Patent Application
20060136504
The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to combined analysis of application-based statistical data and system-usage-based performance data.
Prior to the growth of client-server computing, a mainframe computing environment was typically used for running business applications. The mainframe computing environment includes a mainframe computer and one or more user devices. Typically, the user devices were “dumb terminals” with virtually no processing power and all the processing required by a business application, including the processing required to implement a user interface for the business application, was performed on the mainframe computer. In such a mainframe computing environment it was relatively simple to analyze performance characteristics of the business application and the usage of system resources by the business application. The number of users interacting with the business application was well defined. In addition, information regarding user sessions for each user and information regarding the applications competing for system resources could be easily captured and made available at the mainframe computer.
Typically a distributed enterprise system is used for running enterprise applications. The distributed enterprise system includes a widely dispersed distributed computing system and a large number of computer systems located in a number of geographical locations. Enterprise data required by an enterprise application can also be stored in a number of geographical locations. Users of the enterprise application are located at different sites worldwide but the users have access to the same enterprise data and enterprise applications. Typically, a user does not know where the data accessed by the user is geographically located and which computer systems in the enterprise computing system is being used to run the user's enterprise application. In addition, tasks required to be performed by the enterprise application are performed on multiple computer systems.
A three-tiered client-server architecture is commonly used to implement a distributed enterprise system. The three-tiered architecture separates the computer systems that make up the enterprise computing systems into three functional groups—presentation servers, application servers, and database servers. The database servers implement a database that stores the enterprise data. The application servers implement the processing logic of the enterprise system and are used to run the enterprise applications. In addition, the application servers implement services required by the users of the enterprise system, e.g., spooling, printing, dispatching user requests, and formatting data. The presentation servers handle tasks related to presentation of the enterprise data.
An alternative multi-layer client-server architecture includes multiple clusters of computer systems, each cluster made up of one or more computer systems. The clusters are separated into three functional groups, where each cluster provides one type of service, i.e., presentation service, application service, or database service. In addition, one or more of the clusters can provide more than one type of service. For example, clusters providing more than one type of service are used to implement load balancing to ensure that all the computer systems in the enterprise system are being fully utilized. In addition, clusters providing more than one type of service are used to implement failover strategies where user requests directed to a failed cluster are directed to another cluster in the enterprise system.
The performance characteristics of an enterprise application running in a widely dispersed distributed computing environment are determined by characteristics of the individual computer systems that are used to run the enterprise application, as well as characteristics of network connections between the individual computer systems. Typically, the user of the enterprise application does not know which computer systems are performing the user requested services, and information required to analyze performance problems perceived by the user is not readily available at the user location. In addition, because different computer systems may be used at different times to perform the services requested by the user, it is difficult to reproduce a performance problem for the purposes of analysis.
In general, in one aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing techniques for the combined analysis of application-based statistical data and system-usage-based performance data. The techniques include collecting system-usage-based performance data and application-based statistical data for a distributed enterprise system, and displaying a user requested view of the performance data. The performance data represents utilization of a system resource in the distributed enterprise system at particular times, and the statistical data represents costs of particular application program steps executed on the distributed enterprise system at those particular times. The displayed view has one or more view items. The techniques further include receiving user input selecting one of the view items in the displayed view, receiving a user gesture selecting a predefined link having an associated query, and displaying a result of running the query on the statistical data. The selected view item has one or more data items, and selecting the link causes the query to be performed on the statistical data with parameter values based on the data items of the selected view items.
Advantageous implementations of the invention include one or more of the following features. The techniques further include receiving user input selecting a performance query of one or more predefined performance queries for the performance data, and displaying the results of running the selected performance query. The performance data includes CPU utilization, memory usage, and network usage. The statistical data includes the elapsed time for running the application program, and the CPU time for running the application program. Displaying the performance data includes displaying the performance data corresponding to a time interval, and displaying the performance data corresponding to specified instants of time. The techniques further include receiving a user gesture selecting a link of the plurality of links between the displayed performance data and the statistical data, where each link has a parameterized query identifying data items to be used as query parameters. Selecting the link causes the identified data items to be filled in with the associated data items for the selected items, and the result of running the parameterized query on the statistical data is displayed.
In another aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing techniques for the combined analysis of application-based statistical data and system-usage-based performance data. The techniques include collecting system-usage-based performance data and application-based statistical data for a distributed enterprise system, and displaying a user requested view of the statistical data. The performance data represents utilization of a system resource in the distributed enterprise system at particular times, and the statistical data represents costs of particular application program steps executed on the distributed enterprise system at those particular times. The displayed view has one or more view items. The techniques further include receiving user input selecting one of the view items in the displayed view, receiving a user gesture selecting a predefined link having an associated query, and displaying a result of running the query on the performance data. The selected view item has one or more data items, and selecting the link causes the query to be performed on the performance data with parameter values based on the data items of the selected view items.
In another aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, implementing techniques for displaying a view of system-usage-based performance data for a distributed enterprise system, receiving a single user input gesture applied to one of the view items, where the single user input gesture selects a predefined link for the selected item, and displaying query results obtained from running a parameterized query associated with the predefined link on application-based statistical data. Performance data represents a utilization of a system resource in the distributed enterprise system at a particular time. The displayed view of the performance data has one or more view items. The parameterized query associated with the predefined link identifies data items to be used as query parameters, and selecting the link causes the identified data items to be filled in with the associated data items. The statistical data represents a cost of running an application program for a user session on the distributed enterprise system. The query results obtained from running the parameterized query on statistical data are displayed in response to the gesture.
Advantageous implementations of the invention include one or more of the following features. The techniques further include receiving a mouse down event over the selected view item, displaying a context menu in response to the mouse down event, and selecting the predefined link from the displayed context menu in response to receiving a mouse up event. Receiving the single user input gesture includes dragging the selected view item to a displayed user interface element representing the statistical data. The performance data includes CPU utilization, memory usage, and network usage. The statistical data includes the elapsed time for running the application program, and the CPU time for running the application program.
In another aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, implementing techniques for displaying a view of application-based statistical data for a distributed enterprise system, receiving a single user input gesture applied to one of the view items, where the single user input gesture selects a predefined link for the selected item, and displaying query results obtained from running a parameterized query associated with the predefined link on system-usage-based performance data. Statistical data represents a cost of running an application program for a user session on the distributed enterprise system. The displayed view of the statistical data has one or more view items. The parameterized query associated with the predefined link identifies data items to be used as query parameters, and selecting the link causes the identified data items to be filled in with the associated data items. The performance data represents an utilization of a system resource in the distributed enterprise system at a particular time. The query results obtained from running the parameterized query on performance data are displayed in response to the gesture.
Implementations of the invention can realize one or more of the following advantages. Performance problems for the distributed enterprise system can be analyzed and the reason for the performance problems can be discovered efficiently by combining the analysis of system-usage-based performance data and application-based statistical data. The use of predefined gestures having associated queries to navigate between the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data provides a user interface that is easy to use for analyzing performance problems. Users can define views of the system-usage-based performance data and application-based statistical data in accordance with user-defined requirements and navigate between the views using the predefined gestures. Users can also use user-specified gestures to navigate between the views, where the user-specified gestures have associated queries that are specified by the user. Any number of gestures can be defined between the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data. One implementation of the invention provides all of the above advantages.
Details of one or more implementations of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and in the description below. Further features, aspects, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.
Combined analysis of the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data is performed in response to user input specifying one or more predefined links 125 between the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data. The predefined links can be specified in both directions, i.e., links from the system-usage-based performance data to the application-based statistical data, links from the application-based statistical data to the system-usage-based performance data. Each predefined link from the system-usage-based performance data to the application-based statistical data has an associated statistical data query. The user selects a predefined link to perform the associated statistical data query on the application-based statistical data using user specified parameters. The user can specify the parameters for the statistical data query by highlighting one or more data fields in the user requested view of the system-usage-based performance data, e.g., highlighting a row of the data. The user can select the predefined link using a user gesture such as performing a drag and drop movement using a mouse, or displaying a pop-up menu with available predefined links by clicking a mouse button and selecting one of the predefined links from the pop-up menu. Similarly, if the user selects a predefined link from the application-based statistical data to the system-usage-based performance data, a performance data query associated with the selected predefined link is performed using one or more user specified parameters.
System-usage-based performance data provides information regarding the usage of enterprise system resources over a period of time. System-usage-based performance data includes data regarding processor utilization, memory utilization, disk utilization, and network utilization that is collected for the entire enterprise system. System-usage-based performance data can be used for identifying and resolving performance problems caused by a particular computer system in the enterprise system, or by a particular network connection.
Application-based statistical data provides information regarding the performance of the enterprise applications running on the enterprise system over a period of time. Application-based statistical data for an enterprise application includes information identifying the application servers used to run the enterprise application, identity of users running the application, the start and end times for the processing performed for the enterprise application for each application server, the amount of data transmitted for the enterprise application and the network resources used to transmit the data, and the memory utilization and processor utilization for the enterprise application. The processing tasks required by the enterprise application can be performed using one or more system resources. The application-based statistical data also includes information regarding the system resources that are used by the enterprise application.
In one implementation, the combined analysis of system-usage-based performance data and application-based statistical data is implemented using a data warehouse such as SAP Business Warehouse available for SAP AG of Walldorf (Baden), Germany. The system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data are collected for the distributed enterprise system and extracted into the data warehouse. The data warehouse is used to define performance data queries and statistical data queries for the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data respectively. In addition, links between the queries for the system-usage-based performance data and the application-based statistical data are defined using the data warehouse. Each defined link has an associated query that is performed using parameters based on a user selected view item.
The invention and all of the functional operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structural means disclosed in this specification and structural equivalents thereof, or in combinations of them. The invention can be implemented as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or more computer programs tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device or in a propagated signal, for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple computers. A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data, in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.
The processes and logic flows described in this specification, including the method steps of the invention, can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions of the invention by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus of the invention can be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit).
Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carriers suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.
To provide for interaction with a user, the invention can be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.
The invention can be implemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component (e.g., a data server), a middleware component (e.g., an application server), or a front-end component (e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the invention), or any combination of such back-end, middleware, and front-end components. The components of the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), e.g., the Internet.
The computing system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.
The invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments, but other embodiments can be implemented and are within the scope of the following claims. For example, the operations of the invention can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims
