System and method for problem determination using dependency graphs and run-time behavior models

• US 7,711,987 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Globalfoundries US Incorporated (GlobalFoundries, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Manish, Neogi, Anindya, Sailer, Anca, Appleby, Karen, Agarwal, Manoj K., Kar, Gautam
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu; Gabriel L
• Application Number:
  US12/184,421
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294946A1
• Time in Patent Office: 641 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• 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 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions

Abstract

A problem determination system and method reduces the time and effort required by system administrators to trouble shot transaction processing difficulties in a large distributed I/T environment by monitoring system component performance and computing operational performance threshold limits based on dependency graphs for the system. Using this data, a prioritized list of suspect components for the I/T system is generated.

Claims

1. A problem determination system implemented in instructions recorded on computer readable media, said instructions, when run on a computer, causing said computer to provide:

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, said means for computing operational limits includes;

means for capturing monitored information from said distributed transaction system;

means for automatically computing individual component level thresholds from user level SLAs; and

means for generating a dynamic dependency information for said distributed transaction system using static dependency data and said monitored information.

2. A problem determination system implemented in instructions recorded on computer readable media, said instructions, when run on a computer, causing said computer to provide:

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, said means for determining poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits includes;

means for obtaining monitored information relative to performance of a transaction;

means for identifying a sub-set of resources that are used to perform said transaction from said set of resources in said distributed transaction system;

means for obtaining performance information for each resource of said sub-set of resources; and

means for comparing said monitored information with said performance information to make performance status determination.

3. The problem determination system according to claim 2 wherein, means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status includes:

means for selecting one of several algorithms for calculating a severity value for each of said resources; and

means for creating a priority list of said set root cause components based on severity values.

4. A problem determination System implemented in instructions recorded on computer readable media, said instructions, when run on a computer, causing said computer to provide:

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status includes;

means for selecting one of several algorithms for calculating a severity value for each of said resources; and

means for creating a priority list of said set root cause components based on severity values.

5. A set of resources configured as a distributed transactions system in which problem determination is performed on an automatic basis by a distributed transaction system including:

the set of resources configured as a distributed transaction system;

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational, limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, said means for computing operational limits includes;

means for capturing monitoring information from said distributed transaction system;

means for automatically computing individual component level thresholds from user level SLAs; and

means for generating a dynamic dependency information for said distributed transaction system using static dependency data and said monitoring information.

6. A set of resources configured as a distributed transactions system in which problem determination is performed on an automatic basis by a distributed transaction system including:

the set of resources configured as a distributed transaction system;

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, said means for determining poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits includes;

means for obtaining monitoring information relative to performance of a transaction;

means for identifying a sub-set of resources that are used to perform said transaction from said set of resources in said distributed transaction system;

means for obtaining performance information for each resource of said sub-set of resources; and

means for comparing said monitoring information with said performance information to make performance status determination.

7. The set of resources configured as a distributed transactions system in which problem determination is performed on an automatic basis according to claim 6 wherein, means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status includes:

means for selecting one of several algorithms for calculating a severity value for each of said resources; and

means for creating a priority list of said set root cause components based on severity values.

8. A set of resources configured as a distributed transactions system in which problem determination is performed on an automatic basis by a distributed transaction system including:

the set of resources configured as a distributed transaction system;

means for computing operational limits for a set of resources in a distributed transaction system;

means for determining a poor performance status for said resources relative to said operational limits;

means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status;

means for prioritizing said set of root cause components; and

means for providing said prioritized set of root cause components to a systems administrator;

wherein, means for generating a set of root cause components which are likely to be causing said poor performance status includes;

means for selecting one of several algorithms for calculating a severity value for each of said resources; and

means for creating a priority list of said set root cause components based on severity values.