RESOURCE MONITORING

• US 20100275184A1
• Filed: 04/23/2009
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Saaroni, Dror, Cohen, Ayal, Nir, Dor
• Granted Patent: US 8,615,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

Monitoring resources of a computing device during testing of software applications provides useful feedback to developers and implementers of the software application. By periodically collecting system counter data during automated testing of the software application, and correlating the collected data to a state of the test, the actions of the test causing any undesirable resource issues can be readily identified.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring resources of a computing device, comprising:

performing an automated test on a software application;

periodically collecting system counter data for the application under test for a period of the test; and

correlating the collected system counter data with a state of the test.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing an automated test on a software application comprises performing a sequence of steps on the software application, and wherein correlating the collected system counter data with a state of the test comprises correlating the collected system counter data with a step of the test at the time the data was collected.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting system counters for which data is to be periodically collected.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting system counters for which data is to be periodically collected comprises selecting system counters from all system counters available in an operating system of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing interactive output of the collected system counter data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing interactive output of the collected system counter data comprises providing a graph comprising traces of data values for the selected system counters and comprising an index of results obtained during steps of the automated test, and wherein the interactive output comprises interactive content selected from the group consisting of displaying a data value for a system counter in response to placing a cursor over a trace of the data for that system counter;

in response to selecting a point in the graph, providing an indication in the index of results of the step of the test being performed at the time of data collection for the selected point; and

in response to selecting a result in the index of results, providing an indication in the graph of the data collected at the time of the step of the test corresponding to the selected result.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a limit for at least one system counter for which data is being collected; and

deeming the test failed if the system counter data for the at least one system counter exceeds its limit.

8. A method of monitoring resources of a computing device, comprising:

defining an automated test for a software application;

selecting system counters for monitoring during the automated test;

performing the automated test on the software application;

periodically collecting selected system counter data for the application under test; and

providing output of the collected system counter data correlated to a state of the automated test.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein defining an automated test for a software application comprises defining a sequence of steps to be performed on the software application to simulate user input to the software application.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting system counters for monitoring comprises selecting system counters from a predefined list of system counters.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

defining limits for one or more of the selected system counters; and

deeming the automated test failed in a collected data value for any system counter exceeds its limit during the automated test.

12. A computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage media containing machine-readable instructions adapted to cause the processor to perform a method of testing a software application by the computing device, comprising;

selecting system counters for the software application for monitoring;

performing an automated test on the software application;

periodically collecting data from the selected system counters during the automated test;

providing output of the collected system counter data correlated to a state of the automated test.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the storage media further contains the software application to be tested.

14. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises defining the automated test comprising a sequence of steps to simulate user input to the computing device while running the software application.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein providing output of the collected system counter data correlated to a state of the automated test comprises providing output of the collected system counter data correlated to a step of the test being performed at a time of data collection.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein providing output of the collected system counter data correlated to a state of the automated test comprises providing interactive output of the collected system counter data.

17. A computer system, comprising:

means for testing a software application by the computer system;

means for collecting system counter data for the application under test;

means for correlating the collected system counter data to a state of the test at a time of data collection; and

means for providing interactive output of the correlated system counter data.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the means for collecting system counter data for the application under test further comprises means for selecting which system counters of the computer system for the software application will be monitored.

19. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising means for defining limits for the collected system counter data and for providing an indication of failure if a limit is exceeded for any of the collected system counter data.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the means for providing interactive output of the correlated system counter data comprises means for identifying a step of the test being performed at the time of data collection for the collected system counter data.