Understanding the APM Icicle Diagram in SolarWinds Observability | Trace and Span Analysis

This video provides a detailed walkthrough of the APM Icicle Diagram in SolarWinds® Observability, demonstrating how traces, spans, and span layers are visualized and analyzed to understand application performance behavior. The demonstration covers the following: • Trace Visualization: An overview of the captured trace and the Detail graph, which represents the sequence of calls executed to fulfill the initial request. Each rectangle corresponds to a Span, organized into Span Layers. The width of each Span indicates its duration, with parent spans at the top and dependent spans displayed underneath. Asynchronous calls are also represented, with timing based on their overall execution window. • Span Inspection and Code Profiling: By selecting a Span, you can examine the raw data associated with that call. This view also provides access to code profiling data, enabling deeper analysis of performance hotspots and execution paths. • Span Layer Table: A tabular breakdown displays the relative start time of each Span Layer, total duration, percentage of total trace time, number of spans within each layer, and any associated errors. This provides a structured view of trace behavior beyond the visual diagram. • Queries Tab: Queries are grouped into Query Digests, showing execution counts, average execution time, and total time spent across the trace. This helps identify query patterns that may be affecting performance. • Errors Tab: For traces containing failures, the Errors tab highlights the Span Layer linked to the error, along with the service and occurrence timestamp. The Overview chart also marks error occurrences for quick visual identification. • Logs Tab: All logs associated with the trace are shown by automatically filtering on the injected Trace ID. This provides a correlated view of logs, spans, and trace activity in a single workflow. This video is intended for developers, DevOps engineers, SREs, and performance analysts who rely on distributed tracing and application performance monitoring to diagnose bottlenecks, identify anomalies, and understand application behavior within SolarWinds Observability. Connect with SolarWinds: THWACK IT Community: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SolarWinds Twitter: https://twitter.com/solarwinds LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/solarwinds Instagram: http://instagram.com/solarwindsinc/