Non-intrusive monitoring of services in a services-oriented architecture

• US 8,683,587 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2012
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hunt, Christian Lee, Meli, Roger Michael, Nastacio, Denilson, Subramanian, Balan
• Primary Examiner(s): Gergiso, Techane
• Application Number:
  US13/351,405
• Publication Number:
  US 20120144029A1
• Time in Patent Office: 798 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 726/22
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A system for monitoring a service provided in a service-oriented architecture may include a computing device configured to submit a subscription request to a plurality of intermediaries in the service-oriented architecture from which to receive monitored data related to the service. An application operating on the computing device may determine which ones of the plurality of intermediaries to rely upon for monitoring the service based at least in part on a probability value associated with each intermediary. The probability value is a function of at least a frequency of messages associated with the service processed by the intermediary and a time period since a last message associated with the service was processed by the intermediary. The system may also include an output device to present the monitored data in response to the monitored data being received by the computing device from the determined ones of the plurality of intermediaries.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring a service provided in a service-oriented architecture, comprising:

a computing device configured to submit a subscription request to a plurality of intermediaries in the service-oriented architecture from which to receive monitored data related to the service;

an application operating on the computing device for determining which ones of the plurality of intermediaries to rely upon for monitoring the service based at least in part on a probability value associated with each of the plurality of intermediaries received in response to the subscription request, wherein the probability value associated with each of the plurality of intermediaries is a function of at least a frequency of messages associated with the service processed by the intermediary and a time period since a last message associated with the service was processed by the intermediary; and

an output device to present the monitored data for monitoring the service in response to the monitored data being received by the computing device from the determined ones of the plurality of intermediaries.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the application for determining which ones of the plurality of intermediaries to rely upon for monitoring the service comprises:

a module for receiving the probability value from those intermediaries that return the probability value in response to the subscription request; and

a module for selecting among those intermediaries returning the probability value based on the probability value.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a registry of intermediaries, wherein each intermediary being relied upon for monitoring the service is added to the registry of intermediaries.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module operating on the computing device for designating a particular intermediary as declining the subscription request in response to receiving a notice from the particular intermediary that the particular intermediary is declining the subscription request.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module for obtaining an end point reference of each of the plurality of intermediaries in the system.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the end point reference of a particular intermediary of the plurality of intermediaries in the system is obtained from a consumer of the service that has had one of direct or indirect contact with the particular intermediary, wherein the intermediary stamps each message introspected with an identity provided as one of a public accessing point and a proxied reference.

7. A system for monitoring a service provided in a service-oriented architecture, comprising:

a plurality of intermediaries in the service-oriented architecture, wherein a subscription request to monitor and provide monitored data related to the service is transmitted to each intermediary, wherein each intermediary comprises a hardware appliance embedded within the service-oriented architecture;

a module operating on each intermediary for determining whether any messages related to the service have been previously processed by the intermediary, wherein the intermediary declines the subscription request in response to not having previously processed any messages related to the service, and wherein the intermediary accepts the subscription request in response to having previously processed a predetermined number of messages related to the service and the intermediary returns a probability to a subscriber in response to accepting the subscription request, wherein the probability is a function of at least a frequency of messages associated with the service having been previously processed by the intermediary and a time period since a last message associated with the service was processed by the intermediary; and

wherein the intermediary publishes monitored data to the subscriber for which the subscription request has been accepted.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the intermediary is adapted to tentatively accept the subscription request in response to receiving the subscription request and confirms acceptance of the subscription request in a first response including monitored data corresponding to the subscription request.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the intermediary is adapted to consolidate a plurality of subscriptions into different groups, wherein each group corresponds to similar data being monitored corresponding to each subscription request.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein a topic is created for each group, each topic corresponding to common data or metrics to be monitored and published;

and wherein group members are automatically subscribed according to the topic.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the intermediary comprises a module for:

receiving messages corresponding to different services, each message including manageability related information in a header;

comparing manageability related information to a list of subscribers;

filtering the manageability related information for each group; and

publishing a relevant notification to each group according to the topic.

12. A computer program product for monitoring a service provided in a service-oriented architecture, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage device having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to submit a subscription request to a plurality of intermediaries in the service-oriented architecture from which to receive monitored data related to the service;

computer readable program code configured to determine which ones of the plurality of intermediaries to rely upon for monitoring the service based at least in part on a probability value associated with each of the plurality of intermediaries in response to the subscription request, wherein the probability value is a function of at least a frequency of messages associated with the service processed by the intermediary associated with the probability value and a time period since a last message associated with the service was processed by the intermediary associated with the probability value;

computer readable program code configured to receive the monitored data from the determined ones of the plurality of intermediaries; and

computer readable program code configured to present the monitored data for monitoring the service.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer readable program code configured to add each intermediary being relied upon for monitoring the service to a registry.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer readable program code configured to designate a particular intermediary as declining the subscription request in response to receiving a notice from the particular intermediary that the particular intermediary is declining the subscription request.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer readable program code configured to obtain an end point reference of each of the plurality of intermediaries.

16. A computer program product for monitoring a service provided in a service-oriented architecture, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage device having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive a subscription request to monitor and provide monitored data related to the service;

computer readable program code configured to determine whether any messages related to the service have been previously processed;

computer readable program code configured to decline the subscription request in response to not having previously processed any messages related to the service;

computer readable program code configured to accept the subscription request in response to having previously processed a predetermined number of messages related to the service;

computer readable program code configured to return a probability to a subscriber in response to accepting the subscription request, wherein the probability is a function of at least a frequency of messages associated with the service having been previously processed and a time period since a last message associated with the service was processed; and

computer readable program code configured to publish any monitored data to any subscriber for which the subscription request has been accepted.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to tentatively accept the subscription request in response to receiving the subscription request; and

computer readable program code configured to confirm acceptance of the subscription request in a first response including monitored data corresponding to the subscription request.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to consolidate a plurality of subscriptions into different groups, wherein each group corresponds to similar data being monitored corresponding to each subscription request;

computer readable program code configured to create a topic for each group, wherein each topic corresponds to common data or metrics to be monitored and published; and

computer readable program code configured to automatically subscribe group members according to the topic.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to receive messages corresponding to different services, each message including manageability related information in a header;

computer readable program code configured to compare manageability related information to a list of subscribers;

computer readable program code configured to filter the manageability related information for each group; and

computer readable program code configured to publish a relevant notification to each group according to the topic.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to inspect each message header for any data corresponding to the subscription request; and

computer readable program code configured to identify each message header in response to the message header including any data to satisfy the subscription request.