Relationships Derived from Trace Data

• US 20130219057A1
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Concurix Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Ying, Gounares, Alexander G., Garrett, Charles D., Krajec, Russell S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,665,474 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/443 Optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks

Abstract

An analysis system may perform network analysis on data gathered from an executing application. The analysis system may identify relationships between code elements and use tracer data to quantify and classify various code elements. In some cases, the analysis system may operate with only data gathered while tracing an application, while other cases may combine static analysis data with tracing data. The network analysis may identify groups of related code elements through cluster analysis, as well as identify bottlenecks from one to many and many to one relationships. The analysis system may generate visualizations showing the interconnections or relationships within the executing code, along with highlighted elements that may be limiting performance.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer processor, said method comprising:

receiving trace data gathered by tracing an application;

analyzing said trace data to identify a plurality of code elements;

identifying a plurality of relationships, said relationships being between two of said code elements and having directionality;

determining a performance metric for each of said code elements;

determining a characterization for each of said relationships;

analyzing said plurality of relationships to identify a first code element as a bottleneck; and

storing a bottleneck annotation associated with said first code element.

2. The method of claim 1, said bottleneck being identified from a star pattern.

3. The method of claim 2, said star pattern comprising said first code element as a hub node in a star pattern, and a first plurality of code elements being spokes on said star pattern.

4. The method of claim 3, said star pattern being defined with relationships from said first code element to each of said first plurality of code elements.

5. The method of claim 3, said star pattern being defined with relationships to said first code element from each of said first plurality of code elements.

6. The method of claim 1, said star pattern comprising a second code element as a hub node in a star pattern, and a first plurality of code elements being spokes on said star pattern, said first code element being one of said first plurality of code elements.

7. The method of claim 6, said first code element being a code element for which said second code element was waiting during said tracing said application.

8. The method of claim 1, said characterization of each of said relationships being determined at least in part from a number of communications.

9. The method of claim 8, said characterization of each of said relationships being determined at least in part from a frequency of communications.

10. The method of claim 9, said characterization of each of said relationships being determined at least in part from a size of data passed within said communications.

11. The method of claim 1, said first code element being one of a series of code elements in a pipeline pattern.

12. The method of claim 11, said first code element being downstream from a second code element and upstream from on a third code element.

13. The method of claim 12, said first code element being the only code element connecting said second code element to said third code element.

14. The method of claim 13, said first code element being identified as said bottleneck when said tracing data indicates that third code element entered a wait state for a period of time exceeding a predefined threshold.

15. A system comprising:

a processor;

an analyzer operating on said processor, said analyzer that;

receives trace data gathered by tracing an application;

analyzes said trace data to identify a plurality of code elements;

identifies a plurality of relationships, said relationships being between two of said code elements and having directionality;

determines a performance metric for each of said code elements;

determines a characterization for each of said relationships;

analyzes said plurality of relationships to identify a first code element as a bottleneck; and

stores a bottleneck annotation associated with said first code element.

16. The system of claim 15, said analyzer that further:

displays said bottleneck annotation on a user interface.

17. The system of claim 16, said analyzer that further:

displays said bottleneck annotation within a graph.

18. The system of claim 15, said trace data gathered on a second processor.

19. The system of claim 15, said trace data gathered on said processor.