Intelligent Performance Monitoring Based on Resource Threshold

• US 20080034082A1
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McKinney, Howard Milton
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for selective monitoring of individual transactions in an instrumented software application. In response to receiving a new transaction at an entry point, a monitoring policy is checked to determine if the monitoring policy indicates that the transaction should be monitored. If the monitoring policy indicates that the transaction should be monitored, a determination is made as to whether the system resources are operating at a predetermined system condition defined in the monitoring policy. If the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition, the transaction will be monitored. If the system resources are not operating at the predetermined system condition, the transaction will not be monitored.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for selectively monitoring transactions in a distributed computing system, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving a new transaction at an entry point, checking a monitoring policy to determine if the monitoring policy indicates that the new transaction should be monitored;

determining whether the system resources are operating at a predetermined system condition; and

responsive to determining that the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition, monitoring the new transaction.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the system resources are not operating at the predetermined system condition, allowing the new transaction to continue as an unmonitored transaction.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition further comprises:

obtaining performance information for the system resources; and

comparing the performance information against the predetermined system condition defined in the monitoring policy.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein performance information is determined at a time the new transaction is received at the entry point.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring policy defines one or more system resources to be traversed by the transaction.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined system condition is a threshold level defined in the monitoring policy.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the system resources include at least one of an amount of free virtual memory on a given server, CPU utilization, current Enterprise JavaBeans buffer pool size, or current thread pool size.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the checking, determining, and monitoring steps are performed by an instrumented monitoring probe.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the system resources in the monitoring policy are defined by an administrator.

10. A data processing system for selectively monitoring transactions in a distributed computing system, the data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains computer usable code;

at least one managed device connected to the bus;

a communications unit connected to the bus; and

a processing unit connected to the bus, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable code, in response to receiving a new transaction at an entry point, to check a monitoring policy to determine if the monitoring policy indicates that the new transaction should be monitored, determine whether the system resources are operating at a predetermined system condition, and monitor the new transaction in response to determining that the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition.

11. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to allow the transaction to continue as an unmonitored transaction in response to determining that the system resources are not operating at the predetermined system condition.

12. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the computer usable code to determine whether the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition further comprises computer usable code to obtain performance information for the system resources and compare the performance information against the predetermined system condition defined in the monitoring policy.

13. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the predetermined system condition is a threshold level defined in the monitoring policy.

14. A computer program product for selectively monitoring individual transactions in a distributed computing system, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code tangibly embodied thereon, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code for checking, in response to receiving a new transaction at an entry point, a monitoring policy to determine if the monitoring policy indicates that the new transaction should be monitored;

computer usable program code for determining whether the system resources are operating at a predetermined system condition; and

computer usable program code for monitoring the new transaction in response to determining that the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

computer usable program code for allowing the transaction to continue as an unmonitored transaction in response to determining that the system resources are not operating at the predetermined system condition.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for determining whether the system resources are operating at the predetermined system condition further comprises:

computer usable program code for obtaining performance information for the system resources; and

computer usable program code for comparing the performance information against the predetermined system condition defined in the monitoring policy.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein performance information is determined at a time the transaction is received at the entry point.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for checking, determining, and monitoring steps is executed by an instrumented monitoring probe.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the monitoring policy defines one or more system resources to be traversed by the transaction.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the predetermined system condition is a threshold level defined in the monitoring policy.