Advanced Topics and Go Integration

Observability

eBPF observability - production debugging and monitoring.

Observability

Course: Discover eBPF

eBPF observability with Pixie, Kubescape, Tetragon. Not required for XDP development but useful for debugging in production.

Tools

ToolUsage
PixieKubernetes cluster observability (automatic telemetry)
TetragonSecurity observability (process lifecycle, network, file)
KubescapeKubernetes security scanning + eBPF runtime
bpftopReal-time eBPF program monitoring

Reading: Cilium Performance Tuning - eBPF program optimization examples.


Resources and Further Reading

Source: Cilium BPF Resources

Projects

  • BCC: Python-based BPF tracing toolkit
  • bpftrace: DTrace-like high-level tracing language
  • libbpf: BPF loader library in the kernel
  • cilium/ebpf: Pure BPF library for Go (bpf2go)
  • Cilium: Container networking + security
  • Katran: Facebook L4 load balancer (XDP)
  • Suricata: Network IDS/IPS (uses BPF/XDP)

Talks & Videos

  • Facebook SHIV/Droplet (netdev 2.1) - XDP DDoS mitigation
  • Cloudflare XDP (netdev 2.1) - Production XDP
  • DockerCon 2017 Cilium - BPF + XDP intro
  • eBPF & Cilium Office Hours - YouTube series

Book

  • BPF Performance Tools (Brendan Gregg, 2019) - Tracing-focused but covers BPF internals well

Kernel FAQ

  • BPF Devel FAQ: Patch submission, kernel tree workflow
  • BPF Design FAQ: Instruction set, verifier, JIT design decisions

Blog Posts

  • Brendan Gregg’s BPF articles: brendangregg.com
  • Cloudflare BPF articles: blog.cloudflare.com
  • Cilium blog: cilium.io/blog

When to read: When you want to go deeper on a specific topic or see production examples.

Distributed Resources Reference

These resources are referenced in their respective sections:

ResourceSection
iximiuz Networking FundamentalsByte Order + Network Tracing
XDP PaperDNS Parsing (preparation for XDP)
Cilium BPF ArchitectureDeep Dive
Facebook BPF FirewallIP Blocklist
Unimog BlogLoad Balancing
Cilium Network ConceptsProgram Types
Cilium Performance TuningAdvanced Topics
XFRM from CiliumDeep Dive (BPF Architecture)