Versioning and replaying performance tuning projects

A method for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• traversing a decision tree, said decision tree representing a knowledge base and having non-leaf nodes with one or more branches representing possible symptoms, and leaf nodes with no branches, by following branches corresponding to symptoms experienced by the application until a leaf node is reached;
• recording said traversal as a version, with subsequent traversals having a different version;
• passing an initial data set describing the application and its current state to said knowledge base, said knowledge base defined as said decision tree and having one or more diagnosis nodes representing leaf nodes, one or more analysis nodes representing non-leaf nodes, and one or more symptom branches connecting between analysis nodes and other analysis nodes, or between analysis nodes and diagnosis nodes;
• interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application;
• and
• traversing said decision tree again from an analysis node encountered during said traversing, said traversing said decision tree again beginning by following a different branch from said analysis node than was followed during said traversing.

A method for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• traversing a decision tree, said decision tree representing a knowledge base and having non-leaf nodes with one or more branches representing possible symptoms, and leaf nodes with no branches, by following branches corresponding to symptoms experienced by the application until a leaf node is reached;
• recording said traversal as a version, with subsequent traversals having a different version;
• passing an initial data set describing the application and its current state to said knowledge base, said knowledge base defined as said decision tree and having one or more diagnosis nodes representing leaf nodes, one or more analysis nodes representing non-leaf nodes, and one or more symptom branches connecting between analysis nodes and other analysis nodes, or between analysis nodes and diagnosis nodes;
• interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application;
• and
• resuming said traversal by using said traversal version if said traversing is interrupted for any reason.

An apparatus for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• a database;
• a decision tree traverser;
• a traversal recorder coupled to said decision tree traverser and to said database;
• a traversal interrupter coupled to said decision tree traverser;
• and
• a traversal resumer coupled to said traversal interrupter and to said decision tree traverser.

An apparatus for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• means for traversing a decision tree, said decision tree representing a knowledge base and having non-leaf nodes with one or more branches representing possible symptoms, and leaf nodes with no branches, by following branches corresponding to symptoms experienced by the application until a leaf node is reached;
• means for recording said traversal as a version, with subsequent traversals having a different version
• means for passing an initial data set describing the application and its current state to said knowledge base, said knowledge base defined as said decision tree and having one or more diagnosis nodes representing leaf nodes, one or more analysis nodes representing non-leaf nodes, and one or more symptom branches connecting between analysis nodes and other analysis nodes, or between analysis nodes and diagnosis nodes;
• means for interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application;
• and
• means for traversing said decision tree again from a beginning node, and not interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application if said additional information is stored in said database under a previous version and said additional information is still accurate.

An apparatus for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• means for traversing a decision tree, said decision tree representing a knowledge base and having non-leaf nodes with one or more branches representing possible symptoms, and leaf nodes with no branches, by following branches corresponding to symptoms experienced by the application until a leaf node is reached;
• means for recording said traversal as a version, with subsequent traversals having a different version
• means for passing an initial data set describing the application and its current state to said knowledge base, said knowledge base defined as said decision tree and having one or more diagnosis nodes representing leaf nodes, one or more analysis nodes representing non-leaf nodes, and one or more symptom branches connecting between analysis nodes and other analysis nodes, or between analysis nodes and diagnosis nodes;
• means for interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application;
• and
• means for traversing said decision tree again from an analysis node encountered during said traversing, said traversing said decision tree again beginning by following a different branch from said analysis node than was followed during said traversing.

An apparatus for diagnosing an application, comprising:

• means for traversing a decision tree, said decision tree representing a knowledge base and having non-leaf nodes with one or more branches representing possible symptoms, and leaf nodes with no branches, by following branches corresponding to symptoms experienced by the application until a leaf node is reached;
• means for recording said traversal as a version, with subsequent traversals having a different version
• means for passing an initial data set describing the application and its current state to said knowledge base, said knowledge base defined as said decision tree and having one or more diagnosis nodes representing leaf nodes, one or more analysis nodes representing non-leaf nodes, and one or more symptom branches connecting between analysis nodes and other analysis nodes, or between analysis nodes and diagnosis nodes;
• means for interrupting said traversing if an analysis node is reached that requests additional information regarding the application;
• and
• means for resuming said traversal by using said traversal version if said traversing is interrupted for any reason.