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Netflix Zuul

Zuul is Netflix's cloud gateway, handling all cloud ingress traffic. It is open source at github.com/Netflix/zuul.

Role as attribution ground truth

In the 2025 eBPF flow-log attribution rebuild, Zuul served as the validation target because:

  • It has an extensive footprint — every cloud ingress request flows through it.
  • It has a very large number of downstream dependencies.
  • Its dependencies are derivable from routing configuration — i.e. an independent ground truth exists, separate from the flow logs themselves.

"We analyzed the flow logs of a large service with well-understood dependencies. A large footprint is necessary, as misattribution is more prevalent in services with numerous instances, and there must be a reliable method to determine the dependencies for this service without relying on flow logs."

Before / after validation

Period Misattribution rate
Previous (Sonar event-based) system ~40% of Zuul's reported dependencies
New (heartbeat time-range) system, 2-week window 0

"We found no misattribution for flows through Zuul over a two-week window. This provided strong confidence that the new attribution method has eliminated misattribution."

Seen in

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