Performance, analytics and auditing framework for portal applications

• US 9,269,061 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2010
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Inventors: Jeyapaul, Jaganathan, Lillie, Brian James, Panchal, Pragnesh Shashikant
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Julian
• Application Number:
  US12/964,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,902 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226, 717127-129, 717/131
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A performance, analytics and auditing (PAA) system is configured to operate with a complex web application including a portal application and its sub systems non-intrusively. The PAA system includes a first component configured to capture behavior-related information from the portal application, a second component configured to capture performance-related information from the portal application, a third component configured to capture auditing-related information from the portal application. The PAA system is further configured to start or stop with minimal impact on the portal application, wherein the PAA system is coded using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and able to collect information from multiple threads.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

one or more server computers each comprising at least one hardware-based processor;

a network exchange including a portal application and associated subsystems; and

a first framework for capturing information from web applications on the network exchange, the first framework including;

a first database,

a behavior tracking component executed by the one or more server computers and configured to capture data relating to activities of a user when the user interacts with the portal application and store the data relating to activities in the first database,

a performance monitoring component coupled to the behavior tracking component, the performance monitoring component executed by the one or more server computers and configured to determine performance information relating to the activities of the user when the user interacts with the portal application and store the performance information in the first database, and

an auditing component coupled to the behavior tracking component and the performance monitoring component, the auditing component executed by the one or more server computers and configured to capture event details related to the activities of users when the user interacts with the portal application and store the event details in the first database,

wherein the behavior tracking component, the performance monitoring component, and the auditing component operate together in the first framework, and wherein the first framework components are coded using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), and wherein the behavior tracking component, the performance monitoring component, and the auditing component operate together in the first framework collecting data from multiple threads spawned for efficient parallel processing of users'"'"' requests within the portal application regarding the network exchange, wherein the portal application includes;

a server portal having including a second framework and one or more presentation components executed by the one or more server computers and configured to allow the user to interact with the portal application regarding the network exchange, and

a second database to store information regarding the network exchange.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the behavior tracking component is further configured to collect all the activities that the user does on a portal associated with the portal application including at least login, logout, and page visits activities.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the performance monitoring component is further configured to measure real time performance numbers of various subsystems of the portal application, including calculating performance numbers of the activities of the users as captured by the behavior tracking component.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the performance monitoring component is further configured to provide drill-down of the performance numbers at various subsystems including at least portlets, Javaserver Faces (JSF), database calls and remote called subsystems.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the auditing component is further configured to capture at least event details of critical events and associate the event details with a user that is involved in the events together with a time when the events occur, and wherein the remote called subsystems include web services.

6. The computer system of claim 5, further comprising an alert component in the framework and configured to communicate alerts and exceptions associated with the portal application to a recipient.

7. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising a reporting component configured to generate reports based on the information stored in the first database.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first framework components are configured to start or stop operating with the portal application at runtime, and wherein the first framework components are configured to use asynchronous Java Message Service (JMS) queues.

9. A method for managing operations of a portal comprising:

identifying a first set of connection points available from a portal application where behavior related information associated with activities of users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a first component of a performance, analytics and auditing (PAA) system to capture information from the first set of connection points;

identifying a second set of connection points available from the portal application where performance related information associated with the activities of the users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a second component of the PAA system to capture information from the second set of connection points;

identifying a third set of connection points available from a portal application where auditing related information associated with the activities of the users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a third component of the PAA system to capture information from the third set of connection points; and

storing the captured information in a database associated with the PAA system, wherein components of the PAA system are coded using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and are configured to operate with the portal application, and wherein the components of the PAA system operate together collecting data from multiple threads spawned for efficient parallel processing of users'"'"' requests within the portal application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second component and the third component are configured to use the information captured by the first component to determine the performance related information and the auditing related information, respectively.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first component is further configured to capture information relating to activities performed by the users on a portal associated with the portal application.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second component is configured to measure real time performance numbers of various subsystems of the portal application, including calculating performance numbers of the activities performed by the users as captured by the first component.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second component is further configured to provide drill-down of the performance numbers at the various the subsystems including at least portlets, Javaserver Faces (JSF), database calls and remotely called sub systems.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the third component is further configured to capture at least event details of critical events, and wherein the third component is configured to associate the captured event details with a user who is involved in the events together with time information indicating when the events occur.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising configuring a fourth component of the PAA system to communicate alerts and exceptions associated with the portal application to a recipient.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising configuring a fifth component of the PAA system to generate reports based on the information stored in the database associated with the PAA system.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the PAA system is configured to start or stop operating with the portal application at runtime.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the PAA system is configured to use asynchronous Java Message Service (JMS) queues.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

identifying a first set of connection points available from a portal application where behavior related information associated with activities of users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a first component of a performance, analytics and auditing (PAA) system to capture information from the first set of connection points;

identifying a second set of connection points available from the portal application where performance related information associated with the activities of the users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a second component of the PAA system to capture information from the second set of connection points;

identifying a third set of connection points available from a portal application where auditing related information associated with the activities of the users interacting with the portal application can be captured;

configuring a third component of the PAA system to capture information from the third set of connection points; and

storing the captured information in a database associated with the PAA system, wherein components of the PAA system are coded using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and are configured to operate with the portal application, and wherein the components of the PAA system operate together collecting data from multiple threads spawned for efficient parallel processing of users'"'"' requests within the portal application.