Auto instrumentation system

• US 7,590,724 B1
• Filed: 04/23/2003
• Issued: 09/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tidal Software, LLC (Redwood International Business Group BV)
• Inventors: Williams, Robert D.
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/421,280
• Time in Patent Office: 2,337 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/224, 719/316
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method of business activity monitoring is provided. A management object is created and attached to an operational component without modifying software for the operational component. Then data associated with the operational component is monitored. The process of instrumenting business activity monitoring can be referred to as auto instrumentation.

Claims

1. A method for business activity monitoring comprising:

creating a management object;

attaching the management object to an operational component without modifying software for the operational component, wherein the operational component is configured to provide a business-related service via a software function included in the operational component, the software function having a defined parameter;

monitoring and aggregating data associated with the operational component, wherein the monitoring and aggregating includes;

monitoring each of a plurality of calls to the software function, wherein each of the plurality of calls passes a value to the software function for the defined parameter; and

aggregating each value passed to the software function into a single data field of the management object;

performing real-time analysis of the values aggregated into the single data field of the management object; and

providing real-time visibility to the values aggregated into the single data field of the management object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational component is selected from a group consisting of a web service, a servlet and a web application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a threshold for the monitored data;

and generating an alert upon reaching the threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein creating comprises specifying dimensions for aggregating the data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein attaching comprises hooking.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein hooking comprises Enterprise Java Beans (EJB™

) hooking.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the management object is created using a management bean.

23. The method of claim 5, wherein the hooking includes making a connection with specific ones of the one or more software procedures included in the operational component, wherein the connection is established at a byte code level of the operational component.

8. A system for business activity monitoring instrumentation, the system comprising:

a client providing a graphical user interface accessible to a user for accessing an operational component configured to provide a business-related service via a software function included in the operational component, the software function having a defined parameter, the graphical user interface further receiving user commands for generating a management object for the operational component; and

one or more servers coupled to the client, the one or more servers configured to generate the management object in response to the user commands without modifying software for the operational component, the one or more servers being further configured to monitor and aggregate data associated with the operational component, perform real-time analysis of the aggregated data via the management object, and provide real-time visibility to the aggregated data via the management object, wherein the monitoring and the aggregating includes;

monitoring each of a plurality of calls to the software function, wherein each of the plurality of calls passes a value to the software function for the defined parameter; and

aggregating each value passed to the software function into a single data field of the management object.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a navigation panel configured to display and navigate a tree structure of a plurality of management objects that are organized into folders and sub-folders.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the client is configured to receive user selection of one of the management objects via the navigation panel, and the graphical user interface further comprises an attributes panel configured to display attributes of the selected management object.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical user interface comprises an events panel configured to display at least one of alerts, failures and thresholds associated with the operational component being monitored.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a view panel configured to display a graphical representation of the aggregated data associated with the operational component being monitored.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the view panel comprises a dashboard configured to display relationships between the management objects.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to map the management object to the operational component to instrument business activity monitoring.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers includes at least one broker server, at least one adapter, and at least one database, wherein said at least one broker accesses the aggregated data stored in said at least one database via said at least one adapter.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers includes a registry server configured to listen to events associated with the aggregated data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the registry server is configured to provide information regarding the aggregated data to the client via messages corresponding to the events.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the events are user defined.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the client is configured to log events corresponding to the messages received from the registry server.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the client is configured to perform a root cause analysis if at least one of the events is a failure of an object.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the client is configured to take note of other objects affected by the failure.

22. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical user interface is accessible by a user to specify dimensions used to access the aggregated data.

24. A computer-implemented method for business activity monitoring comprising:

accessing by a client device a computer-implemented business operation component including a software function having a defined parameter, the business operation component configured to provide a business-related service;

generating by a server coupled to the client device, a management object via a graphical user interface for monitoring the business activity associated with the business operation component, wherein the generating includes;

identifying the business operation component via the graphical user interface;

identifying the software function included in the business operation component, via the graphical user interface;

identifying a data field of the management object via the graphical user interface; and

mapping the parameter defined for the software function, to the data field of the management object;

monitoring each of a plurality of calls to the software function, wherein each of the plurality of calls passes a value to the software function for the defined parameter;

aggregating, based on the monitoring, each value passed to the software function into the mapped data field of the management object; and

accessing the data field of the management object and displaying, in real-time, the values aggregated into the mapped data fields.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the mapping of the parameter to the data field of the management object includes:

displaying, via the graphical user interface, the parameter defined for the software function;

receiving, via the graphical user interface, a user selection of the displayed parameter;

displaying, via the graphical user interface, the data field of the management object;

receiving, via the graphical user interface, a user selection of the displayed data field; and

receiving, via the graphical user interface, a user command to map the selected parameter to the selected data field.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the management object is a software object.