Diagnosing distributed applications using application logs and request processing paths

Abstract

A method for monitoring a distributed application for errors includes constructing a transaction path for each request received by the distributed application, detecting a writing action to a log of the distributed application, and annotating the transaction path in accordance with the writing action to produce an annotated transaction path. In another embodiment, a method for building a knowledge base for use in diagnosing an error occurring in a distributed application includes executing the distributed application on a replica of a production server that supports the distributed application, constructing a transaction path for a request received by the distributed application, wherein the transaction path traverses the replica, injecting a fault into the transaction path, detecting a writing action to a log of the distributed application, wherein the writing action is a response to the fault, and storing an association between the fault and the writing action.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.