Supported Features
This distro packages the Apache SkyWalking OAP server as a GraalVM native image with a
fixed module set. All modules and providers are selected at build time — there is no
runtime SPI discovery or dynamic module loading.
What’s Included
Storage
| Provider |
Status |
| BanyanDB |
Included (default) |
| Elasticsearch |
Not included |
| H2 / MySQL / PostgreSQL / OpenSearch |
Not included |
Cluster
| Provider |
Status |
| Standalone |
Included (default) |
| Kubernetes |
Included |
| ZooKeeper / Consul / Etcd / Nacos |
Not included |
Configuration
| Provider |
Status |
| none |
Included |
| k8s-configmap |
Included (default) |
| Apollo / Consul / Etcd / Nacos / ZooKeeper / gRPC |
Not included |
Data Receivers
All receivers are included:
| Receiver |
Protocol |
Notes |
| Trace (SkyWalking) |
gRPC |
Java, .NET, Go, Python, Node.js, PHP, Rust, Ruby agents |
| JVM Metrics |
gRPC |
Java agent JVM metrics |
| CLR Metrics |
gRPC |
.NET CLR metrics |
| Meter (SkyWalking) |
gRPC |
Custom meter protocol |
| Log |
gRPC / HTTP |
SkyWalking log protocol |
| Browser |
gRPC |
Browser JS agent |
| Event |
gRPC |
K8s events, custom events |
| Profile |
gRPC |
On-demand profiling |
| Async Profiler |
gRPC |
Java async-profiler |
| pprof |
gRPC |
Go pprof profiling |
| OpenTelemetry |
gRPC / HTTP (OTLP) |
Traces, metrics and logs. Traces are analyzed by TAL and stored natively (otlp_span, queried through TraceQL /otlp), or converted to Zipkin with SW_OTEL_TRACE_STORAGE=zipkin |
| Envoy / Istio ALS |
gRPC |
Access log service (HTTP and TCP entries), metrics |
| Zipkin |
HTTP |
Zipkin v2 spans (disabled by default) |
| Zabbix |
TCP |
Zabbix agent protocol (disabled by default) |
| Telegraf |
gRPC |
Telegraf metrics |
| AWS Firehose |
HTTP |
CloudWatch metrics via Firehose |
| Kafka Fetcher |
Kafka |
Traces, metrics, logs from Kafka (disabled by default) |
| Cilium Fetcher |
gRPC |
Hubble flow data (disabled by default) |
| eBPF |
gRPC |
eBPF profiling data (Rover) |
Query APIs
| API |
Port |
Notes |
| GraphQL |
12800 |
Primary query API for SkyWalking UI |
| PromQL |
9090 |
Prometheus-compatible query |
| LogQL |
3100 |
Loki-compatible log query |
| Zipkin |
9412 |
Zipkin v2 query API (disabled by default) |
| TraceQL |
3200 |
Tempo-compatible trace query for Grafana; /otlp (native OTLP spans), /zipkin and /skywalking datasources (disabled by default) |
| Status |
17128 |
Cluster / alarm / TTL status + /debugging/* debug-query trace, on the admin-server host (relocated from the query plugin in 11.0.0) |
| Inspect |
17128 |
SWIP-14 metric catalog + entity enumeration (/inspect/*), on the admin-server host |
| UI Management |
17128 |
Dashboard-template REST (/ui-management/*) consumed by the Horizon UI, on the admin-server host |
Analyzers
| Analyzer |
Included |
| Agent Analyzer (SkyWalking agent traces and meters, MAL) |
Yes |
| Log Analyzer (LAL) |
Yes |
| Trace Analyzer (TAL: OTLP spans into services, topology, metrics and slow statements) |
Yes — rules compiled at build time, see Configuration |
| iOS / iPadOS span analysis (OpenTelemetry Swift SDK) |
Yes |
| GenAI Analyzer (virtual GenAI services from LLM-call spans) |
Yes |
| AI Evaluation (SWIP-16 LLM-as-judge) |
Yes (disabled by default) |
| AI Agent Conversations (AI Sessionizer files) |
Yes |
| Event Analyzer |
Yes |
Other Modules
| Module |
Status |
| Alarm |
Included (webhook, gRPC hooks) |
| Telemetry |
Prometheus (self-monitoring metrics on port 1234) |
| Exporter |
Included (disabled by default) |
| Health Checker |
Included |
| AI Pipeline |
Included (baseline prediction) |
| DSL live debugger (SWIP-13) |
Included — sampling sessions over the bundled MAL/LAL/OAL rules, probes compiled in at build time |
TLS
The same settings as upstream. gRPC TLS runs on the JDK TLS provider instead of OpenSSL
(netty_tcnative): the distro replaces DynamicSslContext with a SslProvider.JDK copy.
| Endpoint |
Settings |
Status |
Agent gRPC (11800) |
SW_CORE_GRPC_SSL_* |
TLS (ssl e2e). As upstream, no client certificate is asked for: SW_CORE_GRPC_SSL_TRUSTED_CA_PATH is the CA OAP nodes trust when they call each other |
Receiver gRPC (SW_RECEIVER_GRPC_PORT) |
SW_RECEIVER_GRPC_SSL_* |
TLS; mTLS with SW_RECEIVER_GRPC_SSL_TRUSTED_CAS_PATH (mtls e2e) |
| REST servers |
SW_*_REST_SSL_* |
HTTPS |
| OAP → BanyanDB |
SW_STORAGE_BANYANDB_SSL_TRUST_CA_PATH |
TLS, CA reloaded on rotation (banyandb-ca-rotation e2e) |
Optional Modules
These modules are disabled by default. Enable them with environment variables:
| Module |
Enable With |
| Zipkin Receiver |
SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN=default |
| Zipkin Query |
SW_QUERY_ZIPKIN=default |
| Zabbix Receiver |
SW_RECEIVER_ZABBIX=default |
| Kafka Fetcher |
SW_KAFKA_FETCHER=default |
| Cilium Fetcher |
SW_CILIUM_FETCHER=default |
| Exporter |
SW_EXPORTER=default |
| TraceQL |
SW_TRACEQL=default (plus SW_TRACEQL_ENABLE_DATASOURCE_OTLP=true etc. per datasource) |
| AI Evaluation |
SW_AI_EVALUATION=default |
The Trace Analyzer (TAL) is on by default; SW_TRACE_ANALYZER=- removes it, and OTLP spans are then stored without
analysis.
Known Limitations
DSL Rules Are Read-Only (Live Debugger Yes, Hot-Update No)
All MAL / LAL / OAL / TAL rules are pre-compiled at build time. The precompiler compiles the SWIP-13
debug probes into every MAL / LAL / OAL rule class (the same codegen switch the upstream OAP flips at boot), so
the live debugger works on the bundled rules; only runtime-rule hot-update, which generates
bytecode at runtime, is unavailable. TAL rules have no debug probes upstream either, and upstream has no
runtime-rule catalog for them; to change them, edit the files under tal/ and rebuild (see
Configuration):
| Admin API |
Status |
/dsl-debugging/* (SWIP-13 live debugger: sessions over MAL, LAL and OAL rules) |
Supported on the bundled rules |
GET /runtime/oal/files, /runtime/oal/files/{name}, /runtime/oal/rules[/{source}] |
Supported (upstream handler) |
GET /runtime/rule/list, /runtime/rule/bundled, GET /runtime/rule (YAML + X-Sw-* headers) |
Supported: every shipped rule, always BUNDLED |
POST /runtime/rule/addOrUpdate, /inactivate, /delete, GET /runtime/rule/dump, /runtime/mal/*, /runtime/lal/* |
HTTP 501 (runtime-rule hot-update) |
The Horizon UI’s DSL catalog, editor, OAL and live-debug pages therefore work against this distro;
saving or deleting a rule is refused with a structured 501. SW_DSL_DEBUGGING_INJECTION_ENABLED
only gates the debug API here — the probes are always compiled in. Use the upstream JVM OAP
distribution if you need hot-update.
Differences from Upstream SkyWalking
| Aspect |
Upstream |
This Distro |
| Runtime |
JVM (JDK 11+) |
GraalVM native image |
| Startup |
Compiles DSL rules at boot (~30s) |
Pre-compiled at build time (instant) |
| Binary |
~200MB+ of JARs + JVM |
~203MB self-contained binary |
| Storage |
ES, BanyanDB, H2, MySQL, PG, … |
BanyanDB only |
| Cluster |
ZK, K8s, Consul, Etcd, Nacos |
Standalone, K8s |
| Config |
All dynamic config providers |
K8s ConfigMap or none |
| Module loading |
SPI discovery at runtime |
Fixed at build time |
| DSL rules |
Hot-update + live debugger |
Live debugger on bundled rules; read-only catalogs; no hot-update |
| TLS/SSL |
gRPC TLS on OpenSSL (netty_tcnative) |
Same settings; gRPC TLS on the JDK TLS provider |
Compatibility
- SkyWalking agents: All official SkyWalking agents are compatible (Java, .NET, Go, Python, Node.js, PHP, Rust, Ruby, C++, Satellite)
- SkyWalking UI: Fully compatible — use the Horizon UI, the official UI since SkyWalking 11.0.0
- OpenTelemetry: OTLP traces, metrics and logs via gRPC and HTTP; traces analyzed by TAL
- Grafana: TraceQL (Tempo) datasource when
traceQL is enabled
- Zipkin: Zipkin v2 API (receiver + query) when enabled
- Prometheus: PromQL query API for Grafana integration
- BanyanDB: Requires BanyanDB as the storage backend
Architecture
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ SkyWalking GraalVM Native OAP │
Agents ──gRPC──────►│ │
OTLP ──gRPC/HTTP───►│ Receivers → Analyzers → Storage │──► BanyanDB
Zipkin ──HTTP──────►│ │
│ Query APIs (GraphQL/PromQL/...) │◄── SkyWalking UI
│ Alarm → Webhooks │
└──────────────────────────────────┘
(Experimental) GraalVM Distro