Method and system for problem determination in distributed enterprise applications

• US 8,090,851 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2007
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chong, James C., Chan, Joseph L., Patel, Tushar M., Heler, Jean-Jacques, So, Chi Hong, Tsang, Arthur, Lam, Robert S., Chow, Raymond, Tsang, Henry
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, CHIRAG R
• Application Number:
  US11/847,217
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 726/2, 726/4, 709/229, 709/224, 718/100
• US Class Current: 709/229
• 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 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method, system and computer program are provided for problem determination in an enterprise computer system in a distributed environment. Information is obtained regarding the enterprise applications, and high-level information is presented to a user, with one or more prompts are provided to the user for more detailed information. In response to a request from a user for more detailed information about the application, more detailed information is provided to the user. Several levels of more detailed information about applications, including information as to individual threads, is available. The problem determination also includes receiving instructions from an administrator to establish an account for a user, associating one or more servers with the account, and providing access to the corresponding user only to the associated servers. Searches may be conducted for strings and requests, and identified strings and requests may be sorted by a variety of criteria.

Claims

1. A method for problem determination for enterprise applications running in a distributed environment on a plurality of servers, comprising:

establishing a first application server group with associated first servers,

establishing a second application server group with associated second servers, wherein the second application server group includes selected first servers in the first application server group,

creating a different account for each individual user by associating each individual user with one or more application server groups, wherein the user has rights to access information pertaining to application server groups associated with the account of that user, wherein a first user is associated with the first application server group and the second application server group,

providing access to each individual user to servers in the application server groups associated with the account of that user, including providing access to the first user to the associated first servers in the first application server group with rights to view information for the problem determination and no rights to execute commands on the first servers, wherein the information includes information about performance of the first servers running applications, and providing access to the first user to the associated second servers in the second server application group with rights to view information and rights to execute commands on the second servers, and

in response to a command to execute a soft kill of a thread, adding code that causes an exception to be thrown to cancel the thread, wherein the command to execute the soft kill is sent to a probe-publish engine, wherein the probe-publish engine is a component of an application server agent installed on a second server, and wherein the probe-publish engine provides information pertaining to the thread.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the first application server group is established.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the second server application group is established.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user has first rights as to a first server, and second rights as to a second server.

5. A system for problem determination for enterprise applications running in a distributed environment on a plurality of servers, comprising:

a processor; and

computer hardware configured for;

establishing a first application server group with associated first servers,

establishing a second application server group with associated second servers, wherein the second application server group includes selected first servers in the first application server group,

creating a different account for each individual user by associating each individual user with one or more application server groups, wherein the user has rights to access information pertaining to application server groups associated with the account of that user, wherein a first user is associated with the first application server group and the second application server group,

providing access to each individual user to servers in the application server groups associated with the account of that user, including providing access to the first user to the associated first servers in the first application server group with rights to view information for the problem determination and no rights to execute commands on the first servers, wherein the information includes information about performance of the first servers running applications, and providing access to the first user to the associated second servers in the second application server group with rights to view information and rights to execute commands on the second servers, and

in response to a command to execute a soft kill of a thread, adding code that causes an exception to be thrown to cancel the thread, wherein the command to execute the soft kill is sent to a probe-publish engine, wherein the probe-publish engine is a component of an application server agent installed on a second server, and wherein the probe-publish engine provides information pertaining to the thread.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the first application server group is established.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the second application server group is established.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the first user has first rights as to a first server, and second rights as to a second server.

9. A computer program for problem determination for enterprise applications running in a distributed environment, said program consisting of instructions stored on a non-transitory storage medium, said instructions, when executed on a processor causing the processor to execute:

establishing a first application server group with associated first servers,

establishing a second application server group with associated second servers, wherein the second application server group includes selected first servers in the first application server group,

creating a different account for each individual user by associating each individual user with one or more application server groups, wherein the user has rights to access information pertaining to application server groups associated with the account of that user, wherein a first user is associated with the first application server group and the second application server group,

providing access to each individual user to servers in the application server groups associated with the account of that user, including providing access to the first user to the associated first servers in the first application server group with rights to view information for the problem determination and no rights to execute commands on the first servers, wherein the information includes information about performance of the first servers running applications, and providing access to the first user to the associated second servers in the second application server group with rights to view information and rights to execute commands on the second servers, and

in response to a command to execute a soft kill of a thread, adding code that causes an exception to be thrown to cancel the thread, wherein the command to execute the soft kill is sent to a probe-publish engine, wherein the probe-publish engine is a component of an application server agent installed on a second server, and wherein the probe-publish engine provides information pertaining to the thread.

10. The computer program of claim 9, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the first application server group is established.

11. The computer program of claim 9, wherein, in response to instructions from an administrator, the second application server group is established.

12. The computer program of claim 9, wherein the first user has first rights as to a first server, and second rights as to a second server.