METHOD OF DETECTING CHANGES IN EDN-USER TRANSACTION PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY CAUSED BY CHANGES IN TRANSACTION SERVER CONFIGURATION

• US 20080065702A1
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Klazynski, James Nicholas, Dickerson, Scott Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 9,122,715 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/217 Database tuning G06F16/2282 takes precedence; database performance monitoring G06F11/3409

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer program product for automatically detecting changes in end-user transaction performance and availability caused by a transaction server configuration change. When a configuration change to an element in a distributed computing system is proposed, a set of instrumented synthetic transactions in the distributed computer system is initiated. Access to managed resources by the synthetic transactions is tracked to produce a list of utilized resources for the transaction. The utilized resources are then categorized according to criteria including associating the utilized resources with respective transactions. The initiating, tracking, and categorizing steps are repeated after a proposed configuration change using a selected subset of the set of transactions. The effect of the proposed configuration change is then displayed for the selected subset of the set of transactions.

Claims

1. A method for determining an effect of a proposed configuration change on a transaction basis to at least one element in a distributed computer system comprising the steps of:

initiating a set of instrumented synthetic transactions in the distributed computer system;

tracking access to managed resources by synthetic transactions to produce a list of utilized resources for the transaction; and

categorizing the utilized resources according to criteria including associating the utilized resources with respective transactions;

repeating the initiating, tracking, and categorizing steps after a proposed configuration change using a selected subset of the set of transactions; and

displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change for the selected subset of the set of transactions.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein respective members of the selected subset of the set of transactions are selected by identifying transactions which access the utilized resources affected by the proposed configuration change.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

benchmarking the distributed computer system having a changed resource using synthetic transactions to produce a changed configuration benchmark compared to a prior configuration benchmark of the distributed computer system measured prior to the configuration change.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

displaying a comparison of the changed configuration benchmark and the prior configuration benchmark.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the comparison is on a transaction-by-transaction basis.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the comparison gives the transactions that failed, transactions that are faster, and transactions that are slower in the changed configuration benchmark as compared to the prior configuration benchmark.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the comparison gives an amount of profit generated using the changed configuration benchmark as compared to the prior configuration benchmark.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

displaying an impact the proposed configuration change has on at least one of a performance or an availability of the transactions associated with the utilized resources.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the displaying step is performed immediately after the proposed configuration change is implemented.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

displaying a total profit value, wherein the total profit value comprises a sum of the amount of profit of the changed configuration benchmark and the amount of profit of the prior configuration benchmark.

11. An apparatus for determining an effect of a proposed configuration change on a transaction basis to at least one element in a distributed computer system, the apparatus 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 to initiate a set of instrumented synthetic transactions in the distributed computer system, track access to managed resources by synthetic transactions to produce a list of utilized resources for the transaction, categorize the utilized resources according to criteria including associating the utilized resources with respective transactions, repeat the initiate, track, and categorize steps after a proposed configuration change using a selected subset of the set of transactions, and display an effect of the proposed configuration change for the selected subset of the set of transactions.

12. A computer program product for determining an effect of a proposed configuration change on a transaction basis to at least one element in a distributed computer 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 initiating a set of instrumented synthetic transactions in the distributed computer system;

computer usable program code for tracking access to managed resources by synthetic transactions to produce a list of utilized resources for the transaction;

computer usable program code for categorizing the utilized resources according to criteria including associating the utilized resources with respective transactions;

computer usable program code for repeating the initiating, tracking, and categorizing steps after a proposed configuration change using a selected subset of the set of transactions; and

computer usable program code for displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change for the selected subset of the set of transactions.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein respective members of the selected subset of the set of transactions are selected by identifying transactions which access the utilized resources affected by the proposed configuration change.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

computer usable program code for benchmarking the distributed computer system having a changed resource using synthetic transactions to produce a changed configuration benchmark compared to a prior configuration benchmark of the distributed computer system measured prior to the configuration change.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

computer usable program code for displaying a comparison of the changed configuration benchmark and the prior configuration benchmark.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the comparison is on a transaction-by-transaction basis.

17. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the comparison gives the transactions that failed, transactions that are faster, and transactions that are slower in the changed configuration benchmark as compared to the prior configuration benchmark.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the comparison gives an amount of profit generated using the changed configuration benchmark as compared to the prior configuration benchmark.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer usable program code for displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

computer usable program code for displaying an impact the proposed configuration change has on at least one of a performance or an availability of the transactions associated with the utilized resources.

20. The computer program product as recited in claim 18, wherein the computer usable program code for displaying an effect of the proposed configuration change further comprises:

computer usable program code for displaying a total profit value, wherein the total profit value comprises a sum of the amount of profit of the changed configuration benchmark and the amount of profit of the prior configuration benchmark.