Non-intrusive event capturing for event processing analysis

• US 7,945,434 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2008
• Issued: 05/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Software AG
• Original Assignee: Progress Software Corporation
• Inventors: Lovas, Louis R., Cohen, Fredric
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacob; Mary C
• Application Number:
  US12/053,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20080243463A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 703/13, 703/17
• US Class Current: 703/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202

Abstract

A system and a method for capturing, storing and replaying data describing application of an event-based process to an event are described. As an event processing engine processes an input event, specified data is captured by a store monitor included in the event processing engine. Hence, while the event processing engine processes an input event, data describing the event processing is contemporaneously captured without affecting processing of the input event. The captured data is then stored for later access and can be used later simulate or analyze the event processing. In one embodiment, the stored data is also classified or grouped based on one or more grouping criteria (e.g., event type, timestamp) to simplify later access to the data.

Claims

1. A system for capturing data associated with an event-based process, the system comprising:

a simulation manager for receiving an input specifying data associated with an event based process to capture and for sends a control signal to the event store to control retrieval of stored data from the event store and for communication of the stored data from an event store to an event processing engine for processing using the event-based process;

the event processing engine, adapted to communicate with the simulation manager, for processing an input event using the event-based process;

a store monitor, adapted to communicate with the event processing engine, for capturing data describing event processing contemporaneously with processing of the input event by the event processing engine; and

the event store, adapted to communicate with the store monitor and the event processing engine, for receiving captured data describing event processing as stored data and for communicating the stored data to the event processing engine, and wherein the event store further modifies the stored data responsive to the control signal from the simulation manager and communicates the modified stored data to the event processing engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the store monitor captures data describing event processing non-intrusively.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the simulation manager is coupled to the event processing engine and the store monitor to provide a command for controlling data that is captured during event processing.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the event store further organizes the stored data into one or more slots, where a slot includes stored data grouped by one or more grouping criteria.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the grouping criteria comprises at least one from the group of an event type and a timestamp.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an object storage, adapted to communicate with the event store, for archiving captured data.

7. The system of claim 6, comprising:

a replication module, adapted to communicate with the object storage, for generating a replica of the archived captured data.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a replica store, adapted to communicate with the replication module, for storing the replica of the archived captured data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the simulation manager includes a rate controller that modifies a rate at which stored data is communicated from the event store to the event processing engine.

10. An apparatus for capturing data associated with an event-based process comprising:

an event processor for receiving an input event and for processing the input event using the event-based process;

a store monitor adapted to communicate with the event processor, the store monitor for capturing the input event, for capturing data describing event processing contemporaneously with processing of the input event by the event processor and adapted to communicate with an event store and communicates the captured data describing event processing to the event store; and

an exchange simulator adapted to communicate with the event processor and the event store, the exchange simulator for receiving captured data from the event store and transmitting the received captured data to the event processor, wherein the exchange simulator modifies the captured data received from the event store responsive to a control signal and transmits the modified data to the event processor.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the store monitor captures data describing event processing non-intrusively.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the event processor processes the received captured data using the event-based process.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the exchange simulator modifies the captured data received from the event store by performing one from the group of:

altering a value included in the data received from the event store and altering a rate in which the modified data is transmitted to the event processor.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the exchange simulator modifies the event-based process and transmits a modified event-based process to the event processor.

15. A method for capturing data associated with an event-based process comprising:

receiving an input event

processing the input event using the event-based process;

capturing the input event and data describing event processing contemporaneously with processing of the input event using the event based process;

responsive to a simulation command, retrieving the captured input event and the captured data describing event processing;

processing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data using the event-based process; and

generating an output describing processing of the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data, wherein retrieving the captured input event and the captured data comprises modifying the retrieved captured input event or the captured data describing event processing based upon the simulation command.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein processing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data using the event-based process is at least one from the group of:

storing the captured input event and the captured data, and sending the captured input event and the captured data to an event store.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein processing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data using the event-based process includes storing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data, and the method comprises generating one or more replicas of the stored retrieved captured input event and the stored retrieved captured data.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein processing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data using the event-based process comprises:

storing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data describing event processing;

associating the retrieved captured input event and a subset of the retrieved captured data describing event processing with an event type; and

associating the retrieved captured input event and the subset of the retrieved captured data with a timestamp indicating a capture time of the retrieved captured data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

organizing the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data describing event processing into a sequence based on the timestamp associated with the retrieved captured input event and the subset of the retrieved captured data.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

archiving the retrieved captured input event and the retrieved captured data describing event processing to a storage medium.