Combining monitoring techniques

• US 9,117,013 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2009
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clementi, Ashley Neil, Heler, Jean-Jacques, Klein, Paul Fredric
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, H S
• Assistant Examiner(s): JORDAN, KIMBERLY L
• Application Number:
  US12/576,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20110088042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,147 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/835 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions

Abstract

A first subset of information about a transaction is received from a first application. The first application has a first monitoring technique. A second subset of information about the transaction is received from a second application. The second application has a second monitoring technique that is different from the first monitoring technique. The first subset of information is combined with the second subset of information to produce composite information about the transaction.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

coupling a first application via a first API invocation to a data normalization layer;

coupling a second application via a second API invocation to the data normalization layer;

receiving, at a computer, a first subset of information about a transaction from the first application, the first subset of information being received via the first API invocation and the data normalization layer, wherein the first application has a first monitoring technique;

receiving, at said computer, a second subset of information about the transaction from the second application, the second subset of information being received via the second API invocation and the data normalization layer, wherein the second application has a second monitoring technique, and wherein the first monitoring technique is a different technique than the second monitoring technique;

combining, by said computer, the first subset of information with the second subset of information to produce composite information about the transaction;

receiving a third subset of information about the transaction from a third application; and

combining the third subset of information with the composite information resulting in further composite information, wherein the combining the third subset of information with the composite information includes stitching the first subset of information with the second subset of information;

wherein the first application does not have a view of the second subset of information, and the second application does not have a view of the first subset of information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the composite information and the further composite information;

wherein the data normalization layer is an application programming interface (API) driven data normalization layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the stitching includes horizontal stitching.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stitching includes using an external file to identify stitching information, and further comprising:

using the stitching information to associate the first subset of information with the second subset of information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the composite information and the further composite information about the transaction includes an end-to-end view of the transaction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the stitching includes vertical stitching.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset of information is derived using a first specific monitoring technique, and wherein the second subset of information is derived using a second specific monitoring technique, and wherein the combining the first subset of information with the second subset of information is done using a generic monitoring technique.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information comprise overlapping transaction attributes of said transaction;

and

wherein the stitching of the first subset of information with the second subset of information is a vertical stitching.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the stitching is based on correlating one or more natural transaction attributes of the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information.

10. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions comprising:

communicating with a first application via a first API invocation and a data normalization layer;

communicating with a second application via a second API invocation and the data normalization layer;

receiving a first subset of information about a transaction from the first application, the first subset of information being received via the first API invocation and the data normalization layer, wherein the first application has a first monitoring technique;

receiving a second subset of information about the transaction from the second application, the second subset of information being received via the second API invocation and the data normalization layer, wherein the second application has a second monitoring technique, and wherein the first monitoring technique is a different technique than the second monitoring technique;

combining the first subset of information with the second subset of information to produce composite information about the transaction;

receiving a third subset of information about the transaction from a third application; and

combining the third subset of information with the composite information resulting in further composite information, wherein the combining the third subset of information with the composite information includes stitching the first subset of information with the second subset of information;

wherein the first application does not have a view of the second subset of information, and the second application does not have a view of the first subset of information.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the actions further comprise:

displaying the composite information and the further composite information;

wherein the data normalization layer is an application programming interface (API) driven data normalization layer.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the stitching includes horizontal stitching.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the stitching includes using an external file to identify stitching information, and further comprising:

using the stitching information to associate the first subset of information with the second subset of information.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information comprise overlapping transaction attributes of said transaction;

and

wherein the stitching of the first subset of information with the second subset of information is a vertical stitching.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the stitching is based on correlating one or more natural transaction attributes of the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information.

16. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by at least one of the processors;

a nonvolatile storage medium accessible by at least one of the processors;

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of;

receiving a first subset of information about a transaction from a first application, the first subset of information being received via a first API invocation and a data normalization layer, wherein the first application has a first monitoring technique;

receiving a second subset of information about the transaction from a second application, the second subset of information being received via a second API invocation and the data normalization layer, wherein the second application has a second monitoring technique, and wherein the first monitoring technique is a different technique than the second monitoring technique;

combining the first subset of information with the second subset of information to produce composite information about the transaction;

receiving a third subset of information about the transaction from a third application; and

combining the third subset of information with the composite information resulting in further composite information, wherein the combining the third subset of information with the composite information includes stitching the first subset of information with the second subset of information;

wherein the first application does not have a view of the second subset of information, and the second application does not have a view of the first subset of information.

17. The information handling system of claim 16, wherein the actions further comprise:

displaying the composite information and the further composite information;

wherein the data normalization layer is an application programming interface (API) driven data normalization layer.

18. The information handling system of claim 16, wherein the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information comprise overlapping transaction attributes of said transaction;

and

wherein the stitching of the first subset of information with the second subset of information is a vertical stitching.

19. The information handling system of claim 16, wherein the stitching is based on correlating one or more natural transaction attributes of the first subset of information, the second subset of information and the third subset of information.