SELECTING INSTRUMENTATION POINTS FOR AN APPLICATION

• US 20080148039A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Puryear, Daryl L., Thio, Ling, Cobb, Jeffrey R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler

Abstract

Instrumentation points are selected for an application by running the application with comprehensive instrumentation of its components in a development mode. The application can be run by a human operator and/or load simulator which provides requests to the application. The instrumented components are monitored as the application runs. A subset of the components is selected based on criteria such as an order in which the instrumented components are invoked, whether resource utilization, such as consumption of processor cycles, exceeds a threshold, or a frequency with which components are called or call other components, and only that subset is instrumented in a production mode of the application. In one approach, the subset includes components which are invoked when traffic to/from the application matches a pattern provided by an interaction model. As a result, relevant instrumentation points can be identified.

Claims

1. A method for selecting instrumentation points for an application, comprising:

running an application having a first set of instrumented components;

monitoring the instrumented components during the running; and

based on the monitoring, selecting a subset of components of the first set of instrumented components for which active instrumentation is to be maintained.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing instrumentation from the application for components in the first set of components other than those in the subset.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deactivating instrumentation from the components in the first set of components other than those in the subset.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

running the application with active instrumentation maintained for the subset of components but not for other components in the first set of components;

monitoring the instrumented components in the subset during the running thereof; and

selecting a further subset of components of the subset for which active instrumentation is to be maintained based on the monitoring of the instrumented components in the subset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which are invoked by at least one request which corresponds to at least one pattern associated with an interaction model for the application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components based on an order in which the instrumented components are invoked during the running.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components for which a resource utilization exceeds a threshold during the running.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components for which at least one of a consumption of processor resources and an execution time exceeds a threshold during the running.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components for which an instrumentation overhead is below a threshold during the running.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises at least one of selecting instrumented components which are called with a frequency above an associated threshold during the running and selecting instrumented components which call other components with a frequency above an associated threshold during the running.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises at least one of selecting instrumented components which are called by a number of other components which exceeds an associated threshold during the running and selecting instrumented components which call a number of other components which exceeds an associated threshold during the running.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components for which a number of multiple instances which exceeds a threshold are in use simultaneously during the running.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which have a complexity which exceeds a threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which have a variance in execution time which exceeds a threshold during the running.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing instrumentation for a second set of instrumented components of the application,

the second set includes at least one instrumented component which is not in the first set of instrumented components;

running the application with the second set of instrumented components separate from the running of the application with the first set of instrumented components;

monitoring the second set of instrumented components during the running of the application with the second set of instrumented components; and

selecting a subset of components of the second set of instrumented components for which active instrumentation is to be maintained, based on the monitoring thereof.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the second set includes at least one instrumented component which is in the first set of instrumented components.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which of the instrumented components is first invoked when processing a request during the running, the subset of components including the instrumented component which is first invoked.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which of the instrumented components is last invoked when processing a request during the running, the subset of components including the instrumented component which is last invoked.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which of the instrumented components call an application programming interface during the running, the subset of components including the instrumented components which call an application programming interface.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting the selected subset of components.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

instrumenting components of the application based on a static analysis of the application.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein:

the static analysis includes an analysis of component type.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein:

the static analysis includes an analysis of at least one of an associated class, method, direct and/or indirect super class, and directly- and/or indirectly-implemented interface of components of the application.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting results based on the selecting.

25. At least one processor readable storage device having processor readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

running an application having a first set of instrumented components;

monitoring the instrumented components during the running; and

based on the monitoring, selecting a subset of components of the first set of instrumented components for which active instrumentation is to be maintained.

26. The at least one processor readable storage device of claim 25, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which are invoked by at least one request which corresponds to at least one pattern associated with an interaction model for the application.

27. The at least one processor readable storage device of claim 25, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components based on an order in which the instrumented components are invoked during the running.

28. The at least one processor readable storage device of claim 25, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components for which a resource utilization exceeds a threshold during the running.

29. A system for selecting instrumentation points for an application, comprising:

one or more storage devices; and

one or more processors in communication with said one or more storage devices, said one or more processors perform a method, the method comprising the steps of;

running an application having a first set of instrumented components;

monitoring the instrumented components during the running; and

based on the monitoring, selecting a subset of components of the first set of instrumented components for which active instrumentation is to be maintained.

30. A method for selecting instrumentation points for an application, comprising:

running an application in a development mode;

providing a report indicating components of the application which were invoked during the running; and

processing the report for selecting one or more of the components to be instrumented in a production mode.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which are invoked by a request which corresponds to at least one pattern.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components having a level of resource utilization which exceeds a threshold during the running.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein:

the report indicates an order in which the instrumented components are invoked during the running, the selecting is based on the order.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein:

the selecting comprises selecting instrumented components which call an application programming interface during the running.