Breadcrumbs provide per-HTTP transaction visibility into the Akamai platform, regardless of how deep within that platform the transaction is and simplifies log review for troubleshooting.
Why do you need it?
- It helps Akamai help you troubleshoot problems. Troubleshooting streaming issues typically requires that you contact Akamai and provide client-side and edge IP information. Akamai consults log information, along with some amount of back and forth communication to diagnose the issue. Breadcrumbs provide more real-time visibility into the Akamai network, to better help us troubleshoot your issues. While Akamai support can simply look at a specific line in a specific log file to identify a problem, they have to locate this “specific” content in the logs. With Breadcrumbs, a potential problem is specifically written as a Breadcrumbs line in the logs, making it easier to locate.
- Leverage Breadcrumbs data through your player. If your media player can support it, you can configure your player to get real-time insight regarding the Akamai network. Breadcrumbs include data such as network health and the location in the Akamai network (“geo”) used to serve content. You can aggregate this data from your player to a central location for review.
The actual root cause of an issue may not always be identifiable via the Breadcrumbs behavior.