates , full | none | no |
python_enabled | bool | A flag to enable/disable python profiling | true | no |
symbols_map_size | int | The size of eBPF symbols map | 16384 | no |
pid_map_size | int | The size of eBPF PID map | 2048 | no |
Exported fields
pyroscope.ebpf
does not export any fields that can be referenced by other
components.
Component health
pyroscope.ebpf
is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid
configuration.
Debug information
targets
currently tracked active targets.pid_cache
per process elf symbol tables and their sizes in symbols count.elf_cache
per build id and per same file symbol tables and their sizes in symbols count.
Debug metrics
pyroscope_fanout_latency
(histogram): Write latency for sending to direct and indirect components.pyroscope_ebpf_active_targets
(gauge): Number of active targets the component tracks.pyroscope_ebpf_profiling_sessions_total
(counter): Number of profiling sessions completed.pyroscope_ebpf_profiling_sessions_failing_total
(counter): Number of profiling sessions failed.pyroscope_ebpf_pprofs_total
(counter): Number of pprof profiles collected by the ebpf component.
Profile collecting behavior
The pyroscope.ebpf
component collects stack traces associated with a process running on the current host.
You can use the sample_rate
argument to define the number of stack traces collected per second. The default is 97.
The following labels are automatically injected into the collected profiles if you have not defined them. These labels can help you pin down a profiling target.
Label | Description |
---|---|
service_name | Pyroscope service name. It’s automatically selected from discovery meta labels if possible. Otherwise defaults to unspecified . |
__name__ | pyroscope metric name. Defaults to process_cpu . |
__container_id__ | The container ID derived from target. |
Targets
One of the following special labels must be included in each target of targets
and the label must correspond to the container or process that is profiled:
__container_id__
: The container ID.__meta_docker_container_id
: The ID of the Docker container.__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_id
: The ID of the Kubernetes pod container.__process_pid__
: The process ID.
Each process is then associated with a specified target from the targets list, determined by a container ID or process PID.
If a process’s container ID matches a target’s container ID label, the stack traces are aggregated per target based on the container ID. If a process’s PID matches a target’s process PID label, the stack traces are aggregated per target based on the process PID. Otherwise the process is not profiled.
Service name
The special label service_name
is required and must always be present. If it’s not specified, it is
attempted to be inferred from multiple sources:
__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_pyroscope_io_service_name
which is apyroscope.io/service_name
pod annotation.__meta_kubernetes_namespace
and__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name
__meta_docker_container_name
If service_name
is not specified and could not be inferred, it is set to unspecified
.
Troubleshooting unknown symbols
Symbols are extracted from various sources, including:
- The
.symtab
and.dynsym
sections in the ELF file. - The
.symtab
and.dynsym
sections in the debug ELF file. - The
.gopclntab
section in Go language ELF files.
The search for debug files follows gdb algorithm.
For example, if the profiler wants to find the debug file
for /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
with a .gnu_debuglink
set to libc.so.6.debug
and a build ID 0123456789abcdef
. The following paths are examined:
/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/01/0123456789abcdef.debug
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6.debug
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/.debug/libc.so.6.debug
/usr/lib/debug/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6.debug
Dealing with unknown symbols
Unknown symbols in the profiles you’ve collected indicate that the profiler couldn’t access an ELF file associated with a given address in the trace.
This can occur for several reasons:
- The process has terminated, making the ELF file inaccessible.
- The ELF file is either corrupted or not recognized as an ELF file.
- There is no corresponding ELF file entry in
/proc/pid/maps
for the address in the stack trace.
Addressing unresolved symbols
If you only see module names (e.g., /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
) without corresponding function names, this
indicates that the symbols couldn’t be mapped to their respective function names.
This can occur for several reasons:
- The binary has been stripped, leaving no .symtab, .dynsym, or .gopclntab sections in the ELF file.
- The debug file is missing or could not be located.
To fix this for your binaries, ensure that they are either not stripped or that you have separate debug files available. You can achieve this by running:
objcopy --only-keep-debug elf elf.debug
strip elf -o elf.stripped
objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=elf.debug elf.stripped elf.debuglink
For system libraries, ensure that debug symbols are installed. On Ubuntu, for example, you can install debug symbols
for libc
by executing:
apt install libc6-dbg
Understanding flat stack traces
If your profiles show many shallow stack traces, typically 1-2 frames deep, your binary might have been compiled without frame pointers.
To compile your code with frame pointers, include the -fno-omit-frame-pointer
flag in your compiler options.
Profiling interpreted languages
Profiling interpreted languages like Python, Ruby, JavaScript, etc., is not ideal using this implementation. The JIT-compiled methods in these languages are typically not in ELF file format, demanding additional steps for profiling. For instance, using perf-map-agent and enabling frame pointers for Java.
Interpreted methods will display the interpreter function’s name rather than the actual function.
Example
Kubernetes discovery
In the following example, performance profiles are collected from pods on the same node, discovered using
discovery.kubernetes
. Pod selection relies on the HOSTNAME
environment variable, which is a pod name if Grafana Agent is
used as a Grafana Agent Helm chart. The service_name
label is set
to {__meta_kubernetes_namespace}/{__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name}
from Kubernetes meta labels.
discovery.kubernetes "all_pods" {
role = "pod"
selectors {
field = "spec.nodeName=" + env("HOSTNAME")
role = "pod"
}
}
discovery.relabel "local_pods" {
targets = discovery.kubernetes.all_pods.targets
rule {
action = "drop"
regex = "Succeeded|Failed"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_pod_phase"]
}
rule {
action = "replace"
regex = "(.*)@(.*)"
replacement = "ebpf/${1}/${2}"
separator = "@"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_namespace", "__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name"]
target_label = "service_name"
}
rule {
action = "labelmap"
regex = "__meta_kubernetes_pod_label_(.+)"
}
rule {
action = "replace"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_namespace"]
target_label = "namespace"
}
rule {
action = "replace"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_pod_name"]
target_label = "pod"
}
rule {
action = "replace"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_node_name"]
target_label = "node"
}
rule {
action = "replace"
source_labels = ["__meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name"]
target_label = "container"
}
}
pyroscope.ebpf "local_pods" {
forward_to = [ pyroscope.write.endpoint.receiver ]
targets = discovery.relabel.local_pods.output
}
pyroscope.write "endpoint" {
endpoint {
url = "http://pyroscope:4100"
}
}
Docker discovery
The following example collects performance profiles from containers discovered by discovery.docker
and ignores all
other profiles collected from outside any docker container. The service_name
label is set to the
__meta_docker_container_name
label.
discovery.docker "linux" {
host = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"
}
discovery.relabel "local_containers" {
targets = discovery.docker.linux.targets
rule {
action = "replace"
source_labels = ["__meta_docker_container_name"]
target_label = "service_name"
}
}
pyroscope.write "staging" {
endpoint {
url = "http://pyroscope:4100"
}
}
pyroscope.ebpf "default" {
forward_to = [ pyroscope.write.staging.receiver ]
targets = discovery.relabel.local_containers.output
}
Compatible components
pyroscope.ebpf
can accept arguments from the following components:
- Components that export Targets
- Components that export Pyroscope
ProfilesReceiver
Note
Connecting some components may not be sensible or components may require further configuration to make the connection work correctly. Refer to the linked documentation for more details.