System for managing resources

• US 7,188,170 B1
• Filed: 05/01/2002
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Blazent Incorporated (ServiceNow Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Blazent Incorporated (ServiceNow Incorporated)
• Inventors: Zheng, Wei, Gerhold, Brian, Burnley, Christopher, Sherman, Mike, Day, Pamela
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot; Bharat
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOROBOV, VITALI A
• Application Number:
  US10/136,177
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/201, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 710/1, 710/15, 710/17, 710/18, 455/405, 725/9, 702/188, 702/186
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3082 the data filtering being achieved by aggregating or compressing the monitored data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/885 Monitoring specific for caches

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a system for tracking utilization of resources of computers. This system includes several client computers, where each computer has one or more resources that the system tracks. The system also includes a client application for each client computer. Each client application collects utilization duration data relating to the utilization of the resources of its corresponding client computer. The system further includes an application server that receives the utilization duration data collected by the client applications and stores the received data in a storage structure. In certain embodiments, the collected duration data includes time periods that the client applications measure. The application server then aggregates and/or stores the collected time periods. One of ordinary skill will realize that in other embodiments the client applications might report raw duration data (such as start and end times) from which the application server generates the appropriate time periods.

Claims

1. A system for tracking utilization of resources of computers, the system comprising:

a) a plurality of client computers, wherein each computer has at least one software resource that the system tracks;

b) a client application for each client computer, each client application for collecting utilization duration data relating to the utilization of the at least one software resource of the application'"'"'s corresponding client computer; and

c) an application server for receiving the utilization duration data collected by the client applications and for storing the received data in a storage structure;

wherein at least one collected duration data provides an estimated amount of time that a software resource was in focus, wherein a software resource is in focus when the software resource is the designated software resource for receiving input.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the collected duration data relate to the utilization of software resources of the client computers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each collected duration data provides an estimated duration of the utilization of a software resource.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one collected duration data provides an estimated amount of time that a software resource is active.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein a software resource is active when the software resource receives input at a frequency that is greater than a threshold frequency.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the collected duration data relate to the utilization of hardware resources of the client computers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each of a plurality of collected duration data provides an estimate of the amount of time that the utilization of a hardware resource has crossed a particular threshold utilization value.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the collected duration data relate to the utilization of hardware resources by particular software resources of the client computers.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of a plurality of collected duration data provides an estimate of the amount of time that the utilization of a particular hardware resource by a particular software resource has crossed a particular threshold utilization value.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the client computers include browsers, wherein at least some of the client applications detect browser events, wherein at least some of the collected duration data relate to browser events.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each duration data that relates to a browser event provides an estimated duration for the browser event.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein some of the detected browser events are URL events.