Object-based software management

• US 20040225668A1
• Filed: 06/08/2004
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Teegan, Hugh A., Matsumoto, Scott R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,243,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

An execution environment accommodating object-based software transparently monitors interactions with software objects to generate operational management information for managing programs executing at plural computers. Notifications are directed to a software manager in the form of events, which can additionally be provided to applications or user programs. The software manager can group the events into sets and derive various operational management metrics from them to provide an overall picture of a program'"'"'s performance, including availability. A hierarchical arrangement feature facilitates gathering information for programs scattered over plural computers. An alert feature provides warnings if metrics fall outside a specified threshold. In addition, the alert feature can automatically subscribe to additional sets of events to dynamically select the information collected by the software manager. Since the operational management information is collected transparently by logic outside the objects, manual instrumentation of the program is unnecessary, and software management technology is made available to organizations without software management expertise.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon:

a first data structure associated with a first event, wherein data in the first data structure is generated upon observation of a first operation performed on a wrapped object, the first data structure comprising;

a key field;

a data field containing data representing a time the first operation was observed at the wrapped object; and

a data field containing data identifying a program for which the wrapped object is performing work; and

a second data structure associated with a second event, wherein data in the second data structure is generated upon observation of a second operation performed on the wrapped object, the second data structure comprising;

a reference field associating the second data structure with the first data structure via the key field of the first data structure; and

a data field containing data representing a time the second operation was observed at the wrapped object.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein:

the first data structure represents an observation generated upon creation of the wrapped object; and

the second data structure represents an observation generated upon a method call on the wrapped object.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data structure associated with the first event further comprises:

a process identifier identifying a process from which the first event originated; and

a name of a computer from which the event originated.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3 wherein the program for which the wrapped object is performing work is represented by a program identifier for the first object instantiated in the process from which the first event originated.

5. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon:

a first data structure associated with a first event, wherein data in the first data structure is generated upon observation of a first operation performed on a wrapped object;

a second data structure associated with a second event, wherein data in the second data structure is generated upon observation of a second operation performed on the wrapped object;

wherein a relationship is indicated between the first data structure and the second data structure.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 wherein:

the first data structure represents an observation generated upon creation of the wrapped object; and

the second data structure represents an observation generated upon a method call on the wrapped object.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 wherein the first data structure comprises:

a data field containing data representing a time the first operation was observed at the wrapped object; and

a data field containing data identifying a program for which the wrapped object is performing work.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the first data structure further comprises a key field, and wherein the second data structure comprises a reference field associating the second data structure with the first data structure via the key field.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the first data structure further comprises:

a process identifier identifying a process from which the first event originated; and

a name of a computer from which the event originated.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the program for which the wrapped object is performing work is represented by a program identifier.

11. A method of generating data structures associated with operations performed on software objects;

the method comprising;

at run time, observing a first object-related operation associated with a wrapped software object;

responsive to the observing the first object-related operation, generating a first event data structure indicative of the first object-related operation, the first event data structure comprising;

a key field;

a data field containing data representing a time the first object-related operation was observed at the wrapped software object; and

a data field containing data identifying a program for which the wrapped software object is performing work;

at run time, observing a second object-related operation associated with the wrapped software object; and

responsive to the observing the second object-related operation, generating a second event data structure indicative of the second object-related operation, the second event data structure comprising;

a reference field associating the second event data structure with the first event data structure via the key field of the first event data structure; and

a data field containing data representing a time the second object-related operation was observed at the wrapped software object.

12. A computer-readable medium have computer-executable instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 11.