Systems and methods for monitoring and analyzing performance in a computer system with node pinning for concurrent comparison of nodes

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for enabling users to evaluate performance of a hierarchical computing environment via a generated monitoring tree for diagnosing root causes of performance problems, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a user, selections of configuration information including an entity type, a performance metric, a time range, and thresholds for indicating a performance state;
• generating a monitoring tree based on the user selections by:
• retrieving values for the selected performance metric that match the selected entity type and selected time range;
• retrieving architectural information specifying hierarchical relationships of parent nodes and associated child nodes between a plurality of entities at the time performance metric values were generated;
• and
• determining performance states for each child node by comparing the performance metric values against the selected thresholds and for each parent node based on the determined performance states of the child nodes;
• displaying the hierarchical computing environment as the monitoring tree that includes nodes representing the plurality of entities in the hierarchical computing environment and edges between the nodes representing parent-child relationships between the plurality of entities, wherein the displayed monitoring tree indicates associated values of a selected performance metric for nodes in the monitoring tree;
• in response to the user selecting a first node in the monitoring tree to be pinned, displaying a first detail panel for the first node, wherein the first detail panel displays performance state information for the first node, wherein the performance state information is frozen at the time of pinning;
• and
• upon receiving, from the user, selection of different configuration information, such as a different entity type, performance metric or time range, regenerating the monitoring tree based on the different configuration information and displaying the regenerated monitoring tree while maintaining display of the detail panel for the first node with the performance state information about the node from the previously-generated monitoring tree.

A system that enables users to evaluate performance of a hierarchical computing environment via a generated monitoring tree for diagnosing root causes of performance problems, comprising;

• a computing cluster comprising a plurality of processors and associated memories;
• and
• a performance-monitoring mechanism that executes on the computing cluster and is configured to,
• receive, from a user, selections of configuration information including an entity type, a performance metric, a time range, and thresholds for indicating a performance state;
• generate a monitoring tree based on the user selections by:
• retrieving values for the selected performance metric that match the selected entity type and selected time range;
• retrieving architectural information specifying hierarchical relationships of parent nodes and associated child nodes between a plurality of entities at the time performance metric values were generated;
• and
• determining performance states for each child node by comparing the performance metric values against the selected thresholds and for each parent node based on the determined performance states of the child nodes;
• display the hierarchical computing environment as the monitoring tree that includes nodes representing the plurality of entities in the hierarchical computing environment and edges between the nodes representing parent-child relationships between the plurality of entities, wherein the displayed monitoring tree indicates associated values of a selected performance metric for nodes in the monitoring tree;
• in response to the user selecting a first node in the monitoring tree to be pinned, display a first detail panel for the first node, wherein the first detail panel displays performance state information for the first node, wherein the performance state information is frozen at the time of pinning;
• and
• upon receiving, from the user, selection of different configuration information, such as a different entity type, performance metric or time range, regenerate the monitoring tree based on the different configuration information and display the regenerated monitoring tree while maintaining display of the detail panel for the first node with the performance state information about the node from the previously-generated monitoring tree.