Virtual machine monitoring for application operation diagnostics

• US 7,644,312 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Muralidharan, Srinivasan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lohn; Joshua A
• Application Number:
  US10/335,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,562 Days
• Field of Search: 714/27, 714/38, 717/124, 717/127, 717/128
• US Class Current: 714/38.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring the operation of an application in a virtual machine. The system can include a debug script processor programmed to command an application executing within the virtual machine according to instructions specified in a debug script. The system further can include a monitor component implemented according to a virtual machine debugging interface and coupled to the virtual machine. Importantly, the monitor component can have a configuration for collecting debug data produced in consequence of the application executing within the virtual machine according to the instructions specified in the debug script.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring the operation of an application in a virtual machine, the system comprising:

a debug script processor programmed to command an application executing within the virtual machine according to instructions specified in a debug script; and

,

a monitor component implemented according to a virtual machine debugging interface and coupled to the virtual machine, said monitor component having a configuration for collecting debug data produced in consequence of said application executing within the virtual machine according to said instructions specified in said debug script.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a debug script generator programmed to generate a debug script comprising instructions corresponding to manual commands for evoking particular state changes in said application.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said manual commands comprise commands selected from the group consisting of set an absolute break point, set a conditional break point, inspect an object'"'"'s value, trace a method call and continue execution from a break point.

4. A method for diagnosing in a technical support computer the operation of an application executing in a virtual machine in a customer computer, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a debug script corresponding to an application execution condition described by a customer at the customer computer, and forwarding a reference to said selected debug script to said customer at the customer computer;

placing the virtual machine in debug mode;

retrieving said referenced debug script from a script repository and executing said retrieved debug script concurrently with the executing application;

logging application execution data produced by the executing application responsive to said executed debug script; and

,

forwarding said logged application execution data to the technical support computer,

whereby said application execution condition can be remotely diagnosed in the technical support computer based upon said logged application data.

5. An execution diagnostics method for use with an application executing in a virtual machine, the method comprising the steps of:

placing the virtual machine in debug mode;

commanding the application based upon instructions in a debug script;

querying the virtual machine through a virtual machine debug interface to identify execution data produced by said commands; and

,

logging said identified execution data for use in diagnosing operational problems associated with the application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said execution data comprises data selected from the group consisting of method calls, time delays, call stack data, and data values.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of retrieving said debug script from a remote repository of debug scripts.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said retrieving step comprises the steps of:

specifying a test identifier to said remote repository; and

,

retrieving a debug script associated with said specified test identifier.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of posting said logged execution data to a remotely positioned technical support server.

10. A machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for performing execution diagnostics with an application executing in a virtual machine, the computer program comprising a routine set of instructions for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

placing the virtual machine in debug mode;

commanding the application based upon instructions in a debug script;

querying the virtual machine through a virtual machine debug interface to identify execution data produced by said commands; and

,

logging said identified execution data for use in diagnosing operational problems associated with the application.

11. The machine readable storage of claim 10, wherein said execution data comprises data selected from the group consisting of method calls, time delays, call stack data, and data values.

12. The machine readable storage of claim 10, further comprising the step of retrieving said debug script from a remote repository of debug scripts.

13. The machine readable storage of claim 12, wherein said retrieving step comprises the steps of:

specifying a test identifier to said remote repository; and

,

retrieving a debug script associated with said specified test identifier.

14. The machine readable storage of claim 10, further comprising the step of posting said logged execution data to a remotely positioned technical support server.