Server-based application monitoring through collection of application component and environmental statistics

• US 20030084018A1
• Filed: 10/31/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chintalapati, Murthy, Duvvuru, Sreeram
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

Methods for monitoring an application running on a server are described. Method steps include maintaining counters of statistics related to operation of the application, collecting first operational statistics based on counters from one or more application components, collecting second operational statistics based on counters from one or more application runtime environment components, updating aggregation statistics based on the collected statistics, and storing the statistics for access by a presentation agent which can interface with external monitoring tools. The nature and level of the collected statistics provide valuable insight into the operation of the application of interest.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring an application running on a server, the method comprising:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more first operational statistics for one or more components of the application;

collecting the one or more first operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a first aggregation of each of the one or more first operational statistics for each of the one or more components of the application based on the first operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the first aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of collecting the first operational statistics includes collecting a count of a number of service invocations experienced by each of one or more application components during running of the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of collecting the first operational statistics includes collecting a count of a number of service exceptions experienced by each of one or more application components during running of the application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of collecting the first operational statistics includes collecting a count of a number of service errors experienced by each of one or more application components during running of the application.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of collecting the first operational statistics includes collecting an average service time for each of one or more application components during running of the application.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of collecting the first operational statistics includes collecting statistics aggregated from two or more application components.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more third operational statistics for one or more virtual servers running an application on the server;

collecting the one or more third operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a third aggregation of each of the one or more third operational statistics for each of the one or more virtual servers based on the third operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the third aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

representing the first operational statistics for access by an external agent interfacing with the statistical presentation agent.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the first operational statistics are represented in Extensible Markup Language.

10. A method of monitoring an application running on a server, the method comprising:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more second operational statistics for one or more runtime environment components, the runtime environment components facilitating processing of service requests for the application;

collecting the one or more second operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a second aggregation of each of the one or more second operational statistics for each of the one or more runtime environment components based on the second operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the second aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of collecting the second operational statistics includes collecting statistics from a class loader, the class loader operating to load the classes for running the application.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of collecting the second operational statistics includes collecting statistics from a session manager, the session manager operating to manage user sessions for running the application.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of collecting the second operational statistics includes collecting statistics from a data source facilitator, the data source facilitator operating to facilitate a connection to a data source for running the application.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more third operational statistics for one or more virtual servers running an application on the server;

collecting the one or more third operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a third aggregation of each of the one or more third operational statistics for each of the one or more virtual servers based on the third operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the third aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

representing the second operational statistics for access by an external agent interfacing with the statistical presentation agent.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the second operational statistics are represented in Extensible Markup Language.

17. A method of providing statistics related to execution of an application on a server, the method comprising:

maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics related to loading application classes for executing the application;

maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics related to communications with a data source during execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of session manager statistics related to application user sessions;

maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining, for each of one or more application components, one or more counters of application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics related to execution of the application;

collecting the class loader statistics, the data source statistics, the session manager statistics, the aggregated application component statistics, the application component statistics, and the application component interface statistics; and

generating a structured presentation of the collected statistics.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics includes maintaining a count of exceptions indicating that a class was not found during loading of the classes.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics includes maintaining a count of entries stored in a class loader cache during loading of the classes.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics includes maintaining a count of an aggregated size of the classes loaded by the class loader.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a current number of connections in a connection pool to the data source.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a maximum number of connections allowed in a connection pool to the data source.

23. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of connections created to the data source via a specific connection pool.

24. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of an average time between a request for a connection to the data source and establishment of the connection.

25. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of an average use time of a connection to the data source.

26. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of connections to the data source that have timed out.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of requests waiting for a connection to the data source.

28. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of times a connection pool to the data source reestablished connection to the data source.

29. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of active service transactions being serviced by the data source.

30. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of service transactions successfully serviced by the data source.

31. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of rollbacks performed by the data source, wherein a rollback is an operation to undo a partly completed change to the data source upon a data source transaction failure.

32. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a maximum number of sessions concurrently active during running of the application.

33. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of sessions currently active.

34. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of new sessions created during running of the application.

35. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of session creation failures during running of the application.

36. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of sessions that expired during running of the application.

37. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of sessions that were invalidated during running of the application.

38. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining session manager statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of failed session update requests during running of the application.

39. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application components specified in an application deployment description file.

40. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application components currently loaded.

41. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application components destroyed during running of the application.

42. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of exceptions experienced by the server while trying to load a resource during running of the application.

43. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of initialization exceptions experienced by the application components during running of the application.

44. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application components invoked during running of the application.

45. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of exceptions experienced by the application components during running of the application.

46. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of protocol errors experienced by the application components during running of the application.

47. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of bytes read by the application components during running of the application.

48. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of bytes written by the application components during running of the application.

49. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application component interfaces currently loaded.

50. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application component interfaces destroyed during running of the application.

51. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of initialization exceptions experienced by the application component interfaces during running of the application.

52. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of application component interfaces invoked during running of the application.

53. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of protocol errors experienced by an application component interface during running of the application.

54. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of an average time to complete a service by an application component interface during running of the application.

55. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics includes maintaining a count of a number of exceptions encountered while compiling information during running of the application.

56. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring an application running on a server, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps of:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more first operational statistics for one or more components of the application;

collecting the one or more first operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a first aggregation of each of the one or more first operational statistics for each of the one or more components of the application based on the first operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the first aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

57. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring an application running on a server, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps of:

maintaining a counter for each of one or more second operational statistics for one or more runtime environment components, the runtime environment components facilitating processing of service requests for the application;

collecting the one or more second operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating a second aggregation of each of the one or more second operational statistics for each of the one or more runtime environment components based on the second operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the second aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

58. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring an application running on a server, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps of:

maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics related to loading application classes for executing the application;

maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics related to communications with a data source during execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of session manager statistics related to application user sessions;

collecting the class loader statistics, the data source statistics, and the session manager statistics; and

generating a structured presentation of the collected statistics.

59. The computer readable medium of claim 58, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the specified action by causing the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining, for each of one or more application components, one or more counters of application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics related to execution of the application;

collecting the aggregated application component statistics, the application component statistics, and the application component interface statistics; and

generating a structured presentation of the collected statistics.

60. A computer apparatus comprising:

a network interface;

a memory; and

one or more processors connected to the network interface and the memory, the one or more processors configured for

collecting first operational statistics from one or more application components;

collecting second operational statistics from one or more application runtime environment components, the runtime environment components facilitating processing of the application service request; and

storing the first and second operational statistics.

61. A computer apparatus comprising:

a network interface;

a memory; and

one or more processors connected to the network interface and the memory, the one or more processors configured for

maintaining one or more counters of class loader statistics associated with loading application component classes for executing the application;

maintaining one or more counters of data source statistics related to communications with a data source during execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of session manager statistics associated with application user sessions;

maintaining one or more counters of aggregated application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining, for each of one or more application components, one or more counters of application component statistics related to execution of the application;

maintaining one or more counters of application component interface statistics related to execution of the application;

collecting the class loader statistics, the data source statistics, the session manager statistics, the aggregated application component statistics, the application component statistics, and the application component interface statistics; and

generating a structured presentation of the collected statistics for access over a network.

62. A method of monitoring an application running on a server, the method comprising:

receiving an application service request;

resolving a uniform resource locator associated with the application service request to an application context path identifying the application;

invoking the application;

maintaining a counter for each of one or more operational statistics for one or more components of the application;

collecting the one or more operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating an aggregation of each of the one or more operational statistics for each of the one or more components of the application based on the operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.

63. A method of monitoring an application running on a server, the method comprising:

receiving an application service request;

resolving a uniform resource locator associated with the application service request to an application context path identifying the application;

invoking the application;

maintaining a counter for each of one or more operational statistics for one or more runtime environment components, the runtime environment components facilitating processing of service requests for the application;

collecting the one or more operational statistic represented by the counters;

updating an aggregation of each of the one or more operational statistics for each of the one or more runtime environment components of the application based on the operational statistics represented by the counters; and

storing the aggregation for access by a statistical presentation agent.