Claims
- 1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating analysis of the operation of a transactional server system, the method comprising:
identifying a first performance parameter for which measurement values indicate a degradation in performance of the transactional server system as seen by end users; identifying a plurality of additional parameters for which a predefined dependency relationship exists with the first performance parameter, wherein each of the additional parameters is associated with a particular potential source of the performance degradation; analyzing measurement values of each of the plurality of additional parameters to evaluate a likelihood that each such additional parameter is associated with the performance degradation; and presenting to a user an indication of which of the additional parameters is likely associated with the performance degradation to assist the user in identifying a root cause of the performance degradation.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transactional server system comprises a transactional server coupled to a network, and the first performance parameter is a response time measured from a location on the network that is remote from the transactional server.
- 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of additional parameters include at least a network time and a server time, such that the network and the transactional server are both evaluated as potential sources of the performance degradation.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of additional parameters include server resource utilization parameters.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first performance parameter is a server time.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the measurement values of each of the plurality of additional parameters comprises determining whether a quality of each such additional parameter degraded during a time period in which the performance degradation occurred.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting to a user an indication of which of the additional parameters is likely associated with the performance degradation comprises generating a hierarchical node structure in which (a) the first performance parameter is represented by a parent node; (b) each of the additional parameters is represented by a respective immediate or non-immediate child node of the parent node; and (c) each of the child nodes is displayed to indicate a likelihood of association with the performance degradation.
- 8. A computer-implemented method of assisting a user in evaluating the operation of a server system, the method comprising:
identifying a first performance parameter for which measurement values indicate a degradation in the performance of the server system; identifying a plurality of additional parameters for which a predefined dependency relationship exists with the first performance parameter, wherein at least some of the additional parameters are associated with different respective potential sources of the performance degradation; for each of the plurality of additional parameters, evaluating the performance of each such additional parameter over a time period in which the performance degradation occurred; and presenting to a user an indication of a level of the performance of each additional parameter to assist the user in determining which of the additional parameters is likely associated with the performance degradation.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first performance parameter is a response time measured from a client location that is remote from a server of the server system.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of additional parameters include at least a network time and a server time, such that a network and the server are both evaluated as potential sources of the performance degradation.
- 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of additional parameters include server resource utilization parameters.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first performance parameter is a server time.
- 13. The method of claim 8, wherein analyzing the measurement values of each of the plurality of additional parameters comprises determining whether a quality of each such additional parameter degraded during a time period in which the performance degradation occurred.
- 14. The method of claim 8, wherein presenting to a user an indication of which of the additional parameters is likely associated with the performance degradation comprises generating a hierarchical node structure in which (a) the first performance parameter is represented by a parent node; (b) each of the additional parameters is represented by a respective immediate or non-immediate child node of the parent node; and (c) each of the child nodes is displayed to indicate a likelihood of association with the performance degradation.
- 15. A computer-implemented method of evaluating root causes of performance degradations in a transactional server, comprising:
monitoring an end user performance parameter reflective of the performance of the transactional server as seen by end users; monitoring a plurality of server resource parameters of the transactional server; analyzing data values of the end user performance parameter to detect a degradation in end user performance; and analyzing data values of each of the plurality of server resource parameters to evaluate a likelihood that each such server resource parameter is associated with a cause of the degradation in end user performance; whereby server resource variations that cause degradations in end user performance are detected automatically.
- 16. The method as in claim 15, further comprising presenting to a user a hierarchical node structure in which (a) the degradation in end user performance is represented by a parent node; (b) each of the plurality of server resource parameters is represented by a respective child node falling below the parent node; and (c) each of the child nodes is displayed to indicate a likelihood of association with the degradation in end user performance.
- 17. A system for analyzing the performance of a server system, comprising:
a data repository which stores performance data collected by a set of agents that monitor operation of the server system, the performance data including measurements of end-user performance parameters indicative of performance experienced by end users of the server system, and including measurements of source parameters indicative of potential sources of degradations in end user performance; and an application component that analyzes the performance data to identify correlations between degradations in end user performance and degradations in specific source parameters, to thereby predict likely causes of the degradations in end user performance.
- 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the application component generates a hierarchical node structure display in which (a) a degradation in end user-performance is represented by a parent node; (b) source parameters potentially associated with the degradation in end-user performance are represented by respective immediate or non-immediate child nodes of the parent node; and (c) each child node is displayed to indicate a likelihood of association with the performance degradation.
- 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the end-user performance parameters include response times measured from a client location that is remote from a server of the server system.
- 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the source parameters include server resource parameters monitored by a server-side agent.
- 21. The system of claim 17, wherein the source parameters include at least a network time and a server time.
- 22. A method of identifying probable causes of performance variations in a server system, comprising:
analyzing the end-user performance data to detect a degradation in performance of the server system as seen by end users; analyzing server resource utilization data to identify at least one server resource utilization parameter that degraded in quality over a time period in which the end-user performance degradation occurred; and outputting an indication of the at least one server resource utilization parameter that degraded in quality to facilitate determination of a root cause of the degradation in end user performance.
- 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the end-user performance data comprises transaction response times measured from at least one remote location relative to a server of the server system.
- 24. The method of claim 22, wherein a portion of the performance data is received from agents configured to monitor end user performance of transactions executed by the server system.
- 25. The method of claim 24, wherein a portion of the performance data is received from agents configured to monitor server resource utilization of the transactional server during execution of the transactions.
- 26. The method of claim 22, wherein analyzing the end-user performance data comprises using a statistical algorithm to detect significant variations between current and historical measurements of an end user performance parameter.
- 27. The method of claim 22, wherein displaying an indication of the at least one server resource utilization parameter includes displaying a graph of each such server resource utilization parameter together with a graph of an end user performance parameter.
- 28. The method as in claim 22, wherein outputting an indication of the at least one server resource utilization parameter comprises presenting to a user a hierarchical node structure in which (a) the degradation in end user performance is represented by a parent node; (b) server resource parameters are represented by respective child nodes falling below the parent node; and (c) each of the child nodes is displayed to indicate a likelihood of association with the degradation in end user performance.
- 29. A computer program for identifying and predicting root causes of performance problems associated with a server system, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
a first component that analyzes performance data for the server system to identify performance problems associated with the server system, the first component generating a data structure representing performance dependencies between various metric measurements for metrics associated with performance of the server system; and a second component that displays a user interface in which metric measurements represented in the data structure are grouped into nodes of a hierarchical node structure displayed to a user, the second component displaying in the hierarchical node structure an indication of whether the metric measurements grouped in each individual node represent a performance degradation relative to historical measurements.
- 30. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the second component groups the metric measurements into nodes according to a severity grade assigned to each of the metric measurements by the first component, the severity grade representing how poorly each of the various metric measurements performed in comparison to previous measurements.
- 31. A method of facilitating the evaluation of server performance parameter data so as to facilitate identification of root causes of degradations in end user performance, comprising:
displaying a first node that represents a set of end user performance parameter measurements for which a degradation in end user performance has been detected; displaying a plurality of second nodes as children of the first node, wherein each second node represents a set of measurements of a respective parameter associated with a potential source of the end user performance degradation; and displaying, for each second node, an indication of a quality level of the set of measurements represented by that second node to facilitate identification of a source of the degradation in end user performance.
- 32. The method as in claim 31, wherein the first node represents a set of response times measured from at least one client location.
- 33. The method as in claim 32, wherein the response times comprise transaction response times.
- 34. The method as in claim 32, wherein the response time metric is a server response time, and the plurality of lower level metrics include server resource metrics.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Appl. No. 60/289,923, filed May 9, 2001, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The disclosure of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/484,686, filed Jan. 17, 2000, is bodily incorporated herein to facilitate an understanding of certain embodiments of present invention.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60289923 |
May 2001 |
US |