Method and apparatus for determining a source of performance degradation in distributed systems transmission

A device for determining the source of failing to achieve a desired level of service quality in communication between at least two components in a distributed system, the device comprising:

• a processor in communication with a memory, the processor executing code for:
• developing a model of the distributed system, the model including at least configuration non-specific representations of types of managed components, and representations of relationships among the managed components;
• determining associated managed components within each route of data communication between the at least two components;
• augmenting the representation of the associated managed components with information associated with each of the routes of data communication;
• monitoring at least one performance criterion of the communication between the at least two components;
• and
• determining a source of degradation when the performance criteria is indicated to be outside acceptable limits, wherein step of determining a source of degradation comprises the steps of:
• representing problems associated with each of the types of managed components;
• producing a data structure for presenting the propagation of the problems from by combining a plurality of the configuration non-specific representations of instances of managed components associated with each route;
• and
• determining, from the data structure, a problem source from the performance criteria indication.

A computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium for determining the source of failing to achieve a desired level of service quality in communication between at least two components in a distributed system, the product providing instruction to a computer system for executing the steps of:

• developing a model of the distributed system, the model including at least configuration non-specific representations of types of managed components, and representations of relationships among the managed components;
• determining for each route of data communication between the at least two components the associated managed components;
• augmenting the representation of the associated managed components with information associated with each of the routes of data communication;
• monitoring at least one performance criterion of the communication between the at least two components;
• and
• determining a source of degradation when the performance criteria is indicated to be outside acceptable limits, wherein step of determining a source of degradation comprises the steps of:
• representing problems associated with each of the types of managed components;
• producing a data structure for presenting the propagation of the problems from by combining a plurality of the configuration non-specific representations of instances of managed components associated with each route;
• and
• determining, from the data structure, a problem source from the performance criteria indication.