Application monitoring

• US 8,499,071 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Cipollone, Stefano, De Finis, Vittorio Roberto
• Primary Examiner(s): Baturay, Alicia
• Application Number:
  US12/433,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-225
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3079 the data filtering being achieved by reporting only the changes of the monitored data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00

Abstract

A method and apparatus for monitoring an application executing on a self-service terminal. The method comprises: registering with a services manager (such as an XFS or J/XFS manager) to receive event reports indicative of a change of state being sent to the application; accessing an operating system function to deduce a current status of the application; and communicating a status of the application to the remote management system, without communicating with the application, to enable the remote management system to manage the self-service terminal more effectively.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a control application executing on a self-service terminal, the method comprising:

registering with a services manager to receive event reports from platform service providers indicative of a change of state relating to the control application, the control application presenting a sequence of screens to a customer during a transaction;

accessing an operating system function to deduce a current status of the control application;

communicating the current status of the control application to a remote management system, the current status is deduced through interactions with the operating system and communicated without communicating with the control application, without any interface to the control application, and without any modifications made to the control application, the current status communicated to the remote management system enabling the remote management system to manage the self-service terminal; and

wherein the event reports indicative of a change of state relating to the control application comprise event reports relating to a notification of entry into vendor dependent mode (VDM).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event reports indicative of a change of state relating to the control application comprise event reports relating to a change in state of a physical switch.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the event reports indicative of a change of state relating to the control application comprise event reports relating to a change in state of an open/closed indicator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing an operating system function to deduce the current status of the control application comprises ascertaining if the control application is listed on an operating system active process list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing an operating system function to deduce the current status of the control application comprises ascertaining if the control application is listed as being in an executing state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing an operating system function to deduce the current status of the control application comprises ascertaining if a central processing unit on which the control application is intended to execute has a current utilization for the control application that is non-zero or variable.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises testing a communications connection to a remote authorization host to deduce the current status of the control application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein testing a communications connection is implemented by executing a ‘

ping’

on an internet protocol (IP) address of the remote authorization host.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein testing a communications connection is implemented by monitoring communication packet traffic.

10. A monitoring component for monitoring a control application executing on a self-service terminal comprising:

the self-service terminal configured with non-transitory media having a defined software interface that executes on the self-service terminal and the defined software interface for receiving event reports from platform service providers via a services manager, the event reports being indicative of a change of state relating to the control application, the control application presenting a sequence of screens to a customer during a transaction;

the self-service terminal also configured with an operating system interface that executes on the self-service terminal and the operating system for accessing an operating system function to deduce a current status of the control application;

the self-service terminal configured with a communications interface that executes on the self-service terminal and the communications interface for communicating a status of the control application to a remote management system based on information received from at least one of the defined software interface and the operating system interface, thereby enabling the remote management system to manage the self-service terminal, the current status deduced through interactions with the operating system and without communicating with the control application, without any interface to the control application, and without any modifications made to the control application; and

wherein the event reports indicative of a change of state relating to the control application comprise event reports relating to a notification of entry into vendor dependent mode (VDM).

11. The monitoring component of claim 10, wherein the monitoring component is embedded in the self-service terminal.

12. The monitoring component of claim 11, wherein the self-service terminal includes a cash dispenser.

13. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions that when executed on a self-service terminal provides the method comprising:

registering, by the self-service terminal, with a services manager to receive event reports from platform service providers indicative of a change of state relating to a control application, the control application presenting a sequence of screens to a customer during a transaction;

accessing, by the self-service terminal, an operating system function to deduce a current status of the control application;

communicating, by the self-service terminal and via interactions with the operating system, the current status of the control application to a remote management system, without any interface to the control application, without any modifications made to the control application, and without communicating with the control application, the current status communicated to the remote management system enabling the remote management system to manage the self-service terminal; and

wherein the event reports indicative of a change of state relating to the control application comprise event reports relating to a notification of entry into vendor dependent mode (VDM).