Object-based software management

• US 7,240,244 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2004
• Issued: 07/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Teegan, Hugh A., Matsumoto, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US10/864,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20040226001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 714/57
• US Class Current: 714/38.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

An execution environment accommodating object-based software transparently monitors interactions with software objects to generate operational management information for managing programs executing at plural computers. Notifications are directed to a software manager in the form of events, which can additionally be provided to applications or user programs. The software manager can group the events into sets and derive various operational management metrics from them to provide an overall picture of a program'"'"'s performance, including availability. A hierarchical arrangement feature facilitates gathering information for programs scattered over plural computers. An alert feature provides warnings if metrics fall outside a specified threshold. In addition, the alert feature can automatically subscribe to additional sets of events to dynamically select the information collected by the software manager. Since the operational management information is collected transparently by logic outside the objects, manual instrumentation of the program is unnecessary, and software management technology is made available to organizations without software management expertise.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for presenting a user interface in an enterprise software management system for managing a plurality of programs, the user interface comprising:

a set of program status lines, each program status line comprising;

a ceiling value indicating a maximum value expected for an operational management metric for a program;

a thermometer indicating a measured operational management metric for the program by depicting a percentage of the ceiling value; and

a user selectable area having the name of the program and operative to receive a user selection to navigate to an analysis user interface showing detail of program operation.

2. The user interface of claim 1 wherein the measured operational management metric is transactions per minute for the program.

3. The user interface of claim 2 wherein the transactions per minute for the program are measured across plural computers.

4. The user interface of claim 1 wherein the measured operational management metric is based at least in part on a notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with at least one monitored software object in the program.

5. The user interface of claim 4 wherein the measured operational management metric is further based at least in part on a second notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with a second monitored software object in the program.

6. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for presenting a user interface in a software management system, the user interface comprising:

a program status line comprising;

a thermometer indicating a measured value of an operational management metric for a program; and

a ceiling value indicating a maximum value expected for the operational management metric;

wherein the measured value of the operation management metric is based at least in part on a calculation on a first notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with a first monitored software object and a second notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with a second monitored software object.

7. The user interface of claim 6 further comprising a user selectable area operative to receive a user selection to navigate to an analysis user interface showing detail of program operation.

8. The user interface of claim 6 wherein the thermometer indicates the measured value as a percentage of the ceiling value.

9. The user interface of claim 6 wherein the software management system is an enterprise software management system for managing a plurality of programs across plural computers.

10. The user interface of claim 6 wherein the user interface further comprises plural program status lines.

11. In a computer system, a method of presenting a user interface in a software management system for monitoring computer program performance, the method comprising:

presenting a software management user interface operative to display program performance information and accept user input, the user interface comprising;

a program status line comprising a thermometer indicating a measured value of an operational management metric for a program and a limit value indicating a limit for the operational management metric;

wherein the measured value of the operation management metric is based at least in part on a calculation on a first notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with a first monitored software object and a second notification indicative of at least one object-related operation associated with a second monitored software object.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the limit is a ceiling limit and the limit value is a ceiling value.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the thermometer indicates the measured value as a percentage of the ceiling value.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the limit is a lower limit.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the software management system is an enterprise software management system for managing a plurality of programs across plural computers.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the user interface comprises plural program status lines.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising generating an alert responsive to a determination that the measured value of the operational management metric is outside the limit.

18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 11.