Application health checks

• US 20070074074A1
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nichols, David, Curtis, Pavel, Shieh, Guo-Wei, Somashekar, Eshwar, Gomber, Puja, Schumaker, Robert, Muhlestein, Travis, Meleshchuk, Sergei
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/368 for test version control, e.g. updating test cases to a new software version

Abstract

Techniques for determining a complete address of a test point of an application from a relative address of the test point and a configuration of a system are provided. An application component that defines the application includes a relative address of the test point. An abstract configuration of a system specifies a location where an instance of the application is to be deployed within the system. The complete address of the test point is then formulated using the relative address of the test point and the indication of the location where an instance of the application is to be deployed within the system. The complete address of the test point can then be used to perform a health check of the instance of the application.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for formulating a complete address of a test point, the method comprising:

determining from an application component a relative address of a test point, the relative address being an address that is relative to the application component;

determining from an abstract configuration of a system at least one machine on which the application component is to be deployed within the system; and

formulating a complete address of the test point from the relative address of the test point and the address of the machine on which the application component is to be deployed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining from the abstract configuration of the system a second machine on which the application component is to be deployed within the system; and

formulating a second complete address of the test point from the relative address of the test point and the address of the second machine on which the application component is to be deployed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of a web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of an object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of a performance counter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the complete address of the test point is a URL of the test point.

7. A system for specifying a complete address of a test point, the system comprising:

an application component that defines an application entity, the application component comprising an indication of a relative address of a test point for determining the health of an instance of the application entity; and

an abstract configuration of a system, the abstract configuration specifies at least one machine on which to deploy the application component,

such that the relative address of the test point and the specification of the at least one machine on which to deploy the application component may be used to formulate the complete address of the test point.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein at application entity is a database.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the application entity is a web application.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the abstract configuration is an XML file.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the complete address of the test point is a combination of the relative address of the test point and the address of the at least one machine on which to deploy the application component.

12. A method in a computing system for performing a health check of an application, the method comprising:

determining a relative address of a test point of an application from an application component that defines the application;

determining from an abstract configuration of a system a location where an instance of the application is to be deployed;

formulating a complete address of the test point from the relative address of the test point and the location where an instance of the application is to be deployed; and

probing the test point using the complete address of the test point to determine the health of the application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of a web page.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of a variable provided by the application.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative address of the test point is a name of a performance counter.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the complete address of the test point is a URL of the test point.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising, upon determining that the application is unhealthy, generating an error condition.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the error condition comprises sending a user a notification of the error condition.