EVALUATING DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION PERFORMANCE IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140172406A1
• Filed: 08/19/2013
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: HUANG, Hai, BASET, Salman A., TAK, Byung Chul, TANG, Chunqiang, WANG, Long
• Granted Patent: US 9,934,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Evaluating the performance of an application when migrated from a first environment in which the application is currently executing to a different second environment includes generating a configuration file using data obtained from the application executing in the first environment, installing the configuration file in a virtual machine residing in the second environment, launching the application in the virtual machine after the installing, and obtaining a metric indicative of the performance from the virtual machine.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for evaluating a performance of an application when migrated from a first environment in which the application is currently executing to a different second environment, where the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

generating a configuration file using data obtained from the application executing in the first environment;

installing the configuration file in a virtual machine residing in the second environment;

launching the application in the virtual machine after the installing; and

obtaining a metric indicative of the performance from the virtual machine.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the data comprises network information and file system information.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the network information comprises input and output parameters for system calls.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the file system information comprises file system settings.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the file system information comprises user account settings.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the network information comprises environment variables.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the network information comprises Internet Protocol configurations.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration file translates an old Internet Protocol address associated with the application executing in the first environment into a new Internet Protocol address associated with the virtual machine in the second environment.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration file replaces an input parameter of a system call that is related to network setup and tear-down.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration file replaces an output of a system call that is related to network setup and tear-down.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

copying a file accessed by the application from the first environment to a server in the second environment.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration file makes it appear to the application launched in the virtual machine that the application continues to execute in the first environment.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein only the second environment is a cloud environment.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first environment and the second environment are both cloud environments.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein only a first portion of the application is migrated to the second environment.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the second environment is one of a plurality of different cloud environments to which different portions of the application are migrated.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a second portion of the application continues to execute in the first environment.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a migration of the application from the first environment to the second environment results in a new interaction between the application and another application.

19. A system for evaluating a performance of an application when migrated from a first environment in which the application is currently executing to a different second environment, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium that stores instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

generating a configuration file using data obtained from the application executing in the first environment;

installing the configuration file in a virtual machine residing in the second environment;

launching the application in the virtual machine after the installing; and

obtaining a metric indicative of the performance from the virtual machine.