Method and computer program product for estimating total resource usage requirements of a server application in a hypothetical user configuration

• US 6,086,618 A
• Filed: 01/26/1998
• Issued: 07/11/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Al-Hilali, Hilal, Howell, David Andrew, Guimbellot, David Edward, Clarke, Perry
• Primary Examiner(s): Teska, Kevin J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Broda, Samuel
• Application Number:
  US09/013,441
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 395/500.23, 395/500.25, 395/200.25, 702/186, 709/220, 709/223, 709/226, 703/2, 703/4
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

A method for developing system resource usage "cost" equations, creating models based upon such cost equations, and estimating total system resource usage and computer program product incorporating such cost equations. A server application is analyzed and certain transactions are defined therein that occur in response to interaction with a client application that in many instances originates from user behavior. System resources are also identified and resource usage measurements are determined for each transaction. One way of determining the resource usage measurements is by creating a load of a particular transaction on an "instrumented" server application and measuring the resources used in connection with the transaction. Cost equations for each type of system resource can then be constructed taking a component from each transaction that uses a particular system resource so that the cost equations are defined in terms of transactions. By reducing user behavior to transactions, accurate estimates of total hardware resource usage for a server application in a particular scenario can be easily attained.

Claims

1. A method for estimating system resource usage requirements of a server application comprising:

a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application;

a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured;

a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource;

a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements so that user loads that are reduced to transaction rates are input into the system resource cost equation to estimate resource usage; and

a specific act of a user using the estimated resource usage to configure the server application.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the system resource usage measurements are generated by performing the following:

a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type;

a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type;

a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; and

a specific act of determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each defined transaction type.

4. A method as recited in claim 3 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.

6. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 1.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the transaction types includes receiving an electronic mail message.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the transaction types includes a combination of logging in and logging out of the server application.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of server application system resources include software resources.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a specific act of creating a user profile for a hypothetical configuration having information regarding the number of and behavior of users that are reduced to terms of transaction rates; and

a specific act of ascertaining total system resource usage requirements of the server application for the hypothetical configuration by using the user profile information with the cost equations for each system resource to estimate the total system resource usage for the hypothetical configuration.

11. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.

12. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the system resource usage measurements are generated by performing the following:

a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type;

a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type;

a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; and

a specific act of determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each defined transaction type.

13. A method as recited in claim 12 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.

14. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 10.

16. A method for creating a system resource requirement estimation model for a server application comprising:

a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application;

a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured;

a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource comprising the following;

a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type;

a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type; and

a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load;

a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements; and

a specific act of providing for the receipt of hypothetical configuration information that simulates the number of and behavior of anticipated users in terms of transaction rates so that total resource usage is estimated by using the hypothetical configuration information combined with the developed cost equations.

17. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.

18. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.

19. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.

20. A method as recited in claim 16 further comprising the step of verifying the accuracy of the model by performing the following:

a specific act of generating an actual load on the server application based on hypothetical configuration information;

a specific act of measuring the actual system resource usage; and

a specific act of comparing the actual system resource usage with the estimated system resource usage estimated from the developed cost equations.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 16.

23. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 19 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.

22. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for estimating system resource requirements of a server software application given a user profile of a hypothetical configuration, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises computer-executable instructions for performing the following specific acts:

receiving a user profile of a hypothetical configuration that contains the number of users and the behavior of the users that are reduced to terms of transaction rates of identified transaction types performed by the server application;

computing a total estimated resource usage for the hypothetical configuration based on the user profile and system resource cost equations, each system resource cost equation developed from generated resource usage measurements of applicable identified transaction types performed by the server application; and

showing the total system resource estimate of a customer configuration thereby allowing accurate planning on the part of the customer.

24. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22 wherein the resource usage measurements are generated comprising the following specific acts:

instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each identified transaction type;

creating loads on the server application that exercise each identified transaction type separately;

measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each identified transaction type while under the created load; and

determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each identified transaction type and system resource.

25. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22 wherein the identified transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.