Performance evaluation of applications that access external resources

• US 9,935,812 B1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: New Relic
• Original Assignee: New Relic
• Inventors: Cirne, Lewis Karl, Gochee, James Robert, D'Aubin, Saxon Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Doan, Hien
• Application Number:
  US12/584,833
• Time in Patent Office: 3,127 Days
• Field of Search: 709224, 707 1, 707999001, 707713, 707716, 707718
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/36 Preventing errors by testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0841 Round trip packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Evaluating application performance includes: obtaining a request, processing the request, including invoking a function that accesses an external resource, determining whether a response time associated with invoking the function exceeds a threshold, and in the event that the response time exceeds the threshold, capturing a runtime attribute associated with the function.

Claims

1. A system for evaluating application performance, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a plurality of external resource access calls that access a plurality of external resources, the plurality of external resources comprising at least a database resource and a web service resource;

process the plurality of external resource access calls, including for each external resource access call;

invoking an instrumented function that includes an original function that accesses an external resource and monitoring code to monitor the performance of invoking the original function;

determine a response time associated with said each external resource access call;

determine whether the response time associated with said each external resource access call exceeds a response time threshold;

use a result of the determination as a basis for whether to further process the external resource access call, including;

in the event that the response time exceeds the response time threshold;

capture a runtime attribute associated with the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold; and

mark the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold for post processing to obtain diagnostic information;

in the event that the response time does not exceed the response time threshold;

omit capturing the runtime attribute and omit marking with respect to the external resource access call that does not exceed the response time threshold; and

perform post processing on the each marked external resource access call exceeding the response time threshold using at least in part the captured runtime attribute to obtain additional performance information, wherein performing post processing includes invoking a post processing function corresponding to the marked external resource access call using the corresponding captured runtime attribute, wherein the post processing function includes additional diagnostic code used to analyze the original function that accesses an external resource, and wherein the post processing function is different from the instrumented function; and

a memory coupled to the processor, configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the post processing is performed asynchronously.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the original function is a database access function.

4. The system of claim 3, and the post processing comprises generating an explain plan of the database access function.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the runtime attribute includes database connection information associated with the invocation of the database access function, and generating the explain plan includes opening another database connection using the database connection information.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the database connection information includes user credential information, database host information and port information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the runtime attribute includes a stack trace associated with the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the runtime attribute includes a parameter that is used to invoke the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the runtime attribute includes a return value of the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the runtime attribute includes performance statistics.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the external resource includes a networking resource.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein different response time thresholds are set in response to the response time corresponding to the total amount of time spent processing the external resource access call or the time for receiving the response to the external resource access call.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein in the event that the response time exceeds the response time threshold, connection information relating to the external resource access call is recorded, the connection information including a user credential associated with the external resource access call, a database host associated with the external resource access call, a port associated with the external resource access call, or any combination thereof.

12. A method for evaluating application performance, comprising:

receiving a plurality of external resource access calls that access a plurality of external resources, the plurality of external resources comprising at least a database resource and a web service resource;

processing the plurality of external resource access calls, including for each external resource access call;

invoking an instrumented function, that includes an original function that accesses an external resource and monitoring code to monitor the performance of invoking the original function;

determine a response time associated with said each external resource access call;

determining whether the response time associated with said each external resource access call exceeds a response time threshold;

using a result of the determination as a basis for whether to further process the external resource access call, including;

in the event that the response time exceeds the response time threshold, further comprising;

capturing a runtime attribute associated with the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold; and

marking the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold for post processing to obtain diagnostic information; and

in the event that the response time does not exceed the response time threshold;

omitting capturing the runtime attribute and omitting marking with respect to the external resource access call that does not exceed the response time threshold; and

performing post processing on the each marked external resource access call exceeding the response time threshold using at least in part the captured runtime attribute to obtain additional performance information, wherein performing post processing includes invoking a post processing function corresponding to the marked external resource access call using the corresponding captured runtime attribute, wherein the post processing function includes additional diagnostic code used to analyze the original function that accesses an external resource, and wherein the post processing function is different from the instrumented function.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the original function is a database access function.

14. A computer program product for evaluating application performance, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving a plurality of external resource access calls that access a plurality of external resources, the plurality of external resource types comprising at least a database resource and a web service resource;

processing plurality of external resource access calls, including for each external resource access call;

invoking an instrumented function that includes an original function that accesses an external resource and monitoring code to monitor the performance of invoking the original function;

determine a response time associated with said each external resource access call;

determining whether the response time associated with said each external resource access call exceeds a response time threshold;

using a result of the determination as a basis for whether to further process the external resource access call, including;

in the event that the response time exceeds the response time threshold, further comprising;

capturing a runtime attribute associated with the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold; and

marking the external resource access call that exceeds the response time threshold for post processing to obtain diagnostic information; and

in the event that the response time does not exceed the response time threshold;

omitting capturing the runtime attribute and omitting marking with respect to the external resource access call that does not exceed the response time threshold; and

performing post processing on the each marked external resource access call exceeding the response time threshold using at least in part the captured runtime attribute to obtain additional performance information, wherein performing post processing includes invoking a post processing function corresponding to the marked external resource access call using the corresponding captured runtime attribute, wherein the post processing function includes additional diagnostic code used to analyze the original function that accesses an external resource, and wherein the post processing function is different from the instrumented function.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the original function is a database access function.