Automatic asynchronous handoff identification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9515901-B2
Application number	US-201314058200-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2013
Priority date	Oct 18, 2013
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Asynchronous handoffs between threads and other software components may be automatically detected, and the corresponding working objects may be tracked. The system may report monitoring information for an overall transaction that includes the original request and corresponding asynchronous requests. Automatically detecting asynchronous requests may include instrumenting a virtual machine, such as a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), to detect the creation of thread handoff objects and the object and/or thread execution. Thread handoff objects may automatically tracked, tracked based on data learned over time, tracked based on user input, and otherwise configured. In some embodiments, after detecting the creation of a thread handoff object, an identification of the object of the call may be identified as being tracked in another server or application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting asynchronous thread handoff requests associated with monitoring a business transaction, the method including:
automatically detecting construction of a thread handoff object by an agent on a server that performs at least a portion of the business transaction monitoring, the thread handoff object configured to handoff control of the business transaction from a first thread to a second thread;
storing a correlated pair of an object identifier and a monitoring parameter for the thread handoff object responsive to the detecting of the construction of the thread handoff object, the object identifier identifying the constructed thread handoff object;
automatically detecting an execution of the thread handoff object identified by the object identifier, wherein the execution of the thread handoff object results in the handoff of control of the business transaction from the first thread to the second thread;
retrieving the stored monitoring parameter correlated with the object identifier identifying the executed thread handoff object;
associating the constructed thread handoff object with the retrieved monitoring parameter; and
associating the retrieved monitoring parameter with the second thread due to the thread handoff from the first thread.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread handoff object is a callable object.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread handoff object is a runnable object.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread handoff object creates a child thread to execute as part of the business transaction.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread handoff object is initiated by a first independently executing content page element of a plurality of independently executing content page elements.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread handoff object construction is detected by the agent executing on the server that constructs the thread handoff object.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction is performed by the first thread that constructs the thread handoff object and the second thread that is initiated by the thread handoff object.

8. The method of claim 7 , including wherein monitoring the business transaction includes monitoring the first thread and the second thread.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring parameter includes:
an application identifier, a transaction identifier, a request identifier, or caller chain information.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the execution of the thread handoff object includes creating and executing another thread handoff object.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform operations for monitoring a business transaction including:
automatically detecting construction of a thread handoff object by an agent on a server that performs at least a portion of the business transaction monitoring, the thread handoff object configured to handoff control of the business transaction from a first thread to a second thread;
storing a correlated pair of an object identifier and a monitoring parameter for the thread handoff object responsive to the detecting of the construction of the thread handoff object, the object identifier identifying the constructed thread handoff object;
automatically detecting an execution of the thread handoff object identified by the object identifier, wherein the execution of the thread handoff object results in the handoff of control of the business transaction from the first thread to the second thread;
retrieving the stored monitoring parameter correlated with the object identifier identifying the executed thread handoff object;
associating the constructed thread handoff object with the retrieved monitoring parameter; and
associating the retrieved monitoring parameter with the second thread due to the thread handoff from the first thread.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the thread handoff object is a callable object.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the thread handoff object is a runnable object.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the thread handoff object creates a child thread to execute as part of the business transaction.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the thread handoff object is initiated by a first independently executing content page element of a plurality of independently executing content page elements.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the thread handoff object construction is detected by an agent executing on a server that constructs the thread handoff object.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the business transaction is performed by the first thread that constructs the thread handoff object and the second thread that is initiated by the thread handoff object.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein monitoring the business transaction includes monitoring the first thread and the second thread.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the monitoring parameter includes:
an application identifier, a transaction identifier, a request identifier, or caller chain information.

20. A system for monitoring a business transaction, the system comprising: a processor;
a memory; and
one or more modules stored in memory and executable by the processor to perform operations including:
automatically detect construction of a thread handoff object by an agent on a server that performs at least a portion of the business transaction monitoring, the thread handoff object configured to handoff control of the business transaction from a first thread to a second thread;
store a correlated pair of an object identifier and a monitoring parameter for the thread handoff object responsive to the detecting of the construction of the thread handoff object, the object identifier identifying the constructed thread handoff object;
automatically detect an execution of the thread handoff object identified by the object identifier, wherein the execution of the thread handoff object results in the handoff of control of the business transaction from the first thread to the second thread;
retrieve the stored monitoring parameter correlated with the object identifier identifying the executed thread handoff object;
associate the constructed thread handoff object with the retrieved monitoring parameter; and
associate the retrieved monitoring parameter with the second thread due to the thread handoff from the first thread.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the thread handoff object is a callable object.

22. The system of claim 20 , wherein the thread handoff object is a runnable object.

23. The system of claim 20 , wherein the thread handoff object creates a child thread to execute as part of the transaction.

24. The system of claim 20 , wherein the thread handoff object is initiated by a first independently executing content page element of a plurality of independently executing content page elements.

25. The system of claim 20 , wherein the object construction is detected by an agent executing on a server that constructs the threa

Assignees

• Appdynamics Inc

Inventors

• Sunkara Bhaskar
• Puvvada Suraj
• Acharya Manoj
• Srinivasaiah Vinay

Classifications

• G06F9/4843 Primary

  by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system · CPC title

• G06F9/466

  Transaction processing · CPC title

• H04L43/14

  using software, i.e. software packages (network security related monitoring H04L63/1408) · CPC title

• H04L43/04 Primary

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title

• G06F9/45504

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