System and method to synthesize custom metric attributes from a set of metric attributes associated with an application in an application server environment

• US 8,015,282 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2009
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cico, Michael, Simpson, Franklin, Mousseau, Richard P., Inamdar, Rajendra, Shrivastava, Sandeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot; Bharat
• Application Number:
  US12/354,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20090182880A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 709202-203, 709220-226, 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A system and method for synthesizing custom metric attributes from available attributes. The system includes an application server that exposes available metric attributes of a MBean. A network console displays for selection the metric attributes of the MBean on a navigation tree and a view panel is located on the network management console where the metric attributes are dragged. The console and view panel allow network administrators to review monitoring data collected exposed by the application server. Custom attributes are created by combining attributes made available by the application server and can be combined to synthesize a custom expression that can be made available to other managed servers on the application server.

Claims

1. A system to synthesize custom metric attributes from a set of metric attributes associated with an application comprising:

a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes a simple network management protocol (SNMP) Agent, an application having a sub-agent associated therewith, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with the application, wherein the sub-agent is registered to the SNMP agent, and wherein the sub-agent receives the set of metric attributes associated with the application from the managed bean;

an administration server in the domain, wherein the administration server includes a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP agent on the managed server instance to receive the set of metric attributes;

a network management console having a view panel, wherein the view panel is capable of displaying for selection the set of metric attributes and a plurality of intrinsic attributes, wherein the set of metric attributes are used together with the plurality of intrinsic attributes to build a custom metric attribute, and wherein upon receiving, at the SNMP manager, the set of metric attributes from the SNMP Agent at the managed server instance, the view panel is used to build the custom metric attribute by

selecting one or more of the set of metric attributes and one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes, and

combining the selected one or more of the set of metric attributes with the one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes; and

wherein the custom metric attribute is then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a custom metric attribute is built using other custom metric attributes that have previously been built.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the custom metric attribute is available to use to build other custom metric attributes.

4. The system of claim 1 further including a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of metric attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the set of metric attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available to build a custom metric attribute.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a custom metric attribute is built from two or more custom metric attributes, a plurality of intrinsic attributes, and a set of metric attributes associated with an application.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the set of metric attributes are one of heap_size and current_heap_usage.

8. A method to synthesize custom metric attributes from a set of metric attributes associated with an application comprising the steps of:

providing a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes a simple network management protocol SNMP Agent, an application having a sub-agent associated therewith, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with the application, wherein the sub-agent receives the set of metric attributes associated with the application from the managed bean, and wherein the SNMP Agent receives the set of metric attributes from the sub-agent;

providing an administration server in the domain, wherein the administration server includes a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance, and a network management console having a view panel, wherein the view panel is capable of displaying for selection the set of metric attributes and a plurality of intrinsic attributes, and wherein the set of metric attributes are used together with the plurality of intrinsic attributes to build a custom metric attribute;

receiving, at the SNMP manager, the set of metric attributes from the SNMP Agent at the managed server instance, wherein the set of metric attributes are communicated from the SNMP manager to the network management console;

selecting one or more of the set of metric attributes and one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes from the view panel;

building the custom metric attribute in the view panel by combining the selected one or more of the set of metric attributes with the one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes; and

wherein the custom metric attribute is then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein a custom metric attribute is built using other custom attributes that have previously been built.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the custom metric attribute is available to use to build other custom metric attributes.

11. The method of claim 8 further including a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of metric attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the set of metric attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available to build a custom metric attribute.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein a custom metric attribute is built from two or more custom metric attributes, a plurality of intrinsic attributes, and a set of metric attributes associated with an application.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the set of metric attributes are one of heap_size and current_heap_usage.

15. A computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon for synthesizing custom metric attributes from a set of metric attributes associated with an application, wherein said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

providing a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes a simple network management protocol SNMP Agent, an application having a sub-agent associated therewith, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with the application, wherein the sub-agent receives the set of metric attributes associated with the application from the managed bean, and wherein the SNMP Agent receives the set of metric attributes from the sub-agent;

providing an administration server in the domain, wherein the administration server includes a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance, and a network management console having a view panel, wherein the view panel is capable of displaying for selection the set of metric attributes and a plurality of intrinsic attributes, and wherein the set of metric attributes are used together with the plurality of intrinsic attributes to build a custom metric attribute;

receiving, at the SNMP manager, the set of metric attributes from the SNMP Agent at the managed server instance, wherein the set of metric attributes are communicated from the SNMP manager to the network management console;

selecting one or more of the set of metric attributes and one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes from the view panel;

building the custom metric attribute in the view panel by combining the selected one or more of the set of metric attributes with the one or more of the plurality of intrinsic attributes; and

wherein the custom metric attribute is then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein a custom metric attribute is built using other custom attributes that have previously been built.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the custom metric attribute is available to use to build other custom metric attributes.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 further including a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean that exposes a set of metric attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of metric attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the set of metric attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available to use to build a custom metric attribute.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein a custom metric attribute is built from two or more custom metric attributes, a plurality of intrinsic attributes, and a set of metric attributes associated with an application.