Automated grouping of messages provided to an application using execution path similarity analysis

• US 7,917,911 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Seidman, David Isaiah, Bansal, Jyoti Kumar, Addleman, Mark J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wathen; Brian
• Application Number:
  US11/565,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20080134205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 719/313
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

An application is monitored to identify different execution paths, e.g., sequences of invoked components, which occur due to the receipt of messages by the application. Similarities between the execution paths are determined based on a distance algorithm, in one approach, and execution paths which are similar are assigned to a common group. Additionally, application runtime data such as response times is obtained for the execution paths and aggregated for the group. The messages can also be grouped based on the grouping of the execution paths. Further, a representative execution path can be determined for each execution path group for comparison to subsequent execution paths. A representative message can similarly be determined for each message group. Results can be reported which include a group identifier, representative message, representative execution path, count, and aggregated runtime data.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device having processor-readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, at a starting component of an application, a plurality of incoming messages, each incoming message is received from a respective user, and comprises a request to perform a business transaction, thereby invoking the starting component as a first component in a respective sequence of components, where each component corresponds to a respective business logic step of the business transaction;

in response to each incoming message, the starting component initiates a respective process at the application to perform the business transaction, the business transaction is performed by invoking other components of the respective sequence to carry out the business logic steps, after which a program control is returned back to the starting component, and the starting component provides a respective response message to the respective user;

storing data in at least one log which identifies respective execution paths of the application, each respective execution path identifies one of the respective sequences of components;

responsive to the storing of data in the at least one log, calculating metrics which represent distances between the execution paths, the calculating metrics includes, for the respective sequences of components of the respective execution paths, assigning higher weights to at least one of;

(a) a first n components and (b) a last m components;

grouping the execution paths according to the metrics into a plurality of groups of execution paths; and

responsive to the grouping of the execution paths, grouping the messages into a plurality of groups of messages.

2. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the execution paths occur in at least one application server;

the incoming messages are received at the at least one application server from at least one web browser; and

at least one of the incoming messages includes a URL query which invokes the starting component.

3. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the metrics are calculated by considering an order in which the components are invoked in each respective execution path.

4. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the metrics are calculated by considering a predetermined subset of the invoked components in each respective execution path.

5. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped according to whether a subset of consecutive components in one execution path is the same as a subset of consecutive components in another execution path.

6. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the one execution path and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the another execution path.

7. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the one execution path and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the another execution path.

8. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 5, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a first predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the one execution path and a second predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the one execution path, and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the first predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the another execution path and the second predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the another execution path.

9. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped so that execution paths whose distance from one another is less than a threshold are grouped together.

10. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped so that each of the plurality of groups of execution paths has a similar number of execution paths.

11. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped into a hierarchy of groups.

12. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

in each respective execution path, the calling of the at least one other component is identified by instrumentation.

13. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the execution paths extends across multiple applications, and an identifier which represents invoked components in at least a first application of the multiple applications is used in the calculating of the metrics.

14. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the method performed further comprises:

providing a representative execution path for at least one of the groups of execution paths.

15. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the method performed further comprises:

providing a representative execution path for at least one of the groups of execution paths by determining an execution path in the at least one of the groups of execution paths for which a sum of the distances relative to other execution paths in the at least one of the groups of execution paths is a minimum.

16. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

each invoked component is identified in the at least one log by a class or method with which the component is associated.

17. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

in at least one of the respective sequences of components, the starting component invokes other components of the respective sequence by calling at least a second component, which in turn calls at least a third component, before the program control is returned back to the starting component.

18. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one log includes, for each execution path, an identifier of the execution path and identifiers of the components of the execution path, in an order in which the components were invoked.

19. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the method performed further comprises:

responsive to the grouping of the messages, reporting results by displaying a user interface which identifies messages in the groups of messages.

20. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 19 wherein:

the reporting identifies a count of messages grouped into each of the plurality of groups of messages.

21. At least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device having processor-readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing data in at least one log which identifies respective execution paths of at least one application, each respective execution path is responsive to receipt by the at least one application of a respective message, where each respective message is a request to perform a business transaction, and each respective execution path includes;

(a) a starting component which is invoked responsive to receipt of the respective message and (b) a second component which is called by the starting component, (c) and a third component which is called by the second component, where each component represents a business logic step of the business transaction;

responsive to the storing of data in the at least one log, calculating metrics which represent distances between the execution paths;

grouping the execution paths according to the metrics into a plurality of groups of execution paths; and

responsive to the grouping of the execution paths, grouping the messages into a plurality of groups of messages;

wherein at least one of the execution paths extends over multiple applications, the distances are obtained separately for the components of each application, and the calculating metrics accords higher weights to distance metrics of a specified one of the multiple applications.

22. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the metrics are calculated by assigning different weights to different components in each respective execution path, where the different weights are assigned by an operator.

23. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the metrics are calculated by considering an order in which the components are invoked in each respective execution path.

24. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the metrics are calculated by considering a predetermined subset of the invoked components in each respective execution path.

25. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped so that execution paths whose distance from one another is less than a threshold are grouped together.

26. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped so that each of the plurality of groups of execution paths has a similar number of execution paths.

27. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped into a hierarchy of groups.

28. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the method performed further comprises:

providing a representative execution path for at least one of the groups of execution paths.

29. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the method performed further comprises:

providing a representative execution path for at least one of the groups of execution paths by determining an execution path in the at least one of the groups of execution paths for which a sum of the distances relative to other execution paths in the at least one of the groups of execution paths is a minimum.

30. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein:

the execution paths are grouped according to whether a subset of consecutive components in one execution path is the same as a subset of consecutive components in another execution path.

31. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 30, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the one execution path and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the another execution path.

32. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 30, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the one execution path and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the another execution path.

33. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 30, wherein:

the subset of consecutive components in the one execution path includes a first predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the one execution path and a second predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the one execution path, and the subset of consecutive components in the another execution path includes the first predetermined number of consecutive components at a start of the another execution path and the second predetermined number of consecutive components at an end of the another execution path.

34. At least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device having processor-readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, at a starting component of an application, a plurality of incoming messages, each incoming message is received from a respective user, and comprises a request to perform a business transaction, thereby invoking the starting component as a first component in a respective sequence of components, where each component corresponds to a respective business logic step of the business transaction;

in response to each incoming message, the starting component initiates a respective process at the application to perform the business transaction, the business transaction is performed by invoking other components of the respective sequence to carry out the business logic steps, after which a program control is returned back to the starting component, and the starting component provides a respective response message to the respective user;

storing data in at least one log which identifies respective execution paths of the application, each respective execution path identifies one of the respective sequences of components;

responsive to the storing of data in the at least one log, calculating metrics which represent distances between the execution paths;

grouping the execution paths according to the metrics into a plurality of groups of execution paths; and

responsive to the grouping of the execution paths, grouping the messages into a plurality of groups of messages;

wherein at least one of the execution paths extends over multiple applications, the distances are obtained separately for the components of each application, and the calculating metrics accords higher weights to distance metrics of a specified one of the multiple applications.

35. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 34, wherein the method performed further comprises:

responsive to the grouping of the messages, reporting results by displaying a user interface which identifies messages in the groups of messages.

36. At least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device having processor-readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing data in at least one log which identifies respective execution paths of at least one application, each respective execution path is responsive to receipt by the at least one application of a respective message, where each respective message is a request to perform a business transaction, and each respective execution path includes;

(a) a starting component which is invoked responsive to receipt of the respective message and (b) a second component which is called by the starting component, (c) and a third component which is called by the second component, where each component represents a business logic step of the business transaction;

responsive to the storing of data in the at least one log, calculating metrics which represent distances between the execution paths, the calculating metrics includes, for the execution paths, assigning higher weights to at least one of;

(a) a first n components and (b) a last m components;

grouping the execution paths according to the metrics into a plurality of groups of execution paths; and

responsive to the grouping of the execution paths, grouping the messages into a plurality of groups of messages.

37. The at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein the method performed further comprises:

responsive to the grouping of the messages, reporting results by displaying a user interface which identifies messages in the groups of messages.