Using the Golang Pprof Web UI to Debug Memory Usage
Blog post from Honeycomb
Golang has become a popular language for various applications, and at Honeycomb, the new pprof web UI has been utilized to enhance observability in Golang programs. The article discusses using the new pprof UI to address a memory usage issue in the honeyelb program, which integrates with AWS Elastic Load Balancer to analyze access logs. The pprof tool, installed alongside graphviz, allows for interactive profiling in a web browser, helping identify memory-intensive functions such as libhoney.NewEvent and runtime methods related to map usage. By using the UI to refine the analysis, it was discovered that excessive Publisher structs were being spun up, leading to unnecessary memory consumption, which was then rectified. The piece emphasizes the importance of an observability mindset, using tools like pprof and Honeycomb to proactively address and prepare for system issues, reducing unknowns and enhancing system understanding.