Object-based software management

• US 20040225923A1
• Filed: 06/08/2004
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Teegan, Hugh A., Matsumoto, Scott
• Application Number:
  US10/864,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20040225923A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/38
• 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
• 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. In a computer system, a method of monitoring the execution of software comprising a software object, the method comprising:

at run time of the software system, observing a plurality of object-related operations associated with the software object;

responsive to the observing the plurality of object-related operations associated with the software object, generating a first notification indicative of a first object-related operation associated with the software object and a second notification indicative of a second object-related operation associated with the software object; and

performing a calculation on the first notification and the second notification to determine an operational management metric indicative of performance of the software system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the software object has a plurality of methods;

one of the plurality of object-related operations is a call to one of the plurality of methods; and

the notification indicates the one of the plurality of methods.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the software object has one or more methods;

one of the plurality of object-related operations is a call to one of the one or more methods, the call having at least one parameter having a value; and

the operational management metric indicates the value of the at least one parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the software object has a plurality of methods;

one of the plurality of object-related operations is a return by the software object from a call to one of the plurality of methods by a client of the software object; and

the notification indicates occurrence of the return.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification is published in a loosely coupled publish and subscribe model.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the observing is performed by an object operation monitor.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the object operation monitor is interposed between the software object and a client of the software object when the client of the software object requests a reference to the software object.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the software object is of an object class and the object operation monitor is interposed between the software object and a client of the software object responsive to a request by the client for a newly-created instance of a software object of the object class.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the object operation monitor is a proxy object interposed between the software object and a client of the software object.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the object operation monitor is an interceptor interposed between the software object and a client of the software object.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the object operation monitor is a wrapper interposed between an interface of the software object and a client of the software object.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 1.

13. In a computer system, a method of monitoring a software system in an object execution environment, the software system comprising a software object, the method comprising:

at run time of the software system, observing at least one object-related operation associated with the software object;

responsive to the observing the at least one object-related operation associated with the software object, generating a notification indicative of the at least one object-related operation associated with the software object, wherein the generating is performed by object monitoring instrumentation in the execution environment; and

determining an operational management metric to measure performance of the software system based at least in part on the notification.

14. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 13.

15. In an execution environment accommodating software objects, a method of monitoring the execution of a software object having one or more methods, wherein the software is operable as a component part of a program, the method comprising:

at run time of the software system, placing an object operation monitor at the software object to monitor at least one operation performed at the monitored software object;

responsive to observation of the at least one object-related operation by the object operation monitor, generating a notification indicative of the at least one object-related operation performed at the monitored software object; and

monitoring the notification to determine an operational management metric associated with the monitored software object.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the object operation monitor is interposed between the monitored software object and a client of the monitored software object when the client of the monitored software object requests a reference to the monitored software object.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the monitored software object is of an object class and the object operation monitor is interposed between the monitored software object and a client of the software object responsive to a request by the client for a newly-created instance of a software object of the object class.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the object operation monitor is a proxy object interposed between the monitored software object and a client of the monitored software object.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the object operation monitor is an interceptor interposed between the monitored software object and a client of the monitored software object.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the object operation monitor is a wrapper interposed between an interface of the monitored software object and a client of the monitored software object.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 15.

22. A software management system for managing the execution of an object-based program comprising a set of software objects, the management system comprising:

an object execution environment having instrumentation operative to receive a request to perform an interaction with one of the software objects and, responsive to the request, direct a notification indicative of the interaction to a program execution monitor; and

the program execution monitor, operative to receive the notification indicative of the interaction from the instrumented object execution environment and further operative to receive other notifications indicative of other interactions and combine the notification and the other notifications to generate an operational management metric.