Non-invasive time-based profiling tool

• US 20080209402A1
• Filed: 02/27/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Parkinson, Steven W.
• Granted Patent: US 10,127,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/835 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/064 involving time analysis

Abstract

Some embodiments of a non-invasive time-based profiling tool have been presented. In one embodiment, a system is profiled using information on each of a number of events collected from a set of subsystems in at least one client machine in the system. Then a profile of the system is caused to be presented in a unified graphical user interface (GUI).

Claims

1. A method comprising:

profiling a system using information on each of a plurality of events collected from a plurality of subsystems in at least one client machine in the system; and

causing a profile of the system to be presented in a unified graphical user interface (GUI).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein profiling the system using the information comprises:

tracing the plurality of events using the information; and

analyzing the plurality of events on a time basis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein profiling the system using the information comprises:

correlating the plurality of events using the information to identify causation relationships between the plurality of events.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the profile in a repository; and

allowing users to access the repository to retrieve the profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

instrumenting the plurality of subsystems to collect the information during execution of an application program without modifying source code of the application program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises an event report for each of the plurality of events, the event report comprising a first identifier for a corresponding event, a second identifier for a corresponding client machine, a third identifier for a corresponding subsystem in the corresponding client machine, a fourth identifier for an event type of the corresponding event, a timestamp for the corresponding event, and a set of zero or more identifiers for events which trigger the corresponding event.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a user request made via the GUI, presenting additional details of a portion of the profile corresponding to a period of time specified in the user request.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI comprises a directed acyclic graph showing the plurality of events along a timeline and a set of zero or more causation relationships between the plurality of events.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a profiling module to profile a system using information on each of a plurality of events from a plurality of subsystems in at least one client machine in the system, the information being collected during execution of an application program in the system; and

a repository coupled to the profiling module to store a profile of the system.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a network adapter communicatively coupled to the at least one client machine to receive the information.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module operatively coupled to the repository to retrieve the profile from the repository and to create a single GUI to present the profile.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module operatively coupled to the repository to generate a directed acyclic graph to present the plurality of events along a timeline and a set of zero or more causation relationships between the plurality of events.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module operatively coupled to the repository to create a GUI to receive a user request for details of a portion of the profile corresponding to a period of time from the repository.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the profiling module comprises:

a tracing module to trace the plurality of events and to analyze the plurality of events on a time basis.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the profiling module comprises:

a correlation module to correlate the plurality of events to identify causation relationships between the plurality of events.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information comprises an event report for each of the plurality of events, the event report comprising a first identifier for a corresponding event, a second identifier for a corresponding client machine, a third identifier for a corresponding subsystem in the corresponding client machine, a fourth identifier for an event type of the corresponding event, a timestamp for the corresponding event, and a set of zero or more identifiers for events which trigger the corresponding event.

17. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the profiling module comprises:

an instrumentation module to instrument the plurality of subsystems to collect the information without modifying source code of the application program.

18. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising the at least one client machine, wherein each of the plurality of subsystems in the at least one client machine comprises a reporting client to generate event reports during execution of the application program.

19. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

profiling a system using information on each of a plurality of events collected from a plurality of subsystems in at least one client machine in the system; and

causing a profile of the system to be presented in a unified graphical user interface (GUI).

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein profiling the system using the information comprises:

tracing the plurality of events using the information; and

analyzing the plurality of events on a time basis.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein profiling the system using the information comprises:

correlating the plurality of events using the information to identify causation relationships between the plurality of events.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing the profile in a repository; and

allowing users to access the repository to retrieve the profile.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

instrumenting the plurality of subsystems to collect the information during execution of an application program without modifying source code of the application program.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the information comprises an event report for each of the plurality of events, the event report comprising a first identifier for a corresponding event, a second identifier for a corresponding client machine, a third identifier for a corresponding subsystem in the corresponding client machine, a fourth identifier for an event type of the corresponding event, a timestamp for the corresponding event, and a set of zero or more identifiers for events which trigger the corresponding event.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to a user request made via the GUI, presenting additional details of a portion of the profile corresponding to a period of time specified in the user request.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the GUI comprises a directed acyclic graph showing the plurality of events along a timeline and a set of zero or more causation relationships between the plurality of events.