The software described in this documentation is either in Extended Support or Sustaining Support. See https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/enterprise-linux-support-policies-069172.pdf for more information.
Oracle recommends that you upgrade the software described by this documentation as soon as possible.
DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing facility that was first developed for the Oracle Solaris operating system, and subsequently ported to Oracle Linux. DTrace allows you to explore your system to understand how it works, to track down performance problems across many layers of software, or to locate the causes of aberrant behavior.
Using DTrace, you can record data at locations of interest in the kernel, called probes. A probe is a location to which DTrace can bind a request to perform a set of actions, such as recording a stack trace, a timestamp, or the argument to a function. Probes function like programmable sensors that record information. When a probe is triggered, DTrace gathers data from it and reports the data back to you.
Using DTrace's D programming language, you can query the system probes to provide immediate, concise answers to arbitrary questions that you formulate.