Transaction breakdown feature to facilitate analysis of end user performance of a server system

A system for monitoring performance of a transactional server as seen from an end user location, the system comprising:

• an agent component that communicates with the transactional server over a network to execute a transaction, and measures time periods between predefined events that occur during execution of the transaction;
• and
• a report generation component that generates a transaction breakdown display based on the time periods measured by the agent component, the transaction breakdown display indicating a breakdown of a total transaction response time into multiple components, including at least a network time representing an amount of said total transaction response time that is attributable to the network, and a server time representing an amount of said total transaction response time that is attributable to the transactional server, said network time and server time generated using said time periods measured by the agent component;
• wherein the agent component and the report generation component run on one or more computers on a network.

A method for monitoring performance of a server system, the method comprising:

• receiving data from a plurality of computers in a plurality of geographic locations indicating time spent by a server in processing transaction requests from each of the plurality of computers;
• receiving data from the plurality of computers indicating time spent by a network in processing the transaction requests;
• and
• generating a report page with graphical representations of the time spent by the server and the time spent by the network for each of the plurality of geographic locations to facilitate a determination of whether network and server delays are location dependent;
• wherein said time spent by the server and said time spent by the network are measured via agent software executed by said plurality of computers;
• wherein said generating is performed by a computer on a network;
• wherein the agent software communicates over the network with the server to execute transactions, and measures time durations between predefined events that occur during execution of said transactions;
• wherein the time durations measured by the agent software are used to calculate said time spent by the server and said time spent by the network.

A method of monitoring performance of a transactional server as seen from a remote user location, the method comprising:

• executing a transaction between a client computer in the remote user location and the transactional server, wherein the transaction comprises a sequence of URL requests passed from the client computer to the transactional server over a computer network;
• on the client computer, measuring time durations between predefined events that occur during execution of the transaction;
• using the measured time durations to calculate at least a network time representing an amount of time attributable to the computer network and a server time representing an amount of time attributable to the transactional server;
• and
• generating, at a reports server, a report that includes a break down of time involved in completion of the transaction into multiple components, including at least said network time and said server time.