System to facilitate efficient utilization of network resources in a computer network

In a network including a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers, each one of the plurality of servers capable of providing at least one of a plurality of services, a method for suggesting an appropriate one of the plurality of servers to a one of the plurality of clients requesting one of the plurality of services, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a plurality of probes located in selected parts of the network;
• (b) providing a service list in a Broker-Monitor device which includes information indicating, for each of the plurality of servers, which of the plurality of services are available;
• (c) operating at least two of the plurality of probes to transmit a probe request to each of the plurality of servers and to measure at least one response time for each of the plurality of servers;
• (d) transmitting the response times to the Broker-Monitor device;
• (e) receiving, in the Broker-Monitor device, a client request for a selected one of the plurality of services from one of the plurality of clients;
• (f) determining, from the service list, a subset of the plurality of servers which are available to provide the selected one of the plurality of services;
• (g) analyzing the response times in the Broker-Monitor device to determine, for each server in the subset of the plurality of servers, a performance level with respect to each of the at least two probes;
• and
• (h) suggesting a server from the subset of the plurality of servers to the one of the plurality of clients as a function of the performance levels of the servers.

In a network including a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers, each one of the plurality of servers capable of providing at least one of a plurality of services, a system for suggesting an appropriate one of the plurality of servers to one of the plurality of clients requesting one of the plurality of services, comprising:

• a plurality of probes located in selected parts of the network;
• a Broker-Monitor device coupled to the plurality of servers, to the plurality of clients, and to the plurality of probes;
• the Broker-Monitor device generating a service list which includes information indicating, for each of the plurality of servers, which of the plurality of services are available;
• each of the plurality of probes operating to transmit a probe request to each of the plurality of servers and to measure at least one response time for each of the plurality of servers, each of the plurality of probes transmitting the response times to the Broker-Monitor device;
• the Broker-Monitor device receiving a client request for a selected one of the plurality of services from a certain one of the plurality of clients, the Broker-Monitor device determining, from the service list, a subset of the plurality of servers which are available to provide the selected one of the plurality of services;
• the Broker-Monitor device analyzing the response times in the Broker-Monitor device to determine, for each of the subset of the plurality of servers, a performance level for each server with respect to the each of the plurality of probes;
• and
• the Broker-Monitor device suggesting one of the subset of the plurality of servers to the certain one of the plurality of clients as a function of the performance levels of the servers.

In a network including at least two clients and at least one server, a method for monitoring a performance of the at least one server across the network, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing at least two probes at various locations in the network;
• (b) operating the at least two probes to transmit a request to the at least one server to measure a response time for the at least one server, wherein each of the at least two probes performs a sequence of server primitive operations, the sequence of server primitive operations corresponding to a sequence of critical server transactions extracted from a user-defined application, wherein the user-defined application is provided to the monitoring device and the monitoring device extracts the sequence of critical server transactions from the user defined application and creates the corresponding sequence of server primitive operations;
• and
• (c) analyzing the response times to determine the performance of the at least one server.

A method for determining when a server in a network is approaching saturation, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a probe in one of a plurality of clients in the network;
• (b) operating the probe to periodically transmit a request to the server and measure a response time for the server in order to determine a set of three consecutive current response time values;
• (c) plotting the set of three consecutive current response time values as a single location on a three dimensional graph;
• (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) at selected time intervals to form a sphere of radius r, the sphere having a center at a position c on the graph;
• (e) plotting a cube on the three dimensional graph, the cube having a center at the position c on the graph, a length of a side of the cube being equal to a predetermined saturation response time;
• and
• (f) determining a rate at which the server is approaching saturation as a function of the rate at which the sphere is approaching a side of the cube.