DIAGNOSIS OF APPLICATION SERVER PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS VIA THREAD LEVEL PATTERN ANALYSIS

• US 20120089724A1
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: LIANG, Xiaojun, KAMBO, Rajit, YU, Xuwen, DESAI, Aalap, DONG, Aiguo
• Granted Patent: US 9,442,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor

Abstract

Performance of server that is managing a group of servers, such as in a cloud, is analyzed by identifying patterns of threads executed in the server. A command is issued, repeatedly over a time period, to an operating system of the server to return a resource consumption value representative of the amount of computing resources consumed by one or more threads. The returned resource consumption values are stored and used to generate points on a graph which depicts the amount of computing resources consumed by the one or more threads over the time period and provide task breakdowns and latency information for each of the tasks.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring performance of an application server for a group of servers in which one or more threads that manage the group of servers are executed, said method comprising:

issuing a command to an operating system of the application server to return a resource consumption value representative of the amount of computing resource consumed by one or more threads;

storing the resource consumption value;

repeating said issuing and said storing multiple times over a time period; and

displaying a graph of the amount of computing resources consumed by the one or more threads over the time period using the stored resource consumption values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the threads includes multiple tasks and each task has a distinct rising edge and a falling edge represented on the graph.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting edges from the stored resource consumption values; and

determining the number of tasks in a thread based on the number of edges.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

comparing the graph with predetermined patterns; and

identifying potential performance improvement areas in the application server based on said comparing.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined patterns include an inactive period pattern that includes an inactive period of an undesirable duration between two consecutive tasks represented in the pattern.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined patterns include a duplicate sequential pattern.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the graph has a duplicate sequential pattern if two consecutive tasks represented in the graph have similar thread areas and similar latencies.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said repeating is carried out at a predetermined rate that is user-configurable.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing resource is one of CPU, system memory, and disk IO.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering threads so that they are not represented in the graph.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the threads are filtered based on their thread area.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the threads are filtered if they are background threads or system threads.

13. A method of identifying potential performance improvement areas in an application server for a group of servers in which one or more threads that manage the group of servers are executed, said method comprising:

issuing a command to an operating system of the application server to return a resource consumption value representative of the amount of computing resource consumed by one or more threads;

storing the resource consumption value;

repeating said issuing and said storing multiple times over a time period;

comparing changes in the resource consumption value over the time period with predetermined patterns; and

identifying potential performance improvement areas in the application server based on said comparing.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined patterns include an inactive period pattern that includes an inactive period of an undesirable duration between two consecutive tasks represented in the pattern.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined patterns include a duplicate sequential pattern.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating a graph of the changes in the resource consumption value over the time period; and

determining that the graph has a duplicate sequential pattern if two consecutive tasks represented in the graph have similar thread areas and similar latencies.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a processing unit of an application server for a group of servers in which one or more threads that manage the group of servers are executed, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, cause the application server to carry out the steps of:

issuing a command to an operating system of the application server to return a resource consumption value representative of the amount of computing resource consumed by one or more threads;

storing the resource consumption value;

repeating said issuing and said storing multiple times over a time period; and

generating data points for a graph showing the amount of computing resource consumed by the one or more threads over the time period using the stored resource consumption values.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, cause the application server to carry out the steps of:

detecting edges from the stored resource consumption values; and

determining the number of tasks in a thread based on the number of edges.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, cause the application server to carry out the steps of:

comparing the data points for the graph with predetermined patterns; and

identifying potential performance improvement areas in the application server based on said comparing.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the predetermined patterns include an inactive period pattern that includes an inactive period of an undesirable duration between two consecutive tasks represented in the pattern.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the predetermined patterns include a duplicate sequential pattern.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, cause the application server to carry out the steps of:

determining that the data points for the graph has a duplicate sequential pattern if two consecutive tasks represented in the graph have similar thread areas and similar latencies.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein said repeating is carried out at a predetermined rate that is user-configurable.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computing resource is one of CPU, system memory, and disk IO.