Monitoring and mangement of distributing information systems

• US 20080021994A1
• Filed: 02/13/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peter Farrugia, Roland Grelewicz
• Original Assignee: Remasys Pty Ltd.
• Inventors: Farrugia, Peter, Grelewicz, Roland
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3428 Benchmarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method of managing a computing system (300) includes generating (1702) transaction requests in accordance with a transaction profile of the system (300). The transaction requests are provided for processing by the system (300). Status data of a set of managed resources (102) of the system (300) is collected (1704) in accordance with a system model stored in a knowledge base (204). Performance indicators of the system (300) are determined (1706) from the status data in accordance with the system model. The transaction performance of the system (300) is monitored (1710) by comparing the performance of the system (300) in processing the transaction requests with an expected performance. When a degradation in transaction performance is detected, a signal (1712) is generated to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred, to enable the status data and/or performance indicators to be analysed at the time at which the performance degradation occurs. The method improves over prior art management methods by providing for the simultaneous measurement of the transaction performance of the system (300), along with monitoring of defined status and performance metrics, thereby enabling correlation between changes in performance and changes in the status of the system. A corresponding computer implemented means for managing a computer system, and computer program products, are also provided.

Claims

1. A method of managing a computing system, including the steps of:

generating transaction requests in accordance with a transaction profile of the system, said transaction requests being provided for processing by the system;

collecting status data of a set of managed resources of the system in accordance with a system model stored in a knowledge base;

determining performance indicators of the system from the status data in accordance with said system model;

monitoring transaction performance of the system by comparing the performance of the system in processing said transaction requests with an expected performance; and

when a degradation in transaction performance is detected, generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred, to enable the status data and/or performance indicators to be analysed at the time at which said performance degradation occurs.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of collecting status data includes collecting performance data relating to said managed resources.

3. A method according to either claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the step of generating transaction requests includes generating requests to applications, shared services, communications services and/or access services.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the transaction profile is representative of actual operations performed by or on behalf of users of the computing system in accessing information services provided by the system, such that the performance of the system in response to the generated transaction requests reflects actual performance experienced by end users.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the step of monitoring transaction performance of the system includes measuring the time taken by the system to process said transaction requests.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the expected performance of the system is determined by measuring the transaction performance of the system for a period of time under normal operating conditions.

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the knowledge base includes models of one or more managed resources of the system.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the models of managed resources include status data available from the resources that is relevant to monitoring and assessing the performance of the system.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the knowledge base further includes definitions of said performance indicators that are derived from the status data.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein each said performance indicator is defined as at least one function of relevant status data and/or other performance indicators.

12. A method according to either claim 10 or claim 11 wherein the knowledge base is hierarchically structured, wherein the status data is represented at a lowest level of the hierarchy, and derived performance indicators are represented at higher levels so as to provide an increasing degree of abstraction.

13. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the step of collecting status data includes obtaining the status data from the managed resources of the system using one or more protocols selected from the following group:

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP);

File Transfer Protocol (FTP);

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC);

Remote Procedure Call (RPC);

Remote Shell (RSH);

Secure Shell (SSH);

Telnet;

CSV.

14. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the step of collecting status data includes repeatedly collecting status data at predetermined and substantially regular intervals, such that each item of status data has an associated resolution period that is equal to the corresponding collection interval.

15. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein each said performance indicator has an associated resolution period that is appropriate to the nature of the performance indicator, and wherein the step of determining performance indicators includes calculating values of each performance indicator at predetermined substantially regular intervals corresponding with said resolution period.

16. A method according to claim 15 wherein, in the event that a performance indicator resolution period is equal to or greater than a multiple of one or more status data resolution periods upon which it depends, the performance indicator is calculated using a minimum, maximum or average of the corresponding status data values.

17. A method according to any one of the preceding claims further including the step of performing an initial baseline measurement of status data values and performance indicators in order to determine nominal values of the status data and performance indicators corresponding with the expected performance of the system.

18. A method according to claim 17 wherein the step of determining performance indicators of the system includes determining normalised values of status data and performance indicators, said normalised values being values of said status data and performance indicators relative to the nominal values determined by the baseline measurement.

19. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the step of generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred includes generating an alarm or alert to an operator of the computing system.

20. A method according to any one of the preceding claims further including the step of performing at least one action when a degradation in performance is detected.

21. A method according to claim 20 wherein the step of performing an action includes conducting a Root Cause Analysis in order to identify a cause of the degradation in system performance.

22. A method according to claim 21 wherein the Root Cause Analysis includes differentiating the knowledge base against a baseline measurement corresponding with the expected performance of the system, in order to determine a rate of change of the normalised status data values and performance indicators such that status data values and/or performance indicators that have large or otherwise abnormal rates of change are identified.

23. A method according to any one of the preceding claims further including the step of monitoring the system to determine whether it is operating within a safe operating area, and generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred only when operation of the system is within said safe operating area.

40. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium including computer executable instructions which, when executed on a computer, implement a method according to any one of claims 1 to 23.

5. A method according to any one of claims I to 4 wherein the step of generating transaction requests includes generating said requests from user terminals of the computing system, such that the monitored transaction performance of the system includes the performance of resources that are local to the user terminals.

24. A computer implemented means for managing a computer system including:

a knowledge base in which a model of the computer system is stored;

means for generating transaction requests in accordance with a transaction profile of the system, said transaction requests being provided for processing by the system;

means for collecting status data of a set of managed resources of the system in accordance with the system model;

means for determining performance indicators of the system from the status data in accordance with the system model;

means for monitoring the performance of the system by comparing the performance of the system in processing said transaction requests with expected performance; and

means for, when a degradation in transaction performance is detected, generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred.

25. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 24 wherein the means for generating transaction requests is configured to execute one or more communication protocols for generating requests to applications, shared services, communications services and/or access services.

26. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 25 wherein said protocols are selected from the group of Internet protocols including:

TCP;

UDP;

HTTP;

FTP;

SMTP;

DNS;

ARP.

27. Means for managing a computer system according to either claim 25 or claim 26 wherein the means for generating transaction requests is configured to execute remote procedure calls to direct managed elements within the system to generate transaction requests.

28. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 27 wherein the means for monitoring transaction performance is configured to measure the time taken by the system to process transaction requests, and to compare the measured time with expected times held within a memory store.

29. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 28 wherein said expected times are obtained from measurements of transaction performance of the system conducted over a period of time under normal operating conditions of the system, the results of said measurements being stored within the memory store for later comparison with the results of subsequent measurements of transaction performance.

30. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 29 wherein the knowledge base includes definitions of said performance indicators which include one or more functions of relevant status data values and/or other performance indicators.

31. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 30 wherein the means for determining performance indicators is configured to compute the performance indicators in accordance with the definitions in the knowledge base.

32. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 30 wherein the means for collecting status data is configured to execute one or more communications protocols for communicating with managed resources of the system to retrieve status data therefrom.

33. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 32 wherein the protocols which the means for collecting status data is configured to execute are selected from the group including:

SNMP;

FTP;

ODBC;

RPC;

RSH;

SSH;

Telnet;

CSV.

34. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 33 further including a scheduler for scheduling the collection of status data by said collecting means at predetermined substantially regular intervals.

35. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 34 wherein the means for determining performance indicators is configured to execute one or more periodic tasks that recompute each of the performance indicators in accordance with an associated resolution period, and store the computed values within a memory store.

36. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 35 further including means for performing at least one action when a degradation in system performance has occurred.

37. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 36 further including a Root Cause Analysis engine, and wherein said at least one action includes executing the Root Cause Analysis engine to perform an analysis to identify a cause of the degradation in system performance.

38. Means for managing a computer system according to claim 37 wherein the Root Cause Analysis engine is configured to differentiate collected status data and/or determined performance indicators against stored baseline measurements representing a nominal performance of the system, in order to identify status data and/or performance indicators that have large or abnormal rates of change.

39. Means for managing a computer system according to any one of claims 24 to 38 wherein the knowledge base is hierarchically structured such that status data is represented at a lowest level of the hierarchy, and derived performance indicators are represented at higher levels, and with an increasing degree of abstraction.