Displaying system performance information

• US 8,842,119 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2010
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hubbard, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Richer, Aaron M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yoon, Sae Won
• Application Number:
  US12/948,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20120120078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 345/440, 345/440.2, 707/798, 707/802, 707/805
• US Class Current: 345/440
• 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 11/321 Display for diagnostics, e.g. diagnostic result display, self-test user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to display system performance information are disclosed. An example method involves normalizing data representative of an operation performed by a system, a first performance metric of the system, and an event that occurred during the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric. A first object indicative of a duration of the operation is displayed. A second object is displayed with the first object. The second object is indicative of the first performance metric during the performance of the operation. An event marker is displayed with the first and second objects. The event marker is indicative of the event. The event is representative of an instance in which the first performance metric exceeded a first threshold or fell below a second threshold. The first and second objects and the event marker are aligned along a same timeline in a same graph.

Claims

1. A method to display system performance information, the method comprising:

normalizing phase information from a first log file having a first time scale, the phase information representative of a first duration of an operation and a second duration of a sub-operation performed by a system, first and second performance metrics of the system from a second log file haying a second time scale, and event information representative of events that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first and second performance metrics, the event information from a third log file having a third time scale, wherein normalizing the phase information, the first and second performance metrics, and the event information comprises changing the first time scale of the phase information, the second time scale of the first and second performance metrics, and the third time scale of the event information to be on a same time scale;

displaying a first bar indicative of the first duration of the operation, the first bar being based on the phase information, and the first bar color-coded to indicate a status of the operation;

displaying first and second line plots with the first bar, the first and second line plots indicative of corresponding ones of the first and second performance metrics during the performance of the operation;

displaying first and second event markers with the first bar and the first and second line plots, the first and second event markers based on the event information, the first and second event markers representative of events that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric in which the first performance metric exceeded a first threshold or fell below a second threshold, the first bar, the first and second line plots, the first and second event markers aligned along a same timeline based on the same time scale in a same graph, and a portion of the first bar overlapping a portion of the first line plot; and

displaying a second bar along the same timeline based on the same time scale in the same graph with the first bar, the first and second line plots, and the first and second event marks in response to receiving a user-selection of the first bar, the second bar indicative of the second duration of the sub-operation of the operation based on the phase information, the sub-operation being one of a plurality of different types of sub-operations performed during different phases of the operation, the sub-operations including at least one of a virus scan or a data backup operation.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising displaying a data selection area having one of events data sources, metrics data sources, or phase data sources, the events data sources to facilitate user selection of a third event marker to display along the same timeline in the same graph, the metrics data sources to facilitate user selection of a third performance metric to display along the same timeline in the same graph, and the phase data sources to facilitate user selection of a phase to display as a third object along the same timeline in the same graph.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the first event marker, the second event marker, and the third event marker correspond to different types of events.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first and second event markers are a vertical tick mark aligned along the same timeline.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the normalizing comprises reading first log entries in a first format to determine the first duration of the operation, reading second log entries in a second format to derive the first performance metric, and reading a third log entry in a third format to derive the first event marker.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the first format includes a process start indicator field, wherein the second format includes a measured value field, and wherein the third format includes an event message field.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the normalizing further comprises changing an amplitude scale of at least one of the data, the first performance metric, or the event.

8. An apparatus to display system performance information, the apparatus comprising:

system and a second bar in response to receiving a user-selection of the first bar, the

a user control interface to receive selections of phase information from a first log file having a first time scale, performance metrics from a second log file having a second time scale, and event information from a third log file having a third time scale, the user control interface to normalize the first time scale, the second time scale, and the third time scale to display the phase information, the performance metrics, and the event information along a same timeline based on a same time scale in a same graph; and

a display interface to display the phase information, the performance metrics, and the event information along the same graph by;

displaying a first bar indicative of a first duration of an operation performed by a first bar color-coded to indicate a status of the operation, the second bar indicative of a second duration of a sub-operation of the operation, the first and second bars based on the phase information, the sub-operation being one of a plurality of different types of sub-operations performed during different phases of the operation, the sub-operations including at least one of a virus scan or a data backup operation;

displaying first and second line plots based on the performance metrics, the first line plot indicative of a first performance metric of the system during the performance of the operation, and the second line plot indicative of a second performance metric of the system during the performance of the operation; and

displaying the first and second event markers based on the event information, the first event marker indicative of a first event that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric, the second event marker indicative of a second event that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric, the first event representative of an instance in which the first performance metric or the second performance metric exceeded a first threshold or fell below a second threshold, the first bar, the second bar, the first line plot, the second line plot and the first and second event markers aligned along the same timeline based on the same time scale in in the same graph, and a portion of at least one of the first bar or the second bar overlapping a portion of at least one of the first line plot or the second line plot.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a graph handler to color-code the first bar to indicate the status of the operation.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a graph handler to color-code the first and second event markers differently from one another to indicate at least one of an error, a warning, or an information status about respective ones of the first and second events.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a temporal scale handler to adjust a resolution of the timeline in response to zoom in and zoom out requests to view different levels of detail associated with the first and second bars, the first and second line plots, and the first and second event markers.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the first and second event markers are vertical tick marks aligned along the same timeline.

13. A tangible machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

display a first bar indicative of a first duration of an operation performed by a system, the first bar is based on first information in a first log file having a first time scale, the first bar color-coded to indicate a status of the operation;

display a first line plot and a second line plot with the first bar, the first line plot

indicative of a first performance metric of the system during the performance of the operation, the second line plot indicative of a second performance metric of the system during the performance of the operation, the first and second line plots being based on second information in a second log file having a second time scale;

display first and second event markers with the first and second line plots and the first bar, the first and second event markers being from a third log file having a third time scale, the first event marker indicative of a first event that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric, the second event marker indicative of a second event that occurred during the performance of the operation and during measurement of the first performance metric, the first event representative of an instance in which the first performance metric exceeded a first threshold or fell below a second threshold;

normalize the first information, the second information, and the first and second event markers to change the first time scale of the first information, the second time scale of the second information, and the third time scale of the first and second event markers to be on a same time scale, the first bar, the first and second line plots, and the first and second event marks aligned along a same timeline based on the same time scale in a same graph, and a portion of the first bar overlapping a portion of the first line plot; and

display a second bar along the same timeline based on a same time scale in the same graph with the first bar, the first and second line plots, and the first and second event markers in response to receiving a user-selection of the first bar, the second bar being indicative of a second duration of a sub-operation of the operation, the sub-operation being one of a plurality of different types of sub-operations performed during different phases of the operation, the sub-operations including at least one of a virus scan or a data backup operation.

14. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the machine to at least display a third bar along the same timeline in the same graph corresponding to a second sub-phase of the operation.