PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND BOTTLENECK DETECTION IN SERVICE-ORIENTED APPLICATIONS

• US 20160182328A1
• Filed: 12/18/2015
• Published: 06/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Stiel, Herbert, Bhasin, Malkit Singh
• Granted Patent: US 10,230,600 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/067 using time frame reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for assembling statistics for diagnosing performance and scalability issues in SOA systems. Key statistics related to key points in a SOA system, for key activities during processing of transactions in the SOA system, are collected and aggregated. The statistics may include message flow rates and latency at key points in the system during a time interval, and execution times for key activities in the system during the time interval. The statistics for the time interval may be added to corresponding cumulative statistics, and persisted to storage. Reports may be generated based upon the statistics to present to a user. Automated processes may be implemented to use the statistics to identify the existence and likely cause of SOA application performance issues, and potentially to attempt to remediate the issues.

Claims

1. A service-oriented architecture system, comprising:

one or more client devices, each client device configured to transmit transaction requests to and receive responses from one or more application servers of the service-oriented architecture system;

one or more application servers, each application server configured to;

execute a plurality of composites of an application; and

receive and process transaction requests from the one or more client devices; and

a computing device configured to execute a performance monitor module, the computing device comprising;

a processing unit comprising one or more processors;

one or more network interfaces communicatively coupled with the one or more processors; and

memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computing device to;

calculate one or more performance metrics for the service-oriented architecture system during a plurality of time periods;

determine an performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system;

determine an input flow rate of transactions received at a first composite of the application during a first time period;

determine an output flow rate of transactions output by a second composite of the application during the first time period; and

determine whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the input flow rate of transactions received at the first composite during the first time period, and based on the output flow rate of transactions output by the second composite during the first time period.

2. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

comparing a first backlog amount of the transactions in a queue for the first composite during the first time period with a second backlog amount for the first composite from a different time period.

3. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the computing device configured to execute the performance monitor module stores therein additional instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computing device to:

determine, for the first time period, a first output flow rate of a first reference endpoint of a third composite of the application that connects with an external computing device; and

determine, for a different time period, a second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite of the application;

compare the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite; and

determine whether the external computing device is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the comparison of the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite.

4. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 3, wherein the memory of the computing device configured to execute the performance monitor module stores therein additional instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computing device to:

determine that the external computing device is not causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system; and

identify one of the plurality of composites of the application that is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on backlog amounts of a plurality of internal queues of the application.

5. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 4, wherein the memory of the computing device configured to execute the performance monitor module stores therein additional instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computing device to:

determine that a first component of a plurality of components of the identified composite is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based upon component backlog amounts corresponding to the plurality of components.

6. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining a request count and a request rate at each of a plurality of input points of the plurality of composites of the application for the first time period, wherein each request count identifies a number of messages received at the corresponding composite during the first time period, and wherein each request rate identifies a number of messages per unit of time that are received at the corresponding composite during the first time period.

7. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining a service queue backlog value and a reference queue backlog value for each of the plurality of composites of the application for the first time period; and

determining a component backlog value for each of one or more components of each of the plurality of composites for the first time period.

8. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining an average component execution time for each of one or more components of each of the plurality of composites of the application, over the first time period; and

determining a subcomponent average execution time for each of the one or more components of each of the plurality of composites of the application, over the first time period.

9. The service-oriented architecture system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the computing device configured to execute the performance monitor module stores therein additional instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computing device to:

receive a plurality of processing updates, for the first time period, from the plurality of composites of the application, wherein each of the received processing updates is associated with an entry point or exit point of a corresponding composite and is further associated with a request from a client device;

receive a plurality of queue backlog updates, for the first time period, for a plurality of queues that store data for a plurality of requests from the one or more client devices;

aggregate the plurality of processing updates and the plurality of queue backlog updates into a summary record for the first time period; and

store the summary record in a database.

10. A method, comprising:

calculating, by a computing device executing a performance monitor module, one or more performance metrics for a service-oriented architecture system during a plurality of time periods, the service-oriented architecture system comprising one or more client devices and one or more application servers configured to execute a plurality of composites of an application;

determining, by the computing device executing the performance monitor module, an performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system;

determining, by the computing device executing the performance monitor module, an input flow rate of transactions received at a first composite of the application during a first time period;

determining, by the computing device executing the performance monitor module, an output flow rate of transactions output by a second composite of the application during the first time period; and

determining, by the computing device executing the performance monitor module, whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the input flow rate of transactions received at the first composite during the first time period, and based on the output flow rate of transactions output by the second composite during the first time period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

comparing a first backlog amount of the transactions in a queue for the first composite during the first time period with a second backlog amount for the first composite from a different time period.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, for the first time period, a first output flow rate of a first reference endpoint of a third composite of the application that connects with an external computing device; and

determining, for a different time period, a second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite of the application;

comparing the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite; and

determining whether the external computing device is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the comparison of the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that the external computing device is not causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system; and

identifying one of the plurality of composites of the application that is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on backlog amounts of a plurality of internal queues of the application.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining that a first component of a plurality of components of the identified composite is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based upon component backlog amounts corresponding to the plurality of components.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining a request count and a request rate at each of a plurality of input points of the plurality of composites of the application for the first time period, wherein each request count identifies a number of messages received at the corresponding composite during the first time period, and wherein each request rate identifies a number of messages per unit of time that are received at the corresponding composite during the first time period.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining a service queue backlog value and a reference queue backlog value for each of the plurality of composites of the application for the first time period; and

determining a component backlog value for each of one or more components of each of the plurality of composites for the first time period.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination of whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system comprises:

determining an average component execution time for each of one or more components of each of the plurality of composites of the application, over the first time period; and

determining a subcomponent average execution time for each of the one or more components of each of the plurality of composites of the application, over the first time period.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of processing updates, for the first time period, from the plurality of composites of the application, wherein each of the received processing updates is associated with an entry point or exit point of a corresponding composite and is further associated with a request from a client device;

receiving a plurality of queue backlog updates, for the first time period, for a plurality of queues that store data for a plurality of requests from the one or more client devices;

aggregating the plurality of processing updates and the plurality of queue backlog updates into a summary record for the first time period; and

storing the summary record in a database.

19. A performance monitor device, comprising:

a processing unit comprising one or more processors;

one or more network interfaces communicatively coupled with the one or more processors; and

memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the performance monitor device to;

calculate one or more performance metrics for a service-oriented architecture system during a plurality of time periods, the service-oriented architecture system comprising one or more client devices and one or more application servers configured to execute a plurality of composites of an application;

determine an performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system;

determine an input flow rate of transactions received at a first composite of the application during a first time period;

determine an output flow rate of transactions output by a second composite of the application during the first time period; and

determine whether the application is responsible for the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the input flow rate of transactions received at the first composite during the first time period, and based on the output flow rate of transactions output by the second composite during the first time period.

20. The performance monitor device of claim 19, wherein the memory stores therein additional instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the performance monitor device to:

determine, for the first time period, a first output flow rate of a first reference endpoint of a third composite of the application that connects with an external computing device; and

determine, for a different time period, a second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite of the application;

compare the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite; and

determine whether the external computing device is causing the performance degradation of the service-oriented architecture system, based on the comparison of the first output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite with the second output flow rate of the first reference endpoint of the third composite.