Method and system for real-time modeling of communication, virtualization and transaction execution related topological aspects of monitored software applications and hardware entities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12401709-B2
Application number	US-202318136638-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2023
Priority date	Oct 10, 2014
Publication date	Aug 26, 2025
Grant date	Aug 26, 2025

Abstract

A system and method for real-time discovery and monitoring of multidimensional topology models describing structural aspects of applications and of computing infrastructure used to execute those applications is disclosed. Different types of agents are deployed to the monitored application execution infrastructure dedicated to capture specific topological aspects of the monitored system. Virtualization agents detect and monitor the virtualization structure of virtualized hardware used in the execution infrastructure, operating system agents deployed to individual operating systems monitor resource utilization, performance and communication of processes executed by the operating system and transaction agents deployed to processes participating in the execution of transactions, providing end-to-end transaction trace and monitoring data describing individual transaction executions. The monitoring and tracing data of the deployed agents contains correlation data that allows to create a topology model of the monitored system that integrates transaction execution, process execution and communication and virtualization related aspects.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring a distributed transaction by a monitoring system across a distributed computing environment, comprising:
capturing, by an agent of a first type, monitoring data that identifies communication between a first topology entity and a second topology entity, where the monitoring data includes identification data for the first topology entity, and the agent of the first type is hosted by a host computing device;
sending, by the agent of the first type, the monitoring data over a network to a monitoring node located remotely from the host computing device;
capturing, by an agent of a second type which differs from the first type, relationship data that identifies execution dependencies between the first topology entity and a third topology entity, where the relationship data includes identification data for the first topology entity that has same format and values as the identification data captured by the agent of the first type;
sending, by the agent of the second type, the relationship data over the network to the monitoring node;
receiving, by a topology processor residing on the monitoring node, the monitoring data and the relationship data; and
updating, by the topology processor, a topology model for the distributed computing environment using the identification data for the first topology entity, where the topology model describes communication relationships between topology entities and defines execution dependencies between topology entities.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first topology entity is a first service, the second topology entity is a second service called by the first service, and the third topology entity is a process that provides the first service.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the agent of the first type is instrumented in a method executed by the process to perform the first service and the agent of the second type is instrumented in the process.

4. The computer-implemented method 2 further comprises updating the topology model by creating a communication relationship between the first service and the second service.

5. The computer-implemented method 2 further comprises updating the topology model by creating an execution dependency between the first service and the process.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first topology entity is a first process, the second topology entity is a second process with which the first process communicates, and the third topology entity is the host computing system that executes the first process.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 wherein the agent of the first type is instrumented in the first process and the agent of the second type is executing as another process on the host computing system.

8. The computer-implemented method 6 further comprises updating the topology model by creating a communication relationship between the first process and the second process.

9. The computer-implemented method 6 further comprises updating the topology model by creating an execution dependency between the first process and the host computing system.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first topology entity is a first operating system, the second topology entity is a second operating system with which the first operating system communicates, and the third topology entity is the host computing system that executes the first operating system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprises receiving, by a transaction agent, transaction trace data that identifies a transaction being executed in part on the host computing device, where the transaction trace data includes an identifier for a thread executed by a process and the transaction agent is instrumented in the process;
identifying, by a service sensor instrumented in a method executed by the process, a service used by the transaction to enter the process, where the service is executed in the process and the identification of the service occurs in response to the method receiving a request;
receiving, by the transaction agent, service data from the service sensor, where the service data contains data identifying the service used by the transaction to enter the process;
retrieving, by the transaction agent, process group information identifying a process group to which the process belongs and operating system information identifying an operating system executing on the host computing device and upon which the process is running; and
sending, by the transaction agent, the transaction trace data, the service data, the process group information and the operation system information over the network to the monitoring node.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprises
receiving, by the service sensor, a request for the service and determining the request originated outside of the host computing device; and
in response to determining the request originated outside of the host computing device, updating the topology model to indicate that the service as an entry service.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprises
receiving, by the topology processor, the transaction trace data, the service data, the process group information and the operating system information;
determining, by the topology processor, an execution dependency between a method servicing a service request and the service from the service data; and
updating, by the topology processor, the topology model with the execution dependency between a method servicing a service request and the service.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprises
receiving, by the topology processor, the transaction trace data, the service data, the process group information and the operating system information;
determining, by the topology processor, an execution dependency between the service used by the transaction to enter the process and the process group to which the process belongs; and
updating, by the topology processor, the topology model with the execution dependency between the service used by the transaction to enter the process and the process group to which the process belongs.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprises
receiving, by the topology processor, the transaction trace data, the service data, the process group information and the operating system information;
determining, by the topology processor, a communication relationship between the service servicing the service request and another service called by the service from the service data; and
updating, by the topology processor, the topology model with the communication relationship between the service servicing the service request and another service called by the service from the service data.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprises
determining, by an OS agent, metadata for a given process and metadata for the operating system, where the given process is running on the host computing device and the OS agent is running on the host computing device;
detecting, by the OS agent, a communication with another process running on a second operating system on a second host device, where the given process is participating in the communication; and
sending, by the OS agent, a communication topology event over the network to the monitoring node, where the communication topology event includes information identifying a process group to which the given process belongs, infor

Assignees

• Dynatrace Llc

Inventors

• Greifeneder Bernd
• Ambichl Ernst
• Lehofer Andreas
• Schwarzbauer Gunther
• Spiegl Helmut
• Mlotowski Rafal

Classifications

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L67/1001

  for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers · CPC title

• H04L67/62

  Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests · CPC title

• H04L41/5058

  Service discovery by the service manager · CPC title