Method and apparatus for network-level monitoring of queue-based messaging systems

A distributed computing environment, comprising:

• a) a server computer platform on which a server process resides;
• and
• b) at least five client computer platforms coupled to said server computer platform, each one of said plurality of client computer platforms having a client process application residing thereon;
• c) a queue-based messaging system for controlling the exchange of messages between said server process application and said at least five client process applications, said queue-based messaging system comprising a messaging application residing at each one of said server computer platform and said at least five client computer platforms, said messaging application residing at said server computer platform managing at least five trigger-initiated local queues having a queue depth attribute, each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues associated with a corresponding one of said at least five client process applications;
• d) a monitoring tool residing on said server computer platform, said monitoring tool acquiring a value for said queue depth attribute for each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues;
• c) a user interface coupled to said server computer platform, said monitoring tool generally simultaneously displaying, on said user interface, said value for said queue depth attribute for each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues;
• f) each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues has a trigger enable attribute, a get message enable attribute and a put message enable attribute;
• g) said monitoring tool acquires a value for said trigger enable attribute, said get message enable attribute and said put message enable attribute for each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues;
• and
• h) said monitoring tool generally simultaneously displaying, on said user interface, said value for said queue depth attribute, said value for said trigger enable attribute, said value for said get message enable attribute and said value for said put message enable attribute for each one of said at least five trigger-initiated local queues.

For a network having a server computer platform and a plurality of client computer platforms coupled to said server platform, a method for monitoring a queue-based messaging system which control the transfer of messages from said plurality of client computer platform to a corresponding plurality of queues residing at said server computer platform, comprising:

• (a) selecting at least three attributes including at least one depth attribute and at least two operations control attributes, which describe each one of said plurality of queues;
• (b) acquiring, from said server computer platform, a value for each one of said at least three attributes;
• and
• (c) generally simultaneously displaying said value for each one of said at least three attributes for all of said plurality of queues.