Multi-tenant aware debugging methods and systems

• US 10,296,440 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Gamble, Christopher David, Widjaja, Jonathan, Kaplan, Josh, Carr, Kevin, Boilen, Michael, Lipke, Nathan Edward, Chen, Nicholas Chun Yuan, Tamm, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Loc
• Application Number:
  US14/748,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,427 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for debugging application code in an on-demand multi-tenant database system. One exemplary method involves an application server receiving a request associated with application code in a database from a client device via a network, verifying that debugging associated with the request does not violate a debugging utilization criterion, and after verifying that debugging associated with the request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion, accessing the application code in the database in conjunction with the request.

Claims

1. A method of real-time debugging of an instance of a virtual application generated at run-time based at least in part on an application code in a database coupled to a plurality of application servers, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first application server of the plurality of application servers, a client request associated with the application code in the database from the instance of the virtual application provided by the first application server to a client device via a network;

verifying, by the first application server, creation of an active debugging session associated with the client request does not violate a debugging utilization criterion; and

after verifying that the active debugging session does not violate the debugging utilization criterion;

creating, by the first application server, an entry in a debug mapping table in the database to maintain an association between the instance of the virtual application from which client request originated, a network address associated with a debugger, and the first application server providing the instance of the virtual application to the client device; and

providing, by the first application server via the network to the network address associated with the debugger associated with the active debugging session, execution information associated with at least a portion of the application code in the database when execution of the application code by the first application server providing the instance of the virtual application stops, the execution information corresponding to a current execution state of the instance of the virtual application provided by the first application server to the client device;

receiving, at a second application server of the plurality of application servers, a debugging request received from the debugger;

redirecting, by the second application server, the debugging request received from the debugger to the first application server after accessing the debug mapping table and determining the debugging request pertains to the instance of the virtual application executing on the first application server based on the association between the active debugging session and the first application server;

executing, by the first application server, the portion of the application code in response to the debugging request to resume performance of the client request; and

providing, by the first application server to the debugger via the network, second execution information pertaining to an execution state of the instance of the virtual application corresponding to the first application server executing the portion of the application code as a response to the debugging request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a debug session request from the debugger on a second client device; and

inserting, by the first application server, one or more breakpoints in the application code in response to user input received from the debugger.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein verifying that the client request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion comprises verifying a current number of active debugging sessions associated with a user of the second client device is less than a maximum number of concurrent active debugging sessions.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein verifying that the client request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion comprises verifying a current resource usage associated with a user of the second client device is less than a threshold resource usage.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

instantiating, by the first application server, the active debugging session corresponding to the debug session request in the database after verifying that the debug session request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion; and

terminating the active debugging session after a threshold period of time has elapsed since receiving the debug session request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the first application server, the active debugging session corresponding to the client request; and

notifying, by the first application server, the debugger on a second client device based on an association between the active debugging session and the debugger.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the execution information comprises the first application server removing protected information associated with execution of the portion of the application code prior to providing the execution information to the debugger.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein:

redirecting the debugging request comprises the second application server providing a debugging execution request to the first application server associated with an instance of execution of the application code being debugged; and

executing the portion of the application code in response to the debugging request comprises the first application server executing at least a portion of the application code in accordance with the debugging execution request.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting, by the first application server, the client request matches the active debugging session maintained in the debug mapping table in the database, wherein:

the debug mapping table maintains an association between the active debugging session and the network address associated with the debugger; and

providing the execution information to the debugger comprises providing a notification including the execution information to the network address associated with the active debugging session.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the execution information comprises the first application server providing a notification to the debugger when execution of the application code encounters a breakpoint that pauses execution of the instance of the virtual application.

8. A method of debugging an application code associated with a first tenant of a plurality of tenants in a database of a multi-tenant database system supporting the plurality of tenants, the method comprising:

receiving, by the multi-tenant database system, a debug request associated with the application code in the database from a debugger on a first client device via a network;

verifying, by the multi-tenant database system, that the debug request does not violate a debugging utilization criterion;

after verifying that the debug request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion;

updating the database to instantiate an active debugging session associated with the debugger and the application code;

receiving, by a first application server of a plurality of application servers of the multi-tenant database system, a client request associated with the application code in the database from an instance of a client application on a second client device via the network, wherein the first application server generates the instance of the client application at run-time based at least in part on the application code; and

in response to determining the client request corresponds to the active debugging session;

creating, by the first application server, an entry in the debug mapping table in the database to maintain an association between the instance of the client application from which client request originated, a network address associated with a debugger, and the first application server providing the instance of the virtual application to the client device; and

providing, by the multi-tenant database system via the network to the network address associated with the debugger associated with the active debugging session, execution information pertaining to the client request based on the association between the debugger and the active debugging session, the execution information corresponding to a current execution state of the instance of the client application provided by the first application server to the client device when execution of the application code by the first application server providing the instance of the client application stops;

receiving, by a second application server of the plurality of application servers, a debugging execution request corresponding to the client request from the debugger on the first client device via the network;

redirecting, by the second application server, the debugging execution request received from the debugger to the first application server after accessing the debug mapping table and determining the debugging execution request pertains to the instance of the virtual application executing on the first application server based on an association between the active debugging session and the first application server;

executing, by the first application server, at least a portion of the application code based on the client request to resume performance of the client request in accordance with the debugging execution request; and

providing, by the first application server to the debugger on the first client device, second execution information pertaining to an execution state of the instance of the client application corresponding to the first application server executing at least the portion of the application code as a response to the debugging request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the debugger with execution information comprises removing protected information associated with execution of the client request prior to providing the execution information to the debugger.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the debugger with execution information pertaining to the client request comprises allowing the debugger to step through execution of the client request by the multi-tenant database system.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein verifying that the debug request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion comprises verifying a number of active debugging sessions associated with the first tenant is less than a maximum number of concurrent active debugging sessions for the first tenant.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein verifying that the debug request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion comprises verifying a resource usage metric associated with the first tenant is less than a threshold usage.

13. The method of claim 8, the debugger being associated with a user associated with the first tenant, wherein verifying that the debug request does not violate the debugging utilization criterion comprises verifying a number of active debugging sessions associated with the user is less than a threshold number.

14. A multi-tenant database system comprising:

a database to maintain application code associated with a first tenant of a plurality of tenants and including a debug mapping table maintaining an association between the application code and a debugging session associated with a debugger; and

a plurality of application servers coupled to the database and a network to receive a client request associated with the application code in the database via the network from an instance of a virtual application generated at run-time based at least in part on the application code at a first application server of the plurality of application servers, verify associating the client request with the debugging session does not violate a debugging utilization criterion, update the debug mapping table in the database to maintain an association between the debugging session, the instance of the virtual application from which client request originated, and the first application server, provide execution information corresponding to a current execution state of the instance of the virtual application provided by the first application server when execution of the application code stops to a network address associated with the debugger via the network based on the association between the application code and the debugging session, and redirect a debugging execution request received from the debugger via the network at a second application server to the first application server after accessing the debug mapping table and determining the debugging request pertains to the instance of the virtual application executing on the first application server based on the association between the debugging session and the first application server in the database, wherein the first application server executes a portion of the application code in response to the debugging request to resume performance of the client request in accordance with the debugging execution request and provides second execution information pertaining to an execution state of the instance of the virtual application corresponding to the first application server executing the portion of the application code to the debugger via the network as a response to the debugging execution request.

15. The multi-tenant database system of claim 14, wherein:

the database maintains a breakpoint associated with the application code for the debugging session; and

the first application server notifies the debugger via the network in response to execution of the client request encountering the breakpoint and executes the portion of the application code following the breakpoint in accordance with the debugging execution request received from the second application server via the network.

16. The multi-tenant database system of claim 15, wherein the first application server provides the second execution information corresponding to executing the portion of the application code following the breakpoint to the debugger via the network.

17. The multi-tenant database system of claim 14, further comprising a load balancer to receive the debugging execution request and direct the debugging execution request to the second application server, wherein a debug application program interface at the second application server determines the debugging execution request pertains to the instance of the virtual application executing on the first application server based on the association between the debugging session and the first application server and forwards the debugging execution request to the first application server.