Using dependency graph and graph theory concepts to identify anti-patterns in a microservices system: A tool-based approach

Visualizing Anti-Patterns in Microservices at Runtime: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…Gammage et. al [12] introduce an algorithm that utilizes graph theory to detect anti-patterns such as the bottleneck, the knot, and cyclic dependencies. This paper builds upon the existing knowledge of graph elements, such as strongly connected components, to provide a way for detecting anti-patterns.…”

“…Visualizing the architecture of a system is of great benefit to those who want a complete view of the architecture. The most basic way of visually describing a microservicebased system is through a graph [12], [33]. Having a node representing a service, and an edge representing the communication between services, allows for a simple understanding of how the system is working at runtime.…”

“…Dependency Graph [12] Cyclic Dependency SDG [5], [6], [32], [36] TABLE 3: Methods of Visualizations For Each Microservice Antipattern a tool to have achieved visualization, it must include some diagram that a person could gain information from. We define tables, JSON files, and other textual descriptions to not be visualization.…”

“…Understanding and preventing anti-patterns in microservices is a necessity of any company that plans on utilizing microservices [11]. This task is not as easy as it sounds, however, since certain anti-patterns occur at runtime [12] and require dynamic analysis to be discovered. Dynamic analysis can also prove to be costly because of the amount of time it requires.…”

“…It is important to note that anti-patterns are not errors that result in a system crashing, rather they are typically design flaws that decrease the quality of service [19]. Many antipatterns were previously detected and categorized -such as a bottleneck, cyclic dependencies, knots, etc [12]. While these anti-patterns are known and have existed for some time now, one may wonder why they keep resurfacing.…”