Monitoring and correlating a binary process in a distributed business transaction

A method for monitoring a binary process, comprising:

• instructing, by an agent in a network, a loader how to handle a begin method and an end method of a first application implemented as a binary process;
• monitoring, by the agent, the first application implemented as the binary process, the binary process including a process in a binary language and executing on a first machine;
• detecting, by the agent, communication with the binary process by a second application on a second machine, the second application not implemented as a binary process, wherein the detected communication includes an incoming call from the second application to the binary process or an outgoing call sent to the second application from the binary process;
• collecting, by the agent, data from the incoming call from the second application to the binary process;
• monitoring, by the agent, the incoming call including collecting timing data, method parameters, and call stack data associated with the incoming call;
• causing, by the agent, the loader to call a method from a library, in response to detecting the incoming call, to install code at an address of the detected incoming call and reading incoming parameters contained within the detected incoming call, the one or more parameters including distributed business transaction information and collected data;
• and
• providing, by the agent, data associated with monitoring the binary process and data associated with monitoring the second application to a controller in the network configured to correlate the first application implemented as a binary process and the second application not implemented as a binary process as part of the distributed business transaction based on the received data, the distributed business transaction implemented by the first application and the second application across the first machine and the second machine.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory;
• and
• one or more modules stored in memory and executable by a processor to perform operations, including:
• communicating with one or more agents installed and configured to:
• instruct a loader how to handle a begin method and an end method of a first application implemented as a binary process;
• monitor the first application implemented as the binary process, the binary process including a process in a binary language and executing on a first machine;
• detect, at the first machine, communication with the binary process by a second application on a second machine, the second application not implemented as a binary process, wherein the detected communication includes an incoming call from the second application to the binary process or an outgoing call sent to the second application from the binary process;
• collecting data from the incoming call from the second application to the binary process;
• monitoring the incoming call including collecting timing data, method parameters, and call stack data associate with the incoming call;
• causing the loader to call a method from a library, in response to detecting the incoming call, to install code at an address of the detected incoming call and read incoming parameters contained within the detected incoming call, the one or more parameters including distributed business transaction information and collected data;
• and
• monitor the second application on the second machine;
• receiving data transmitted from one or more installed agents, the transmitted data comprising data associated with monitoring the binary process and data associated with monitoring the second application;
• and
• correlating the first application implemented as a binary process and the second application not implemented as a binary process as part of the distributed business transaction based on the received data, the distributed business transaction implemented by the first application and the second application across the first machine and the second machine.