System and methods for tracing individual transactions across a mainframe computing environment

A performance management system for monitoring performance of an application across a distributed computing environment, including within a mainframe computer, comprising:

• a hardware processor;
• a transaction manager operating in a run-time environment of the mainframe computer and configured to receive a transaction request from an application executing on a computing device located remotely from the mainframe computer;
• an event agent invoked via a user exit by the transaction manager and operates, in a region of the run-time environment associated with the transaction manager, to detect events caused during the handling of the transaction request by the transaction manager and generate event messages for select events from the detected events, where the event messages include identifying information for the transaction request;
• and
• a translator agent configured to receive the event messages from the event agent and transmit an event data record to a server located remotely from the mainframe computer, where the event data record includes the identifying information for the transaction request and at least one performance metric for an event associated with the transaction, wherein the transaction manager, the event agent and the translator agent are implemented by processor readable instructions executed by the hardware processor.

A computer-implemented method for monitoring performance of an application across a distributed computing environment, including within a mainframe computer, comprising:

• invoking an event agent, where the event agent is executed in a run-time environment by a processor of a mainframe computer;
• detecting, by the event agent, a first event resulting from a first transaction, where the first event occurs in the run-time environment of the mainframe computer;
• determining, by the event agent, identifying information for the first transaction, where the identifying information permits correlation of the first transaction with activities of the application occurring in other areas of the distributed computing environment;
• generating, by the event agent, an event message for the first event, where the event message includes the identifying information for the first transaction;
• transmitting the event message for the first event to a server located remotely from the mainframe computer;
• detecting, by the event agent, a second event resulting from a second transaction, where the second transaction differs from the first transaction and the second event occurs in the run-time environment of the mainframe computer;
• determining, by the event agent, whether the second transaction was called by the first transaction;
• generating, by the event agent, an event message for the second event, where the event message includes identifying information for the first transaction in the event message responsive to determining that the second transaction was called by the first transaction;
• and
• transmitting the event message for the second event to the server located remotely from the mainframe computer.