A Double Act - A Tale of Two Virtual Machines

Hello!my name is

Duke.

Finally!as a

reminder?

Are you OK? Why

are you standing upside down?

sorry about that. Hi, I'm Simz.

I'm also you.

Well, not exactly, But to an external observer

I'm the duke.

whatever activity you

perform i can simulate it in realtime --

-- much like A dancer does with a dance

teacher.

Why doES there need to be two of me doing the exact same thing, at the exact same time?

wait just a minute. are you saying that

you'll repeat my every action including bank

transactions?

Perhaps it's best to see me as your reflection in the mirror when it

comes to such matters..

so you are not real?

how do you define

"real"?

if real is creating,

starting, and stopping

threads --

-- pushing and popping call frames, on and off a call stack, in sync --

-- then the reality is, at

least it's perception, i'm as real

as you.

don't worry, to me the world is truly immutable in

that regard.

every ending has a new beginning

vol 1 Issue 1

perception is reality

can you read my mind? Do you

know what i'm thinking of

at this moment?

don't think about…

yes and no.

I can't read your mind or access any of your

internal memories including those holding

passwords.

but over time in repeating your

execution I've come to understand you…possibly better

than you yourself. this allows me to predict what

you might do nextincluding asking such a question?

because I don't need your actual code

to imitate your actions i take up less heap and consume far less CPU.

a kind of mini-me! sorry.

I mean a mini-you.

Most observers will see me

much the same way they see you.

A kind of oracle?

not sure i like the sound of

that.

No. i want to

help turn you into a better

duke.

a duke that's far more

adaptive and learns from

past behavior.

it might take time. I'll come backto that later.

here take a cookie.

That all sounds cool

but what purpose does

it serve?

why have two of us around,

especially as you don't do the actual work

that i do.

security is one very

good reason.

since I can mirror your behavior

observation is bothsafe and secure.

observers won't know of your exact

site location --

-- and they won't be able to

perturb your operation.

can't that be done today by simply restricting access to

the machine I execute on?

yes that has been the way for a long time but it has

created its own set of problems including the inability to understand and manage the increasing complexity of IT systems driven in large part by

the need to be ever more "agile".

the developers that engineered you need to have

continuous access to behavioral and performance related

information to better understand the emerging system dynamics

in production.charts and logs

won't cut it. it has got to appear real.

Simz stands in front of duke

do you know what a security

sandbox is?

please don't get me started on sandboxes.

Good. well, simulation,

the projection of your spirit into another

remote virtual machine, takes this to a whole

new level.

the ghost in the machine

we learn from experience.

real or otherwise. it prepares us for those scary moments when

the unexpected happens.

this reminds me of "pair programming"

but instead for JVM runtimes.

yes. but there is an important

difference.

when you stop

I'll continue.

you're not the

first "duke" i've met.

there have been others before you.

unfortunately with bugs that ended them. one

purpose I serve is in preventing

detrimental behavior from reoccurring.

i can supervise and help you

adapt.

the matrix - balancing the equation

how does this happen?

what must i do.

...open a socket?

nothing. probes,

which monitor your activity,

will be injected into your

methods by A JVM runtime

agent.

once a link has been established the probes

will emit events which are then used to drive the

simulation engine.

an adaptive mechanism ensures that the link is

not overloaded withbehavioral noise.

are you ready?

linking.

link broken

infinite loopCool!!!

We're in sync. say "hello" for me to whoever

is watching.

lets see can you copy this move.

a handstand…using only one arm! Here we go...

-- I was saying.I really wouldn't advise doing that.

i really need a break.

I'm waving.but before you

try doing --

duke interrupts a signal

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