US 7,680,916 B2 · System for improving the performance of a computer software application in a server network

Abstract

Method and apparatus for separating background utilization from transaction resource consumption to simulate resource costs on system servers including a computer application server is taught. Transaction throughput combined with resource consumption data. Regression analysis on the resulting data set provides information useful for determining performance and for creating discrete event simulations. In a first embodiment, data from an application server is combined with the application transaction log to find a background utilization on the application servers and to simulate transaction resource cost with a background load. In a second embodiment, data from servers other than the application server are combined with the application transaction log to estimate the resource cost per transaction for a given resource in the system. In a third embodiment, data from servers other than the application server are combined with the application transaction log to simulate resource cost for a given resource based on transaction throughput.

A system for creating a set of predicted resource utilizations of a computer application wherein the computer application operates as a software program on a system of servers configured to operate a set of software programs;

the set of resources containing a set of local resources and a set of remote services;
wherein the set of local resources is connected to the set of application servers;
wherein the set of remote resources is connected to the set of networked servers;
the system of servers include a set of application servers which are connected to a set of networked servers by a communications network, and wherein the computer application utilizes a set of system resources the set of system resources contain a set of local resources and a set of remote resources;
wherein the set of local resources is connected to the set of application servers;
wherein the set of remote resources is connected to the set of networked servers;
the set of local resources containing a local CPU resource for executing software programs, a local RAM resource for storing software programs and for storing dynamic data, a local data storage resource for storing persistent data, and a local data pipe resource for communicating with the set of software programs by a set of transactions;
the set of remote resources containing a remote CPU resource for executing software programs, a remote RAM resource for storing software programs and for storing dynamic data, a remote data storage resource for storing persistent data, and a remote data pipe resource for communicating with at least one networked server in the set of networked servers and at least one application server in the set of application servers;
each of the set of transactions including an exchange of data associated with the computer application;
wherein at least one of the set of networked servers services at least one transaction of the set of transactions and services a set of requests from at least one network server in the set of networked servers;
the set of transactions causing usage of the set of system resources;
wherein a transaction log associated with the computer application is generated and contains a list of transaction information measured by the computer application;
the list of transaction information describing resource usage by the computer application;
wherein a set of system resource monitors resides on the system of servers, and each system resource monitor is associated with a particular server in the system of servers, each system resource monitor operating on at least one software program in the set of software programs;
wherein at least one system resource monitor of the set of system resource monitors measures a set of resource utilization data for the particular server of the set of servers with which the system resource monitor is associated, the system comprising:
a. a performance criteria describing an expected resource utilization by the computer application;
b. a system resource utilization data repository for storing and organizing the set of resource utilization data, the system resource utilization data repository residing on and operating on at least one server in the system of servers;
c. a system model generator residing on and operating on at least one server in the system of servers, the system model generator creating a set of predicted resource utilizations for the system of servers, derived from the set of resource utilization data and from the transaction log;
and
wherein the set of system resource utilization data contains a set of measured resource utilizations, ρ(i, t′), measured at a set of times t′ over a time interval Δt′ for the system resources i in the set of local resources and wherein any given local resource in the set of local resources is comprised of a plurality of n(i) entities;
wherein the transaction loci contains a set of measured resource costs Rj(t) corresponding to a group of transactions of the set of transactions occurring at a plurality of times t and for the system resources j in the set of local resources, the system model generator comprising a computer software program residing on at least one server in the set of servers and programmed to:
a. compute a resource cost, C(i, t′), for each system resources i in the set of system resources according to the formula,
C(i,t′)=ρ(i,t′)·Δt′·ni;
b. compute a total system resource cost, Csys(i, T), for each system resource i in the set of local resources, for a test period T, by summing the resource cost for the test period T according to the formula,
C
sys
⁡
(
i
,
T
)
=
∑
t
′
∈
T
⁢
C
i
⁡
(
t
′
)
;
c. compute the total application resource cost, Capp(i, T), during the test period T, according to
C
app
⁡
(
j
,
T
)
=
∑
t
∈
T
⁢
R
j
⁡
(
t
)
,
where the sum is taken over all resource costs Rj(t) occurring within the test period T;
d. calculate an average background resource consumption, C0(i, T), for each system resource i of the set of local resources, consumed during test period T, according to the formula,
C0(i,T)=Csys(i,T)−Capp(j,T),
where a particular system resource listed in the transaction log indexed as j is associated with a particular system resource from the set of system resources in the set of resource utilization data indexed as i, and,
e. calculate a set of constant background load values, ρ0(i), for each system resource i of the set of system resources measured during the test period T, according to the formula,
ρ0(i)=C0(i,T)/T.

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System for improving the performance of a computer software application in a server network

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System for improving the performance of a computer software application in a server network

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Abstract

Claims21