An Empirical Evaluation of the Energy and Performance Overhead of Monitoring Tools on Docker-Based Systems

Context. Energy efficiency is gaining importance in the design of software systems, but is still marginally addressed in the area of microservice-based systems. Energy-related aspects often get neglected in favor of other software quality attributes, such as performance, service composition, maintainability, and security. Goal. The aim of this study is to identify, synthesize and empirically evaluate the energy and performance overhead of monitoring tools employed in the microservices and DevOps context. Method. We selected four representative monitoring tools in the microservices and DevOps context. These were evaluated via a controlled experiment on an open-source Docker-based microservice benchmark system. Results. The results highlight: i) the specific frequency and workload conditions under which energy consumption and performance metrics are impacted by the tools; ii) the differences between the tools; iii) the relation between energy and performance overhead.