Method and apparatus for target application program supervision

• US 6,457,142 B1
• Filed: 10/29/1999
• Issued: 09/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Singh, Navjot, Klemm, Reinhard P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoleil, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US09/430,161
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 714/38, 714/26, 714/27, 714/39, 714/47, 702/188
• US Class Current: 714/38.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence

Abstract

A fault monitoring, performance monitoring and fault tolerance apparatus and method for target target application programs is realized in an application supervisor by employing a supervisor agent, modified application programming interfaces (APIs), a generic application wrapper and a shell script that operate interactively to detect and automatically resolve reliability and performance problems occurring in executing the target application program. This is realized, in accordance with the invention, without the need to access, modify or have knowledge of the source code of the target application program to be supervised. In a specific embodiment of the invention, Java™ programming language target application programs are supervised. This is realized by employing the supervisor agent that attaches to a Java virtual machine through two virtual machine native interfaces. One interface is the Java Virtual Machine Profiler Interface (JVMPI) and the other is the Java Native Interface (JNI).

Claims

1. Apparatus including an application supervisor for supervising a target application program comprising:

a supervisor agent;

a modified application programming interface;

a generic application wrapper; and

a shell script,

wherein said supervisor agent, said modified application programming interface, said generic application wrapper and said shell script operate interactively to detect and automatically resolve reliability and/or performance problems occurring in executing said target application program, whereby this is realized without having a need to either access, modify or have knowledge of the source code of the target application program.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1 further including a virtual machine for executing at least said target application program and at least two virtual machine native interfaces to access said virtual machine for providing notification to said application supervisor of prescribed events occurring during execution of said target application program, and wherein said target application program is accessed through said modified application programming interface.

3. The invention as defined in claim 2 wherein said target application program is in Java programming language, said virtual machine is a Java virtual machine and said native interfaces include a Java virtual machine profiler interface (JVMPI) and a Java native interface (JNI).

4. The invention as defined in claim 3 wherein said supervisor agent in conjunction with said JVMPI, JNI and modified application programming interface detects and/or resolves prescribed events in an executing target application program.

5. The invention as defined in claim 4 wherein said detected prescribe events include at least one or more events from a list including, target application program does not terminate within expected time, thread does not terminate within expected time, garbage collector runs too often, garbage collector runs for too long, number of threads exceeds threshold, Java virtual machine shutdown, number of threads is illegal, e.g., spawning the same thread more than once can indicate a programming bug, hung target application program, i.e., target application program does not terminate within expected time, hung thread, i.e., thread does not terminate within expected time, thread terminates, but is not supposed to terminate, i.e., this is a thread that runs forever, target application program exits with System.exit, thread terminates due to an uncaught exception raised either by the virtual machine or explicitly by the target application program, exception thrown, and caught by the target application program.

6. The invention as defined in claim 4 wherein said detected prescribed events are resolved in at least one or more ways from a list including ignore event, notify said manager, suspend additionally spawned threads if the detected problem is a dangerously high number of threads in the target application program, restart target application program, quit target application program.

7. The invention as defined in claim 4 wherein said shell script at least starts execution of said Java virtual machine, said application supervisor and said generic application wrapper.

8. The invention as defined in claim 7 wherein said shell script further controls shutting down the application supervisor, and supplies appropriate parameters to the application supervisor and said Java virtual machine.

9. The invention as defined in claim 8 wherein said generic application wrapper controls starting up and shutting down said the target application program.

10. The invention as defined in claim 9 further including a configuration file and wherein said generic application wrapper processes said configuration file.

11. The invention as defined in claim 10 wherein said application supervisor is configured by parameterizing a set of policy templates in said configuration file.

12. The invention as defined in claim 11 wherein said application wrapper passes each policy template from said configuration file through calls to native methods to said supervisor agent.

13. The invention as defined in claim 11 wherein each of said policy templates is associated with a specific aspect of reliability or performance of said target application program.

14. The invention as defined in claim 7 further including a prescribed manager and a prescribed transport mechanism for connecting said supervisor agent to said prescribed manager.

15. The invention as defined in claim 14 wherein said prescribed manager visually displays events and/or actions of said executing target application program being supervised.

16. The invention as defined in claim 15 wherein said prescribed manager requests status information on said executing target application program and initiating actions in said application supervisor in response to detected events.

17. The invention as defined in claim 14 further including an application supervisor configuration including thread policy specifications, system policy specifications and manager specifications.

18. The invention as defined in claim 7 further including a configuration manager for creating a default configuration file from prescribed class files comprising the target application program.

19. Apparatus including an application supervisor for supervising a target application program comprising:

supervisor agent means for detecting and/or responding to prescribed events occurring during execution of said target application program;

modified application programming interface means for accessing said target application program;

generic application wrapper means for starting up said target application program;

and

shell script means for enabling said target application program to execute,

wherein said supervisor agent means, said modified application programming interface means, said generic application wrapper means and said shell script means operate interactively to detect and automatically resolve reliability and/or performance problems occurring in executing said target application program, whereby this is realized without having a need to either access, modify or have knowledge of the source code of the target application program.

20. The invention as defined in claim 19 further including a virtual machine means for executing at least said target application program and at least two virtual machine native interface means for accessing said virtual machine means for providing notification to said application supervisor of prescribed events occurring during execution of said target application program.

21. The invention as defined in claim 20 wherein said target application program is in Java programming language, said virtual machine means is a Java virtual machine and said at least two native interface means includes a Java virtual machine profiler interface (JVMPI) and a Java native interface (JNI).

22. The invention as defined in claim 21 wherein said supervisor agent means in conjunction with said JVMPI and JNI detects and/or resolves prescribed events in an executing target application program.

23. The invention as defined in claim 22 wherein said shell script means includes means for at least starting execution of said Java virtual machine, said application supervisor means and said generic application wrapper means.

24. The invention as defined in claim 23 wherein said shell script means further means for controlling shutting down said application supervisor, and for supplying appropriate parameters to the application supervisor and said Java virtual machine.

25. The invention as defined in claim 24 wherein said generic application wrapper means includes means for controlling starting up and shutting down said the target application program.

26. The invention as defined in claim 25 further including configuration file means for storing prescribed parameters and wherein said generic application wrapper means includes mean for processing said configuration file.

27. The invention as defined in claim 26 wherein said application supervisor is configured by parameterizing a set of policy templates in said configuration file.

28. The invention as defined in claim 27 wherein said application wrapper means further includes means for passing each of said stored policy templates from said configuration file means through calls to native methods to said supervisor agent.

29. The invention as defined in claim 28 wherein each of said policy templates is associated with a specific aspect of reliability or performance of said target application program.

30. The invention as defined in claim 23 further including prescribed manager means for displaying at least status indications of said executing target application program and prescribed transport mechanism means for connecting said supervisor agent to said prescribed manager means.

31. The invention as defined in claim 30 wherein said prescribed manager means includes means for visually displaying events and/or actions of said executing target application program being supervised.

32. The invention as defined in claim 31 wherein said prescribed manager means includes means for requesting status information on said executing target application program.

33. The invention as defined in claim 30 further including an application supervisor means configuration including thread policy specifications, system policy specifications and manager specifications.

34. The invention as defined in claim 23 further including configuration manager means for creating a default configuration file from prescribed class files comprising the target application program.

35. A method for employing an application supervisor for supervising a target application program comprising the steps of:

detecting of and/or responding to, through a supervisor agent, prescribed events occurring during execution of said target application program;

accessing through a modified application programming interface said target application program;

starting up said target application program through a generic application wrapper; and

enabling said target application program to execute through a shell script,

wherein said supervisor agent, said modified application programming interface, said generic application wrapper and said shell script operate interactively to detect and automatically resolve reliability and/or performance problems occurring in executing said target application program, whereby this is realized without having a need to either access, modify or have knowledge of the source code of the target application program.

36. The method as defined in claim 35 further including a step executing at least said target application program through a virtual machine and accessing said virtual machine through at least two virtual machine native interfaces for providing notification to said application supervisor of prescribed events occurring during execution of said target application program.

37. The method as defined in claim 36 wherein said target application program is in Java programming language, said virtual machine is a Java virtual machine and said at least two native interfaces include a Java virtual machine profiler interface (JVMPI) and a Java native interface (JNI).

38. The method as defined in claim 37 wherein said supervisor agent in conjunction with said JVMPI and JNI detects and/or resolves prescribed events in an executing target application program.

39. The invention as defined in claim 38 wherein said detected prescribe events include at least one or more events from a list including, target application program does not terminate within expected time, thread does not terminate within expected time, garbage collector runs too often, garbage collector runs for too long, number of threads exceeds threshold, Java virtual machine shutdown, number of threads is illegal, e.g., spawning the same thread more than once can indicate a programming bug, hung target application program, i.e., target application program does not terminate within expected time, hung thread, i.e., thread does not terminate within expected time, thread terminates, but is not supposed to terminate, i.e., this is a thread that runs forever, target application program exits with System.exit, thread terminates due to an uncaught exception raised either by the virtual machine or explicitly by the target application program, exception thrown, and caught by the target application program.

40. The invention as defined in claim 38 wherein said detected prescribed events are resolved in at least one or more ways from a list including ignore event, notify said manager, suspend additionally spawned threads if the detected problem is a dangerously high number of threads in the target application program, restart target application program, quit target application program.

41. The method as defined in claim 38 further including a step of said shell script causing at least starting execution of said Java virtual machine, said application supervisor and said generic application wrapper.

42. The method as defined in claim 41 further including a step of said shell script controlling starting up and shutting down the application supervisor and the target application program, and supplying appropriate parameters to the application supervisor and said Java virtual machine.

43. The method as defined in claim 41 further including a step of storing prescribed parameters in a configuration file and wherein said generic application wrapper processes said configuration file.

44. The method as defined in claim 43 further including a step of configuring said application supervisor by parameterizing a set of policy templates stored in said configuration file.

45. The method as defined in claim 44 further including a step of passing each of said stored policy templates under control of said generic application wrapper from said configuration file through calls to native methods to said supervisor agent.

46. The method as defined in claim 45 wherein each of said policy templates is associated with a specific aspect of reliability or performance of said target application program.

47. The method as defined in claim 41 further including steps of a prescribed manager displaying at least status indications of said executing target application program and a prescribed transport mechanism connecting said supervisor agent to said prescribed manager means.

48. The method as defined in claim 47 further including a step of said prescribed manager visually displaying events and/or actions of said executing target application program being supervised.

49. The method as defined in claim 48 further including a step of said prescribed manager requesting status information on said executing target application program.

50. The method as defined in claim 41 further including an application supervisor configuration including thread policy specifications, system policy specifications and manager specifications.

51. The invention as defined in claim 41 further including a step of creating a default configuration file from prescribed class files comprising the target application program.