Live Debugger

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Overview
1-min read

Live Debugger is a cloud-native, live data collection application that gives you instant access to the code-level data you need to troubleshoot and debug quickly in any environment, from dev to production.

You can access the necessary and relevant data without adding additional code, waiting for redeploy, or attempting to reproduce issues locally.
Using non-breaking breakpoints, you can instantly see the complete state of your app, including stack trace, variable values, and more, all without stopping or breaking your running code.

Dynatrace SaaS environment with a Dynatrace Platform Subscription (DPS) that includes Code Monitoring.
OneAgent version 1.309+ with Java Live-Debugger and Node.js Live-Debugger OneAgent features enabled.
Monitoring Modes: Full-Stack, Infrastructure, or Discovery (with container code-module injection).
Code modules: Java and Node.js.

Real-time snapshot of debug data created once a non-breaking breakpoint has been triggered.

Real-time snapshots with JetBrains PlugIn

1 of 3Real-time snapshot of debug data created once a non-breaking breakpoint has been triggered.

Activate the Live Debugger feature

These steps should only be performed once. After enabling the Live Debugger feature for the first time, a restart of any affected process is required.

To activate the Live Debugger feature

Go to Settings > Collect and capture > General monitoring settings > OneAgent features.
Enable the Java Live-Debugger, Node.js Live-Debugger, or both, depending on your needs.
Restart any process that is affected.

Start live debugging an application

To use the Live Debugger, you must opt-in to Observability for Developers. You can enable it for specific process groups, Kubernetes namespaces, clusters, or for the entire environment.

Go to Settings > Collect and capture > Observability for Developers > Enable Observability for Developers.

On Process group overview, select Settings.
Go to Collect and capture > Observability for Developers > Enable Observability for Developers.

Go to Kubernetes.
Select a namespace or cluster.
Select in the top-right corner, then select Connection settings, or, if not available Anomaly detection settings.
Go to Observability for Developers > Enable Observability for Developers.

To start your live debugging session, open Live Debugger and go to Customize your debug session by selecting Debug Configuration in the upper-left corner of the application.

To scope the instances you would like to debug, you can add one or more filters from the Facets/Categories, use the search bar, or choose a filter within the application properties.

Fetch source code

Windows: 7, 8, 8/1 aren't supported.
Mac: All versions are supported.

Each debug session must contain the application source code you're about to debug. Live Debugger lets you quickly load sources from your local file system and Git provider. When you integrate your source code into Live Debugger, it remains between your code repository and your local browser.

There are two main ways to import your source code:

Automatic fetching

Live Debugger can connect to a repository and automatically fetch the source code for the selected instance.

Your repository may be automatically fetched for the selected instance based on your git permissions, if your admin has already set it up.

To learn more about automatic fetching, see Integrate with your version control.

Manual fetching

Live Debugger lets you easily load your relevant source code into the application.

Select the + icon on the upper-right corner of the Set up your session page to open a list of the supported git providers from which you can fetch sources.
Live Debugger includes a desktop application that can access source repositories from your local file system. This allows you to fetch source code from locally hosted Git providers. When selecting your source code, you can find the desktop application's installation file in Live Debugger.

Live Debugger integrates directly with the cloud editions of the following Git providers, both on-premises and SaaS:

Github
BitBucket
GitLab
Azure DevOps

To enable Live Debugger to integrate with your Git provider

Go to Settings > Dynatrace Apps > Git On-Premise Servers.
Select Add item.
- Git Provider: Specify your Git provider.
- Server URL: Provide your server's HTTP/HTTPS URL.
Select Save changes.
- To use BitBucket On-Premises, install the desktop application (see the Manual Fetching section above).

Place a non-breaking breakpoint

To get real-time code-level data

Select the service you want to debug.
Navigate to the file system.
Set a non-breaking breakpoint on the line of code you want to debug.

Non-breaking breakpoints are reference breakpoints for the lines of code from which you want to collect debug data. These breakpoints won't stop your code from running. Instead, they will carry the debug data collection request. Placing these breakpoints and receiving the derived snapshots won't affect your application or its users.

After placing a non-breaking breakpoint, ensure your code has been triggered, so the data will be collected and appear immediately in the application.

See the debug data

Once the non-breaking breakpoint is triggered, the collected data will be displayed as snapshot items in the lower-left panel. By selecting a specific snapshot, you can view

All local variables and their values
Process information
The complete stack trace leading to the breakpoint
Tracing information from the running application

You can also debug code up the stack from the stack trace view, including third-party components.

Application Observability

The inability to access code-level data on demand is a challenge that most developers face when troubleshooting and debugging application issues. Instead, they have to go through long deployment cycles and investigation of logs to find the relevant data they need to understand what's going on in their running code.

To avoid this, it's essential to give them a solution that offers instant access to the data they need, no matter the environment.

Live Debugger

The Live Debugger application is a cloud-native debugging and live data collection solution that gives instant access to the code-level debug data you need to troubleshoot and understand complex, modern applications with no extra coding, redeployments, or restarts.

Live Debugger can be used in any environment, from development to production, and at any time, to instantly access the real-time data needed to get to the root cause of issues faster.

Dynamic logging

Developer teams often try to log as much as possible, as they are often not sure what data will be needed to debug an issue. This generates many unneeded logs and horrid signal/noise ratios.

By shifting their logging mindset to Live Debugging, teams can reduce logging costs and, most importantly, the heavy effort required to support intense logging pipelines and cleanups.

Development collaboration

Collected debug data can be shared among team members when debugging application issues. This allows team members to have their own view of collected debug data and share that data with other team members for improved collaboration.

As a result, Live Debugger can become a single source of truth, the go-to place for developers to see reality as it is and collaborate on it.

On-demand trace inspection

Live Debugger collects an object representation of traces used by your application. Developers can then correlate captured debug data with tracing data from your application.

Dev training and onboarding

Understanding new code can be challenging. It is twice as tricky when it's legacy code or, as often occurs, code written by someone else.

Live Debugger lets developers speed up their learning process by allowing them to observe unfamiliar code running in its native environment.

Use cases

Capture real-time debug data

Instantly understand the state of your application using non-breaking breakpoints and get instant output, including your full stack trace, local and global variables, tracing data and context, and server metrics (CPU, memory, time measurements, and more).

Troubleshoot faster

Instantly debug the most complex flows.
Fix bugs with zero friction, overhead, or risk.
Get real-time data without stopping your app.
Gain visibility into third-party dependencies and overcome debugging challenges from using open source components, external dependencies, or your legacy code.

Dev-friendly debugging experience

Empower your developers with on-demand access to code-level data.
Get full visibility into your code with a simple and intuitive experience. Optimize R&D efficiency: Spend less time fixing bugs and more time developing value for your organization and customers.
Never leave your comfort zone with the choice of either an IDE plugin or the Live Debugger web app.

Test and optimize your code faster

Instantly understand if specific line of code was reached at all with exploratory analytics

Live Debugger

Activate the Live Debugger feature

Start live debugging an application

Fetch source code

Automatic fetching

Manual fetching

Place a non-breaking breakpoint

See the debug data

Application Observability

Live Debugger

Dynamic logging

Development collaboration

On-demand trace inspection

Dev training and onboarding

Use cases

Capture real-time debug data

Troubleshoot faster

Dev-friendly debugging experience

Test and optimize your code faster

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