Methods, systems, and computer readable media for emulating computer processing usage patterns on a virtual machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9507616-B1
Application number	US-201514749606-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 24, 2015
Priority date	Jun 24, 2015
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

According to one aspect, the disclosed subject matter describes herein a method for emulating computer processing usage patterns on a virtual machine that includes generating a usage pattern specification based on a plurality of computer processing usage patterns provided by a user and receiving, by a virtual machine hosted by a device under test (DUT), the usage pattern specification containing the plurality of computer processing usage patterns. The method also includes generating a plurality of pattern instruction sequences using execution parameters included in each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns and distributing each of the plurality of pattern instruction sequences among a plurality of virtual processing cores of the virtual machine. The method further includes emulating the operation of the application on the virtual machine by executing the pattern instruction sequences on the virtual processing cores in a manner specified by the execution parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for emulating computer processing usage patterns on a virtual machine, the method comprising:
generating a usage pattern specification based on a plurality of computer processing usage patterns provided by a user;
receiving, by a virtual machine hosted by a device under test (DUT), the usage pattern specification containing the plurality of computer processing usage patterns, wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns includes execution parameters associated with the execution of simulated actions of an application;
generating a plurality of pattern instruction sequences using the execution parameters included in each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns;
distributing each of the plurality of pattern instruction sequences among a plurality of virtual processing cores of the virtual machine; and
emulating the operation of the application on the virtual machine by executing the pattern instruction sequences on the virtual processing cores in a manner specified by the execution parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the user selects one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns from a plurality of stored pre-defined usage patterns.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user defines one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns to generate a customized computer processing usage pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns specifies actions executed by the application in response to user activity.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising measuring a performance level of i) each of the virtual cores, ii) file input/output access, or iii) memory usage emulating the operation of the application.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the execution parameters corresponding to each computer processing usage pattern includes at least one of i) a specified thread count for executing the computer processing usage pattern, ii) a number of processing cores to use to execute the computer processing usage pattern, iii) an indication whether to automatically scale the computer processing usage pattern to run on all of the virtual processing cores, iv) a number of instances to repeat the execution of the computer processing usage pattern, and v) a total amount of time to execute the computer processing usage pattern.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the pattern instruction sequence specifies computer processing usage patterns representing activity generated by multiple pre-canned usage patterns operating across multiple servers.

8. A system for emulating computer processing usage patterns on a virtual machine, the system comprising:
a processing activity emulation machine configured to generate a computer processing usage specification based on a plurality of computer processing usage patterns provided by a user;
a device under test (DUT) that includes:
one or more virtual machines hosted by the DUT configured to receive the usage pattern specification containing the plurality of computer processing usage patterns, wherein each of the one or more virtual machines includes a usage pattern generation module comprising:
a pattern instruction sequence generation module configured to receive the usage pattern specification containing the plurality of computer processing usage patterns and to generate a plurality of pattern instruction sequences using execution parameters included in each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns, wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns includes the execution parameters associated with the execution of simulated actions of an application; and
a pattern execution module configured to receive the plurality of pattern instruction sequences, to distribute each of the plurality of pattern instruction sequences among a plurality of virtual processing cores of the virtual machine, wherein the operation of the application is emulated on the virtual machine via the execution of the pattern instruction sequences on the virtual processing cores in a manner specified by the execution parameters.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the user selects one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns from a plurality of stored pre-defined usage patterns.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the user defines one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns to generate a customized computer processing usage pattern.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns specifies actions executed by the application in response to user activity.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the processing activity emulator is further configured to measure a performance level of i) each of the virtual cores, ii) file input/output access, or iii) memory usage emulating the operation of the application.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the execution parameters corresponding to each computer processing usage pattern includes at least one of i) a specified thread count for executing the computer processing usage pattern, ii) a number of processing cores to use to execute the computer processing usage pattern, iii) an indication whether to automatically scale the computer processing usage pattern to run on all of the virtual processing cores, iv) a number of instances to repeat the execution of the computer processing usage pattern, and v) a total amount of time to execute the computer processing usage pattern.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the pattern instruction sequence specifies computer processing usage patterns representing activity generated by multiple pre-canned usage patterns operating across multiple servers.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by the processor of a computer cause the computer to perform steps comprising:
generating a usage pattern specification based on a plurality of computer processing usage patterns defined by a user;
receiving, by a virtual machine hosted by a device under test (DUT), the usage pattern specification containing the plurality of computer processing usage patterns, wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns includes execution parameters associated with the execution of simulated actions of an application;
generating a plurality of pattern instruction sequences using the execution parameters included in each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns;
distributing each of the plurality of pattern instruction sequences among a plurality of virtual processing cores of the virtual machine; and
emulating the operation of the application on the virtual machine by executing the pattern instruction sequences on the virtual processing cores in a manner specified by the execution parameters.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the user selects one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns from a plurality of stored pre-defined usage patterns.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the user defines one or more of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns to generate a customized computer processing usage pattern.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein each of the plurality of computer processing usage patterns specifies actions executed by the application in response to user activity.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further co

Assignees

• Ixia

Inventors

• Ramanath Avinash
• Lvov Sergey
• Puchiu Gheorghe Mihai

Classifications

• G06F11/3698

  Environments for analysis, debugging or testing of software · CPC title

• G06F11/261

  by simulating additional hardware, e.g. fault simulation · CPC title

• G06F9/45504 Primary

  Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators · CPC title

• G06F9/45533 Primary

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• G06F11/3664

  Physics · mapped topic