Method and system for non intrusive application interaction and dependency mapping

• US 8,244,853 B1
• Filed: 03/03/2004
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raanan, Gil
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang, Paul H
• Application Number:
  US10/792,410
• Time in Patent Office: 3,086 Days
• Field of Search: 715/734, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/228, 709/229, 700/28, 707/1
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/18 Protocol analysers

Abstract

The present invention facilitates mapping dependencies between software applications, components, and business processes on a computer network. Packets communicated between software applications are sampled to identify characteristics of the packet. The characteristics are used to identify communicating applications and to generate dependency maps of software applications on a computer network.

Claims

1. A method for identifying dependencies between applications in a computer network, the method comprising:

sampling at least one data packet communicated between at least two software applications in a computer network;

identifying one or more characteristics of the at least one data packet; and

using the one or more characteristics to identify one or more of the at least two software applications and dynamically generate a map of dependencies between the one or more software applications.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying one or more characteristics of the at least one data packet comprises comparing the at least one data packet to at least one packet fingerprint.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying one or more characteristics of the at least one data packet comprises using a K Nearest Neighbor algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the using the one or more characteristics to identify one or more of the at least two software applications and dynamically generate a map of dependencies between the one or more software applications comprises maintaining one or more historical maps of dependencies between the one or more software applications over time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the using the one or more characteristics to identify one or more of the at least two software applications and dynamically generate a map of dependencies between the one or more software applications comprises identifying an action performed by the one or more of the at least two software applications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the map of dependencies between the one or more software applications comprises a map of dependencies between one or more business processes and the one or more software applications.

7. A system for identifying dependencies between applications in a computer network, the system comprising:

at least two software applications communicatively coupled via a computer network; and

a dependency mapping module;

wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to sample one or more packets communicated between the at least two software application;

wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to identify one or more characteristics of the one or more packets; and

wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to use the one or more characteristics to identify one or more of the at least two software applications and dynamically generate a map of dependencies between the one or more software applications.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to identify one or more characteristics of the one or more packets by comparing the at least one data packet to at least one packet fingerprint.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to identify one or more characteristics of the one or more packets by using a K Nearest Neighbor algorithm.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to maintain one or more historical maps of dependencies between the one or more software applications over time.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the dependency mapping module is programmed to identify an action performed by the one or more of the at least two software applications.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the map of dependencies between the one or more software applications comprises a map of dependencies between one or more business processes and the one or more software applications.