Visualizing transaction traces as flows through a map of logical subsystems

• US 8,516,301 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beck, Laura G, Litt, Natalya E, Isley, Nathan A
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, KAMINI B
• Application Number:
  US13/082,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20120260133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• Field of Search: 714/46
• US Class Current: 714/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data

Abstract

A method for diagnosing problems in a computer system by visualizing flows through subsystems of the computer system. Diagnostic tools include a user interface which includes a triage map which graphically depicts subsystems, such as applications, through which a Business Transaction flows, and the calling relationship between the subsystems. The subsystems can be depicted by nodes which include alerts and performance information. The user can run a command to find transactions of a specific Business Transaction and/or front end subsystem which meet filter criterion such as response time and user identifier. Each captured transaction can be listed with information such as response time and reporting agent. Details of a particular transaction instance, such as its invoked components, can also be viewed in a transaction trace.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

displaying a triage map region on a user interface, the triage map region graphically depicts subsystems of an application and dependency relationships between the subsystems, the subsystems are depicted as nodes and the dependency relationships are depicted with arrows connecting the nodes, the arrows indicate an order in which the subsystems call one another; and

based on data which is obtained from an agent associated with the application and based on a user command selecting one of the nodes, displaying an auxiliary region of the user interface, the auxiliary region provides information associated with one transaction instance which invokes one of the subsystems depicted by the one of the nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the user command is made via a pointing device pointed at the one of the nodes and comprises a command to identify transaction instances which invoke the one of the subsystems.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subsystems comprise subsystems which are invoked in the one transaction instance, the method further comprising:

in response to a user selection, via the auxiliary region, of the one transaction instance, visually distinguishing nodes of the subsystems which are invoked by the one transaction instance from nodes of other subsystems in the triage map region which are not invoked by the one transaction instance.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decorating the one of the nodes with a net duration indicating a total execution duration less a wait time of the one of the subsystems.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein another of the subsystems comprises an un-instrumented back end which is called by the one of the subsystems, the method further comprising:

decorating of the one of the nodes with a time spent in the one of the subsystems based on a total duration less a back end call time to the un-instrumented back end.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decorating one of the arrows with a duration which represents an inter-subsystem communication time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one of the nodes indicates a health of the of the subsystems with an alert icon, and the alert icon indicates an alert level based on a performance of the one of the subsystems over a plurality of transaction instances.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decorating one of the arrows with an alert icon, where the alert icon indicates an alert level based on a performance of a method call which is represented by the one of the arrows.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one of the subsystems comprise an instrumented subsystem which calls another of the subsystems, the another of the subsystems comprises an un-instrumented subsystem and is depicted by another of the nodes;

one of the arrows connects the one of the nodes to the another of the nodes; and

the triage map region decorates the one of the arrows to indicate a duration used by the instrumented subsystem in calling the un-instrumented subsystem.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one transaction instance is one of multiple transaction instances which invoke the one of the subsystems;

the auxiliary region provides information associated with the multiple transaction instances;

the information associated with the multiple transaction instances comprises a performance metric of each of the multiple transaction instances; and

the method further comprises in response to a user selection, via the auxiliary region, of the one transaction instance, visually distinguishing nodes of the subsystems which are invoked by the one transaction instance from nodes of other subsystems in the triage map region which are not invoked by the one transaction instance.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a user selection, via the auxiliary region, of the one transaction instance, displaying a transaction trace of the one transaction instance, the transaction trace comprises a graph which identifies invoked components of the one transaction instance, and calling relationships among the invoked components.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one of the subsystems comprises multiple instrumented components which are invoked in the one transaction instance; and

in response to the user command, the auxiliary region displays names of the multiple instrumented components.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

one of the names is visually distinguished for one of the multiple instrumented components which is a calling component which calls another of the subsystems.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one of the subsystems comprises an instrumented component which calls another of the subsystems;

the another of the subsystems is depicted by another of the nodes;

in the triage map region, one of the arrows connects the one of the nodes to the another subsystem of the nodes; and

in response to a user selection of the one of the arrows, the auxiliary region displays a name of the instrumented component.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the instrumented component and other instrumented components of the one of the subsystems are invoked in the one transaction instance; and

in response to the user selection of the one of the arrows with the user command selecting the one of the nodes, the auxiliary region also displays names of the other instrumented components.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the information comprises a transaction trace of the one transaction instance, the transaction trace comprises a graph which identifies invoked components of the one of the subsystems in the one transaction instance, and calling relationships among the invoked components.

17. A method, comprising:

displaying a triage map region on a user interface, the triage map region graphically depicts subsystems of an application and dependency relationships between the subsystems, the subsystems are depicted as nodes and the dependency relationships are depicted with arrows connecting the nodes, the arrows indicate an order in which the subsystems call one another, the triage map region identifies a Business Transaction, and multiple subsystems of the subsystems depicted by the triage map region which are invoked in one transaction instance of the Business Transaction; and

based on data which is obtained from an agent associated with the application and based on a user command selecting the Business Transaction, displaying an auxiliary region of the user interface, the auxiliary region provides information associated with the one transaction instance of the Business Transaction.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction; and

the user interface displays a hover box for the node with the name of the Business Transaction when a user points a pointing device over the node with the name of the Business Transaction, the hover box displays a performance metric for multiple transaction instances of the Business Transaction.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map region displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction; and

in response to a user pointing a pointing device at the node with the name of the Business Transaction, the user interface displays a context menu for the Business Transaction, the context menu comprises an option which displays a map of the Business Transaction by visually distinguishing nodes of the multiple subsystems which are invoked in the one transaction instance of the Business Transaction from nodes of other subsystems in the triage map region which are not invoked in the one transaction instance of the Business Transaction.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map region displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction; and

in response to a user pointing a pointing device at the node with the name of the Business Transaction, the user interface displays a context menu for the Business Transaction, the context menu comprises an option which displays, in the auxiliary region, agents, hosts and performance metrics for the multiple subsystems which are invoked in the one transaction instance of the Business Transaction.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction; and

the node with the name of the Business Transaction indicates a health of the Business Transaction.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map region displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction;

in response to a user pointing a pointing device at the node with the name of the Business Transaction, the user interface displays a context menu for the Business Transaction, the context menu comprises an option which finds transaction instances of the Business Transaction in a future time period which meet a filter criterion; and

the auxiliary region is updated to provide performance metrics associated with found transaction instances which meet the filter criterion.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the information comprises separate transaction traces of the multiple subsystems in the one transaction instance of the Business Transaction on a common time scale.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the triage map region displays a node with a name of the Business Transaction;

the node with the name of the Business Transaction is associated with nodes of the multiple subsystems in the triage map region; and

the user command selects the Business Transaction by selecting the node with the name of the Business Transaction.

25. Tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage comprising computer readable software embodied thereon for programming a processor to perform a method, the method performed comprises:

displaying a triage map region on a user interface, the triage map region graphically depicts subsystems of an application and dependency relationships between the subsystems, the subsystems are depicted as subsystem nodes comprising names of the subsystems and the dependency relationships are depicted with arrows connecting the subsystem nodes, the arrows indicate an order in which the subsystems call one another;

one of the subsystems is invoked by first and second Business Transactions and is depicted by one of the subsystem nodes, and

the triage map region displays a first Business Transaction node with a name of the first Business Transaction, and a second Business Transaction node with a name of the second Business Transaction;

in response to a user selecting the one of the subsystem nodes, the user interface displays a context menu for the one of the subsystems, the context menu comprises an option which finds transaction instances which invoke the one of the subsystems as part of the first Business Transaction; and

based on data which is obtained from an agent associated with the application, updating the user interface to provide information associated with the transaction instances.

26. The tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage of claim 25, wherein:

if the user selects the first Business Transaction node but does not select the second Business Transaction node, the option of the context menu does not find transaction instances which invoke the one of the subsystems as part of the second Business Transaction.

27. The tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage of claim 25, wherein:

the option of the context menu finds transaction instances which invoke the one of the subsystems as part of the second Business Transaction.