In this paper we describe the design and implementation of an integrated monitoring and debugging system for a distributed real‐time computer system. The monitor provides continuous, transparent monitoring capabilities throughout a real‐time system's lifecycle with bounded, minimal, predictable interference by using software support. The monitor is flexible enough to observe both high‐level events that are operating system‐ and application‐specific, as well as low‐level events such as shared variable references. We present a novel approach to monitoring shared variable references that provides transparent monitoring with low overhead. The monitor is designed to support tasks such as debugging realtime applications, aiding real‐time task scheduling, and measuring system performance. Since debugging distributed real‐time applications is particularly difficult, we describe how the monitor can be used to debug distributed and parallel applications by deterministic execution replay.

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