System and method of calculating and reporting of messages expiring from a queue

• US 9,590,885 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Leonard, Mark D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Chirag R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hackenberg, Rachel J
• Application Number:
  US13/802,325
• Time in Patent Office: 1,455 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/548 Queue
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

A system is provided for monitoring message queue data. The system includes a computer readable storage medium comprising a message counter component stored as a set of computer instructions executable by a processor. The counter component detects the outflow of messages comprising at least expired messages and at least received messages out of a message queue. The counter component differentiates the outflow of expired messages from the outflow of received messages. The counter component collects message queue data, wherein collecting the message queue data comprises at least counting the outflow quantity of expired messages or at least counting the outflow quantity of received messages. The counter component calculates at least one of a plurality of message counting metrics based on at least the message queue data collected over a period of time. The counter component transmits at least one of the message counting metrics to a message interface.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring message queue data, comprising:

a message queue data monitoring system comprising a message counter component stored on a non-transitory memory of a server and executed by a processor, wherein the message queue data monitoring system;

detects, by receiving a signal from the server, an outflow of messages out of a message queue or through a queue manager of the message queue, wherein the outflow of messages comprises an outflow of expired messages and an outflow of received messages,

differentiates the outflow of expired messages from the outflow of received messages, wherein the expired messages comprise messages purged from the server before being responded to by a processor and the received messages comprise messages responded to by a processor,

collects message queue data by counting a quantity of expired messages in the outflow of expired messages and by counting a quantity of received messages in the outflow of received messages,

calculates at least one message counting metric of a plurality of message counting metrics based on at least the message queue data collected over a period of time, wherein the calculated message counting metric comprises a ratio of the quantity of expired messages in the outflow per the quantity of received messages in the outflow,

determines that the calculated message counting metric exceeds a threshold ratio of expired messages per received messages over the period of time, and

in response to the determination that the calculated message counting metric exceeds the threshold, executes a message queue data corrective procedure that includes;

requesting, by the message queue data monitoring system, expiration times of messages sent from each client,

determining, by the message queue data monitoring system, which one or more clients are responsible for causing the calculated message counting metric to exceed the threshold based on the expiration times, and

sending, by the message queue data monitoring system, a message to the one or more clients requesting the one or more clients to increase the expiration times of messages sent from the one or more clients, wherein increasing the expiration times of the messages from the one or more clients enables the messages from the one or more clients to be stored in the message queue for processing for a longer amount of time before being purged.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the message counter component further detects at least one of an inflow of messages into the message queue or through the queue manager of the message queue.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of message counting metrics comprises the quantity of expired messages per a quantity of messages in the inflow of messages.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the message queue data comprises at least one of a quantity of messages into the message queue or through the queue manager of the message queue.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the period of time comprises a time between two or more message queue resets, and wherein the plurality of message counting metrics are calculated at each message queue reset.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the message queue and the queue manager are hosted in a memory component of the server that is coupled to a plurality of other servers, in a data center or a network, and wherein at least some of the plurality of other servers comprise a plurality of other message queues and other queue managers in communications with the message queue and the queue manager.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the message counter component further detects a queue depth, wherein the queue depth comprises at least a total number of messages in the message queue at a particular time or at least a maximum amount of messages in the message queue during the period of time.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the collected message queue data of each of the message queue and the queue manager is maintained and updated in a corresponding object in a computer memory component, and wherein the outflow quantity of expired messages and the outflow quantity of received messages are maintained in corresponding files in a non-transitory computer storage medium.

9. A system for monitoring message queue data, comprising:

a message queue data monitoring system comprising a message counter component stored on a non-transitory memory of a server and executed by a processor, wherein the message queue data monitoring system;

detects, based on a signal received from the server, an outflow of messages out of a message queue or through a queue manager of the message queue, wherein the outflow of messages comprises an outflow of expired messages and an outflow of received messages,

differentiates the outflow of expired messages from the outflow of received messages, wherein the expired messages comprise messages purged from the server before being responded to by a processor and the received messages comprise messages responded to by a processor,

collects message queue data by counting a quantity of expired messages in the outflow of expired messages and by counting a quantity of received messages in the outflow of received messages,

calculates at least one message counting metric of a plurality of message counting metrics based on at least the message queue data collected over a period of time, wherein the calculated message counting metric comprises a ratio of the quantity of expired messages in the outflow per the quantity of received messages in the outflow,

detects at least one message counting metric interest scenario of a plurality of message counting metric scenarios based on the calculation of the message counting metric, wherein the message counting metric interest scenario comprises the calculated message counting metric exceeding a threshold ratio of expired messages per received messages over the period of time, and

based on the detection of the message counting metric interest scenario, executes at least one message queue data corrective procedure of a plurality of message queue data corrective procedures, the message queue data corrective procedure including;

requesting, by the message queue data monitoring system, expiration times of messages sent from each client,

determining, by the message queue data monitoring system, which one or more clients are responsible for causing the calculated message counting metric to exceed the threshold based on the expiration times, and

sending, by the message queue data monitoring system, a message to the one or more clients requesting the one or more clients to increase the expiration times of messages sent from the one or more clients, wherein increasing the expiration times of the messages from the one or more clients enables the messages from the one or more clients to be stored in the message queue for processing for a longer amount of time before being purged.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of message counting metric interest scenarios comprises exceeding a threshold ratio of expired messages per total outflow of messages over the period of time.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the period of time comprises a time between at least two message queue resets, and wherein the plurality of message counting metrics are calculated at each message queue reset.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of message counting metric interest scenarios comprises exceeding a threshold change in a rate of change of at least one of a ratio of expired messages per received messages at one or more message queue resets or a ratio of expired messages per inflow of messages at one or more message queue resets.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the message counter component further detects an inflow of messages into the message queue or through the queue manager of the message queue.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the message queue data comprises at least one of the inflow of messages into the message queue or through the queue manager of the message queue.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of message counting metric interest scenarios comprises exceeding a threshold rate of change of at least one of a ratio of expired messages per received messages at one or more message queue resets or a ratio of expired messages per inflow of messages at one or more message queue resets.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of message queue data corrective procedures comprises sounding an alarm.

17. A computer implemented method for monitoring message queue data, comprising:

detecting, by a message queue data monitoring system that comprises a message counter component stored in a non-transitory memory and executable by a processor, via receiving a signal from a server, an outflow of messages out of a message queue or through a queue manager for the message queue, wherein the outflow of messages comprises an outflow of expired messages and an outflow of received messages;

differentiating, by the message queue data monitoring system, the outflow of expired messages from the outflow of received messages;

collecting, by the message queue data monitoring system, message queue data by counting a quantity of expired messages of the outflow of expired messages and by counting a quantity of received messages of the outflow of received messages;

calculating, by the message queue data monitoring system, at least one message counting metric of a plurality of message counting metrics based on at least the message queue data collected over a period of time, wherein the calculated message counting metric comprises a ratio of the quantity of expired messages in the outflow per the quantity of received messages in the outflow;

detecting, by the message queue data monitoring system, at least one message counting metric interest scenario based on the calculation of the calculated message counting metric, wherein the message counting metric interest scenario comprises the calculated message counting metric exceeding a threshold ratio of expired messages per received messages over the period of time; and

based on the detection of the message counting metric interest scenario, executing, by the message queue data monitoring system, a message queue data corrective procedure that includes;

requesting, by the message queue data monitoring system, expiration times of messages sent from each client,

determining, by the message queue data monitoring system, which one or more clients are responsible for causing the calculated message counting metric to exceed the threshold based on the expiration times, and

sending, by the message queue data monitoring system, a message to the one or more clients requesting the one or more clients to increase the expiration times of messages sent from the one or more clients, wherein increasing the expiration times of the messages from the one or more clients enables the messages from the one or more clients to be stored in the message queue for processing for a longer amount of time before being purged.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising detecting, by the message counter component, an inflow of messages into the message queue or through the message queue manager for the message queue.