Trace route audit and alarming

• US 9,882,864 B1
• Filed: 11/18/2015
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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): Dailey, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US14/945,060
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A method of trace route auditing and alarming for message queuing middleware. The method comprises transmitting, by a server computer in the message queuing middleware system that implements message queuing services, a trace route message requesting an activity report to a partner computer, receiving, by the server computer, the activity report comprising message activity information from the partner computer, and comparing, by an application executing on the server computer, the most recent message activity information with message activity records to detect changes in message activity, wherein the application is stored in a memory of a computer and is executed by a processor of the computer. The method further comprises responsive to message activity changes being detected, determining by the application a cause of activity change based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method of trace route auditing and alarming for a message queuing middleware system, comprising:

transmitting, by an application executing on a server computer in the message queuing middleware system that implements message queuing services, a trace route message for each of a plurality of remote queue definitions associated with a queue manager of the server computer requesting activity reports to a queue manager of a partner computer, wherein the application is stored in a memory of the server computer and is executed by a processor of the server computer;

receiving, by a local queue of the queue manager of the server computer, the activity reports comprising message activity information from a transmission queue of the queue manager of the partner computer via a message channel agent;

comparing, by the application, the most recent message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system received from the transmission queue with message activity records associated with the message queuing middleware system to detect changes in message activity;

responsive to message activity changes in the most recent message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system being detected, determining, by the application, a cause of activity change within the message queuing middleware system based on the comparison; and

performing, by the application, at least one of restarting a stopped message channel, resetting a message channel sequence number, resolving the message channel, or pinging the message channel based on the determined cause of activity change within the message queuing middleware system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application examines the activity reports to determine where the trace route message has stopped in case of trace route message delivery error.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application automatically examines a list of remote queue definitions for a given queue manager and transmits trace route messages via the remote queue definitions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a monitor component of the application periodically pulls the list of remote queue definitions, works through the whole or partial list, calls trace route command, and tracks the trace route message.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the monitor component examines status of each step along a transmission route of the trace route message and records the status in the message activity records.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the application is run once a day in the morning to examine a list of remote queue definitions for a given queue manager.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the component compares the most recent message activity information with message activity records for errors, traffic changes, and delay time differences.

8. A method of trace route auditing and alarming for a message queuing middleware system, comprising:

transmitting, by an application executing on a server computer in the message queuing middleware system that implements message queuing services, a trace route message for each of a plurality of remote queue definitions associated with a queue manager of the server computer requesting a trace route reply message to a queue manager of a partner computer;

receiving, by a local queue of the queue manager of the server computer, trace route reply messages comprising message activity information from a transmission queue of the queue manager of the partner computer via a message channel agent;

storing the message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system into message activity records;

comparing, by the application, the most recent message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system received from the transmission queue with previous message activity records associated with the message queuing middleware system to detect changes in message activity;

responsive to message activity changes in the most recent activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system being detected, determining, by the application, a cause of activity change within the message queuing middleware system based on the comparison; and

responsive to the cause of activity change within the message queuing middleware system being a stopped message channel, restarting, by the application, the message channel.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising responsive to the comparison indicating that a channel sequence number is wrong, resetting the channel sequence number.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising responsive to the message channel being still not operational, pinging the message channel.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising responsive to the most recent message activity information indicating that the message channel entails to be resolved, resolving the message channel by forcing a commit or backing out the last batch of messages.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising responsive to the cause of activity change being a non-resolvable message channel, rerouting the message channel.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a map with alternative routes is built and referenced to for rerouting the message channel.

14. A method of trace route auditing and alarming for message queuing middleware, comprising:

transmitting, by an application executing on a server computer in the message queuing middleware system that implements message queuing services, a trace route message for each of a plurality of remote queue definitions associated with a queue manager of the server computer requesting activity reports to a queue manager of a partner computer;

receiving, by a local queue of the queue manager of the server computer, the activity reports comprising message activity information from a transmission queue of the partner computer via a message channel agent;

comparing, by the application executing on the server computer, message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system from the transmission queue with message activity records associated with the message queuing middleware system to detect changes in message activity;

responsive to message activity changes in the most recent message activity information associated with the message queuing middleware system being detected, determining, by the application, a cause of activity change within the message queuing middleware system based on the comparison; and

notifying, by the application, administrative staff associated with the message queuing middleware system of the determined cause.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising when a message is not received by a destination queue manager, notifying corresponding remote administrative staff for queue manager issue.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising when a remote queue manager receives a message but the message fails to be written to a remote side queue, notifying remote administrative staff of configuration issues.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising when a message is written to a different destination queue than before, notifying the team associated with the current destination queue or recording it for future reference.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising when a message fails to be placed into a local transmission queue, notifying administrative team for local configuration error.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising when a message fails to be sent over a message channel, notifying administrative team of the message channel issue.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein an application is run once a day in the morning to examine a list of remote queue definitions for a given queue manager.