SYNTHETIC TRANSACTION MONITOR WITH REPLAY CAPABILITY

• US 20090240765A1
• Filed: 03/17/2009
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Wiles, Philip V. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 7,966,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Systems and methods for recording and replaying client-server transactions on selected clients in order to gauge the performance of the client-server system from the perspective of the client. In one embodiment, a method comprises playing back a set of recorded transactions on a client, monitoring selected performance-related parameters at the client, and transmitting monitored data to the server for analysis or for viewing by a system administrator. The set of transactions is recorded on a first client by replacing a standard Internet transaction driver (e.g., WinInet.DLL) with a modified driver that is configured to intercept function calls. The function calls and corresponding parameters are recorded in a file which is later transmitted to a client, where the recorded transaction information is used to reproduce the transactions on the client. As the transactions are played back, performance data may be monitored and forwarded to a management server for analysis, display, etc.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring synthetic transactions comprising:

a server computer;

a set of client computers coupled to the server computer on a network, wherein client-server transactions are conducted between each of the set of client computers and the server computer and wherein each client computer comprises instructions operable to playing back a set of recorded client-server transactions occurring between the server computer and at least one of the set of client computers;

a monitor computer coupled to the server computer and the set of client computers on the network, comprising a computer readable medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instruction executable for;

pre-scanning the set of recorded client-server transactions occurring between the server computer and at least one of the set of client computers to identify and set up server-side connections including objects associated with the client-server transactions, wherein the set of recorded client-server transactions includes at least one Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) function call;

monitoring selected parameters associated with the set of recorded client-server transactions; and

transmitting performance data associated with the selected parameters to the server.