SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPUTER ANALYSIS

• US 20130047039A1
• Filed: 08/18/2011
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avanquest Software USA, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Avanquest Software USA, Inc.
• Inventors: MANES, Mark, LIU, Jun, VANPEENE, David, MERIWETHER, Brent, RODGERS, Kerry
• Application Number:
  US13/212,768
• Publication Number:
  US 20130047039A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for monitoring processes. The method includes the steps of monitoring at least one process in real time, collecting information on the at least one monitored process, analyzing the collected information in real time using at least one dynamic, updatable filter, identifying at least one triggering item or event matching at least one predetermined filter criterion, providing information regarding the at least one triggering item to an event processing engine for examination, and taking at least one action in real time in response to the identified triggering item or event. In certain embodiments, the method is implemented with a computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed causes the computer to perform the method.

Claims

1. A computer-based method of monitoring processes, comprising the steps of:

monitoring at least one process in real time;

collecting information on the at least one monitored process;

analyzing the collected information in real time using at least one dynamic, updatable filter;

identifying at least one triggering item or event matching at least one predetermined filter criterion;

providing information regarding the at least one triggering item to an event processing engine for examination; and

taking at least one action in real time in response to the identified triggering item or event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one action is selected from the group consisting of:

triggering at least one reporting action based upon a match of at least a portion of the collected information with at least one predetermined filter criterion,

displaying information in response to a monitored process activity, and

providing in real time at least one recommendation for improving system performance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one triggering event is selected from the group consisting of:

a process exceeding a threshold of resource usage for a predetermined amount of time,

a predetermined activity type starting or stopping,

a first predetermined script starting,

a first predetermined script causing a second predetermined script to start, and

a predetermined number of activity types starting or stopping.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one recommended action is selected from the group consisting of:

logging an alert to report,

triggering a user notification,

prompting a user to take action,

lowering an item'"'"'s processing priority,

changing a CPU affinity for an identified process,

moving a program to a different disk based on program usage, and

recording a data point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dynamic updatable filter is configured to check for at least one item selected from the group consisting of:

a process name,

binary details of a process launcher,

a user who ran a process, and

whether a full screen mode is enabled.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dynamic updatable filter is configured to check for at least one item selected from the group consisting of:

one or more items responsible for causing a resource pool to be near maximum usage,

at least one spike in resource usage,

at least one spike in a number or processes started or active,

whether a computer swaps memory more than a predetermined number of times in a given time period, and

whether a program causes disk usage to exceed a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dynamic updatable filter is configured to check for at least one item selected from the group consisting of:

CPU memory usage exceeding a predetermined threshold,

a difference in a number of processes running in a predetermined configuration,

a process that is not running a required category,

an increase in average resources used by a monitored process,

a process that is running above its normal priority, and

a process that is not obeying its normal scheduled behavior.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying a change in a number or a behavior of processes running on a monitored computer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying at least one item for examination.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of

collecting the identified at least one item for examination from a plurality of users,

storing the collected information on a remote server/database, and

analyzing the collected information to look for a pattern or commonality in the collected information.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of storing at least one piece of information about the at least one identified item, wherein the at least one piece of information selected from the group consisting of:

a first time the item was seen,

a last time the item was seen,

a number of times the item was started,

a number of times the item was stopped, and

a number of times the item was marked as behaving oddly.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of tracking system resource usage and/or process activity in real time.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of recording system resource usage and/or process activity in real time.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of displaying system resource utilization in real time.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of identifying one or more items of interest to maintain in a database.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of identifying an item for sharing with a community of users.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of adding an identified item to a Blacklist.

18. A computer program product comprising

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed causes the computer to perform a method of monitoring processes, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring at least one process in real time;

collecting information on the at least one monitored process;

analyzing collected data in real time using at least one dynamic, updatable filter;

identifying at least one triggering item or event matching at least one predetermined filter criterion;

providing information regarding the at least one triggering item to an event processing engine for examination; and

taking at least one action in real time in response to the identified triggering item or event.

19. A method of improving system startup or shutdown performance, comprising the steps of:

monitoring a startup or shutdown duration and comparing it to a baseline startup or shutdown duration;

identifying a change in startup or shutdown duration with respect to the baseline duration;

identifying at least one reason why system startup or shutdown duration changed;

displaying the at least one reason for the change in startup or shutdown duration; and

providing in real time at least one recommendation for improving the startup or shutdown duration.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of identifying at least one reason for a change in startup or shutdown duration further includes at least one action selected from the group consisting of:

identifying a number of processes starting or stopping during startup or shutdown,

identifying a change in a number or behavior of processes running on startup or shutdown,

identifying a time at which CPU utilization was at a maximum,

comparing a current disk utilization to at least one previously measured performance statistic, and

calculating an average CPU utilization.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

automatically changing at least one system parameter in real time; and

testing to see if startup or shutdown duration decreases.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

collecting statistics on previous startup or shutdown durations;

comparing the collected statistics to the baseline startup or shutdown duration; and

identifying when the startup or shutdown duration changes beyond a predetermined amount of the baseline duration.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of storing the collected information on the system the information was collected from.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of storing the collected information on a remote server.

25. A computer program product comprising

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed causes the computer to perform a method of improving system startup or shutdown performance, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a startup or shutdown duration and comparing it to a baseline startup or shutdown duration;

identifying a change in startup or shutdown duration with respect to the baseline duration;

identifying at least one reason why system startup or shutdown duration changed;

displaying the at least one reason for the change in startup or shutdown duration; and

providing in real time at least one recommendation for improving the startup or shutdown duration.