SkyWalking GraalVM Distro (Experimental)

Apache SkyWalking is an open-source APM and observability platform for distributed systems, providing metrics, tracing, logging, and profiling capabilities.

SkyWalking GraalVM Distro is a distribution of the same Apache SkyWalking OAP server, compiled as a GraalVM native image on JDK 25. It moves all dynamic code generation (OAL, MAL, LAL, Hierarchy via ANTLR4 + Javassist) and classpath scanning from runtime to build time, producing a ~203MB self-contained native binary with the full OAP feature set. No upstream source modifications required.

Key Differences from Upstream

• Native binary instead of JVM — instant startup, ~512MB memory footprint
• BanyanDB only — the sole supported storage backend
• Fixed module set — modules selected at build time, no SPI discovery
• Pre-compiled DSL — all DSL rules compiled at build time; the rule catalogs and the live debugger work, runtime hot-update does not

All existing SkyWalking agents, UI, and tooling work unchanged.

Quick Start

docker run -d \
  -p 12800:12800 \
  -p 11800:11800 \
  -e SW_STORAGE_BANYANDB_TARGETS=<banyandb-host>:17912 \
  apache/skywalking-graalvm-distro:latest

Docker Images

Available for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon) native binary is available on the GitHub Release page.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at skywalking.apache.org/docs.

License

Apache License 2.0