System and method for diagnosing computer system operational behavior

• US 6,792,393 B1
• Filed: 12/03/2001
• Issued: 09/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Leighton, William J. III, Karasaridis, Anestis, Meier-Hellstern, Kathleen S., Hosseini-Nasab, Mehdi, Futumura, Kenichi, Mainkar, Varsha Arvind, Farel, Richard Alan, Reeser, Paul Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Suarez, Felix
• Application Number:
  US10/011,067
• Time in Patent Office: 1,016 Days
• Field of Search: 702/58, 702/68, 702/79, 702/109, 702/119, 702/120, 702/128, 702/176, 702/177, 702/179, 702/182, 702/183, 702/186-188, 702/190, 714/49, 435/6, 709/219, 705/51
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions

Abstract

A system and method for identifying computer system performance signatures and for identifying the cause of undesirable performance signatures, particularly with respect to both application-based and computer system-based parameters. Respective parametric information data is matched with corresponding parameters found in a stored plurality of reference signatures. If a match is found between the behavior of a computer system under study and a reference signature, the present invention provides information about the cause(s) of the reference signature, such that appropriate remedial measures can be taken. If a match is not found (according to predetermined matching rules), then the present invention may provide additional prompts to request additional information or test data such that the signature of computer system being tested can be further refined so that the signature of the target computer system might more closely match a reference signature.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing both application behavior and system behavior in a computing system, the method comprising:

identifying an undesirable computing system behavior;

identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior; and

recommending at least one of an application-based solution and a system-based solution to remedy the undesirable computing system behavior, wherein identifying an undesirable computing system behavior comprises making a qualitative observation of the undesirable computing system behavior.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising matching a qualitative observation of the undesirable computing system behavior with at least a range of values for at least one application-based or system-based parameter of the computing system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein qualitatively observing the undesirable computing system behavior comprises eliciting user responses to a plurality of prompts.

4. The method according to claim 3, further wherein the plurality of prompts comprises a plurality of questions.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising posing a current question based on a user response to a prior question.

6. A method of analyzing both application behavior and system behavior in a computing system, the method comprising:

identifying an undesirable computing system behavior;

requesting additional information about the computing system, after identifying the undesirable computing system behavior;

identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior; and

recommending at least one of an application-based solution and a system-based solution to remedy the undesirable computing system behavior, wherein requesting additional information comprises identifying invalid information about the computing system utilized in identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior.

7. A method of analyzing both application behavior and system behavior in a computing system, the method comprising:

identifying an undesirable computing system behavior;

identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior; and

recommending at least one of an application-based solution and a system-based solution to remedy the undesirable computing system behavior, wherein identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior comprises comparing the identified undesirable computing system behavior with a plurality of reference computing system behaviors, wherein a cause of each reference computing system behavior is known, and reporting the cause of a respective reference computing system behavior when a match between the identified undesirable computing system behavior and the matching reference computing system behavior is identified.

8. A method of analyzing both application behavior and system behavior in a computing system, the method comprising:

identifying an undesirable computing system behavior;

identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior; and

recommending at least one of an application-based solution and a system-based solution to remedy the undesirable computing system behavior, wherein identifying an undesirable computing system behavior comprises performing load testing on the computing system, and identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior based on a result of the load testing.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing load testing comprises performing a fixed load test.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing load testing comprises performing a scalability test using a variable load.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing load testing comprises performing a fixed-load soak test.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising automatically populating an entry in a user input interface with a result from said fixed load test.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising automatically populating an entry in a user input interface with a result from said scalability test.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising automatically populating an entry in a user input interface with a result from said soak test.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising collecting user-inputted information entered using the user input interface in addition to the result from the fixed load test, wherein identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior is based on the result of the fixed load test and the additional user-inputted information.

16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising collecting user-inputted information entered using the user input interface in addition to the result from the scalability test, wherein identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior is based on the result of the scalability test and the additional input information.

17. The method according to claim 14, further comprising collecting user-inputted information entered using the user input interface in addition to the result from the soak test, wherein identifying a cause of the undesirable computing system behavior is based on the result of the soak test and the additional input information.