Simultaneous probing of multiple software modules of a computer system
AssigneeVMware, Inc.
InventorsRadu RUGINA, Ricardo E. Gonzalez, Alok Kataria, Doug Covelli, Robert Benson, Matthias Hausner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Probes are instrumented in multiple software modules of a computer system having virtual machines running therein and executed in a coordinated manner. An output of one probe may be used to conditionally trigger another probe so that the precision of collected data may be improved. In addition, outputs of probes that are triggered in different software modules by related events may be synchronized and analyzed collectively. Probes also may be parallel processed in different processors so that multiple probes can be processed concurrently.
Claims20
A method of probing first and second domains of a computer system having virtual machines running therein, comprising:
- instrumenting the first domain with a first probe and the second domain with a second probe;
- executing the first probe in the first domain, wherein a value of a variable that is shared by the first and second probes is updated as a result of execution of the first probe;
- and
- executing the second probe in the second domain, wherein the updated value of the shared variable is read during execution of the second probe and used to direct the execution of the second probe.
A method of probing multiple software modules of a virtualized computer system, comprising:
- receiving a script that defines a first probe and a second probe;
- compiling the script to generate a first part including an executable code for the first probe and second part including an executable code for the second probe;
- and
- while the first and second software modules of the virtualized computer system are running, injecting the first and second parts into the first and second software modules, respectively.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that define first and second probes for first and second software modules of a computer system having virtual machines running therein, respectively, wherein the instructions, when executed in the computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method of probing that includes the steps of:
- executing the first probe within a context of the first software module, wherein a value of a variable that is shared by the first and second probes is updated as a result of execution of the first probe;
- and
- executing the second probe within a context of the second software module, wherein the updated value of the shared variable is read during execution of the second probe and used to direct the execution of the second probe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.