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 (OTLP)	Metrics + Logs via OTLP
Envoy / Istio ALS	gRPC	Access log service, 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)
Status	12800	Debugging and status queries

Analyzers

Analyzer	Included
Trace Analyzer	Yes
Log Analyzer (LAL)	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)

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

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

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 standard SkyWalking Booster UI
• OpenTelemetry: OTLP metrics and logs via gRPC
• 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────────►│  Receivers → Analyzers → Storage │──► BanyanDB
Zipkin ──HTTP──────►│                                  │
                    │  Query APIs (GraphQL/PromQL/...)  │◄── SkyWalking UI
                    │  Alarm → Webhooks                │
                    └──────────────────────────────────┘