Systems and methods for monitoring a computing environment

• US 7,784,027 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2005
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Harrison, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US11/121,523
• Publication Number:
  US 20050193376A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,938 Days
• Field of Search: 717/113, 717/127, 717/131
• US Class Current: 717/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention comprises a system and method for monitoring the performance of an application. The invention includes a monitoring system graphical user interface (GUI) having an interactive window with on-screen graphics representative of the application architecture and component performance. The GUI comprises straightforward and intuitive icons, panels, and dataflows, representing the existence, capacity, or number of processes, memory structures, and the like of the application being monitored. In addition, the monitoring system includes an alert firing mechanism and process for alerting an administrator to potential or actual performance problems in the application.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a computing environment, the method comprising:

providing on a user interface first on-screen graphics with one or more computer processors, wherein the first on-screen graphics represents at least first and second redo logs associated with a computer database program, wherein the first on-screen graphics indicates that the first redo log is active and the second redo log is inactive;

providing on the user interface with one or more computer processors second on-screen graphics representing an amount of data flow into one or more active redo logs; and

modifying a graphical attribute of the first on-screen graphics when a log switch occurs between the first redo log and the second redo log wherein the first redo log becomes inactive and the second redo log becomes active.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the second on-screen graphics between the first on-screen graphics and another application component to represent data flow between the application component and the one or more active redo logs.

3. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising modifying a graphical attribute of the second on-screen graphics when the represented amount of data flow changes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the graphical attribute of the first on-screen graphics when the performance of at least one of the first and second redo logs reaches a predetermined caution level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein modifying the graphical attribute comprises changing a color.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first on-screen graphics depict operation of a processor associated with at least one of the first and second redo logs.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising on-screen graphics associated with at least one disk.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second on-screen graphics further represent a fault amount.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second on-screen graphics further represent an amount of cache reads or writes.

10. An executable computer program for monitoring the performance statistics of a computing environment, the computer program comprising:

software executing in one or more computer processors, the software configured to display on an interface, first on-screen graphics representing at least first and second redo logs associated with a computer database program, wherein the first on-screen graphics indicates that the first redo log is active and the second redo log is inactive, the software further configured to display on the interface second on-screen graphics representing data flow into one or more active redo logs; and

data including when a log switch occurs between the first redo log and the second redo log wherein the first redo log becomes inactive and the second redo log becomes active, wherein the software is configured to change a graphical attribute of the first on-screen graphics when the first redo log becomes inactive and the second redo log becomes active.

11. The computer program of claim 10, wherein the software is further configured to display in panels application components having similar functionality.

12. The computer program of claim 11, wherein the software is further configured to display at least a portion of the second on-screen graphics extending between at least two panels so as to represent the data flow between at least on application component and an active redo log.

13. The computer program of claim 10, wherein the processor is a server processor.

14. The computer program of claim 10, wherein the software is configured to group the first and second on-screen graphics within a visual map to resemble an underlying architecture of the computing environment.

15. The computer program of claim 10, further comprising plurality of threshold parameters that comprise a hierarchy of caution levels, each of which corresponds to a different graphical attribute.

16. The computer program of claim 15, wherein the second graphical attribute comprises at least one of size, color, texture, text, blinking, existence, speed, acceleration, value, sound, rotation, animation and content.

17. The computer program of claim 10, wherein the second on-screen graphics depicts a fault.

18. The computer program of claim 10, further comprising the depiction of at least one disk.

19. The computer program of claim 10, further comprising a plurality of threshold parameters that are programmable by a user.