Multiple-application transaction monitoring facility for debugging and performance tuning

• US 7,689,688 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iwamoto, Arihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zong; Ruolei
• Application Number:
  US11/614,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20080155560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/201, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level

Abstract

A system, method, and program product is disclosed to monitor multiple applications, each application configured to process part of a TCP/IP-based transaction. The applications communicate with one another by way of a TCP/IP protocol. Each application is further configured to generate one or more events associated with the TCP/IP-based transaction. Each application has associated therewith an event management module configured to acquire and deliver event information associated with their respective events to an event bus, to minimize overhead in managing the events. A monitoring module communicates with the event bus to receive and organize the event information to provide an integrated end-to-end view of the TCP/IP-based transaction.

Claims

1. A system to monitor transactions that require processing by multiple applications in communication by way of TCP/IP connections, the system comprising:

a first application configured to process a first part of a TCP/IP-based transaction and to communicate a result of the first part of the TCP/IP-based transaction with other applications by way of a TCP/IP protocol, the first application generating a first event associated with the TCP/IP-based transaction, the first event comprising a transaction ID, the transaction ID identifying the event as associated with a specific transaction, the transaction ID comprising a request number and a thread ID, the thread ID associating the event with a specific application thread request, the request number distinguishing the first event from other events with a same thread ID in a simultaneous parallel processing system;

a second application configured to process a second part of the TCP/IP-based transaction, the second application generating a second event associated with the TCP/IP-based transaction;

a first event management module associated with the first application configured to acquire and deliver first event information associated with the first event;

a second event management module associated with the second application configured to acquire and deliver second event information associated with the second event;

an event bus in communication with the first and second event management modules to receive the first and second event information, the event bus comprising a data store to store the first and second event information, the event bus supporting both synchronous and asynchronous event transmission protocols; and

a monitoring module in communication with the event bus to receive and organize the first and second event information to provide an integrated end-to-end view of the TCP/IP-based transaction processed by the first and second applications.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second event information is stored in XML documents.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second event information contain at least one of an event name, event content, an IP address of a machine processing the TCP/IP-based transaction, a name of an application associated with an event, a transaction ID, a time stamp, a source IP address, a source port number, a target IP address, a target port number, and other information about the application associated with the event.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the event bus further comprises a storage device comprising the data store to store the first and second event information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring module is characterized by an online mode wherein the monitoring module monitors information on the event bus in real time.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to generate a warning when at least one of a transaction exceeds a selected processing time, a selected event occurs, time between events exceeds a selected time, and a transaction processing rate exceeds a certain time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring module is characterized by a batch mode wherein the monitoring module generates statistical data of event information on the event bus over time.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the statistical data comprises at least one of processing times between events, processing times for transactions, transaction processing rates over time, and transactions exceeding a certain processing time.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring module receives information from the event bus by querying the event bus.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring module is configured to generate the integrated end-to-end view by correlating at least one of a target IP address and a target port number of the first event information with at least one of a source IP address and a source port number of the second event information.

11. A computer program product to monitor transactions that require processing by multiple applications, the program product comprising a computer-readable medium storing a computer-readable program that when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

process, by a first application by way of a processor, a first part of a TCP/IP-based transaction, the first application generating a first event associated a staff of the first part and a second event associated with an end of the first part, the first event comprising a transaction ID, the transaction ID identifying the event as associated with a specific transaction, the transaction ID comprising a request number and a thread ID, the thread ID associating the event with a specific application thread request, the request number distinguishing the first event from other events with a same thread ID in a simultaneous parallel processing system;

process, by a second application, a second part of the TCP/IP-based transaction, the second application generating a third event associated a start of the second part and a fourth event associated with an end of the second part;

acquire first and second event information associated with the first and second events;

acquire third and fourth event information associated with the third and fourth events;

transmit the first, second, third, and fourth event information to an event bus, the event bus comprising a data store to store the first and second event information, the event bus supporting both synchronous and asynchronous event transmission protocols;

receive the first, second, third and fourth event information from the event bus and organize the first, second, third and fourth event information to provide an integrated end-to-end view of the TCP/IP-based transaction processed by the first and second applications.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth event information is stored in XML documents.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth event information contain at least one of an event name, event content, an IP address of a machine processing the TCP/IP-based transaction, a name of an application associated with an event, a transaction ID, a time stamp, a source IP address, a source port number, a target IP address, a target port number, and other information about an application associated with an event.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising storing, by the event bus, the first, second, third, and fourth event information.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising monitoring information on the event bus in real time.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising generating a warning when at least one of a transaction exceeds a selected processing time, a selected event occurs, time between events exceeds a selected time, and a transaction processing rate exceed a selected time.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising generating statistical data of information on the event bus over time.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the statistical data comprises at least one of processing times between events, processing times for transactions, transaction processing rates over time, and transactions exceeding a certain processing time.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising querying the event bus to receive the first, second, third, and fourth event information from the event bus.

20. A method to monitor transactions that require processing by multiple applications, the method comprising:

processing, by a first application, a first part of a TCP/IP-based transaction, the first application generating a first event associated with the TCP/IP-based transaction, the first application communicating a result of the first part of the TCP/IP-based transaction with other applications by way of a TCP/IP protocol, the first event comprising a transaction ID, the transaction ID identifying the event as associated with a specific transaction, the transaction ID comprising a request number and a thread ID, the thread ID associating the event with a specific application thread request, the request number distinguishing the first event from other events with a same thread ID in a simultaneous parallel processing system;

processing, by a second application, a second part of the TCP/IP-based transaction, the second application generating a second event associated with the TCP/IP-based transaction, wherein the first and second event information is stored in XML documents;

acquiring first event information associated with the first event;

acquiring second event information associated with the second event;

transmitting the first and second event information to an event bus, the event bus comprising a data store to store the first and second event information, the event bus supporting both synchronous and asynchronous event transmission protocols; and

receiving the first and second event information from the event bus and organizing the first and second event information to provide an integrated end-to-end view of the TCP/IP-based transaction processed by the first and second applications; and

monitoring information on the event bus in real time and triggering an alert in response to one or more predefined conditions being satisfied according to information associated with the integrated end-to-end view of the TCP/IP-based transaction.