Application centric network experience monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9935853-B2
Application number	US-201715437294-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2017
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

A system determines the performance of a network within the context of an application using that network. Network data is collected and correlated with an application that uses the network as well as a distributed transaction implemented by the application. The collected network data is culled, and the remaining data is rolled up into one or more metrics. The metrics, selected network data, and other data are reported in the context of the application that implements part of the distributed transaction. In this manner, specific network performance and architecture data is reported along with application context information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for correlating application performance data and network performance data for a distributed transaction over a network, comprising:
collecting application data by a first module installed on a first machine, the application data collected during execution of an application implemented as part of the distributed transaction;
receiving, by a second module installed on the first machine, the application data collected during execution of the application while implementing at least a portion of the distributed transaction;
collecting network data associated with network flow by the second module installed on the first machine;
identifying, by the second module, a subset of the collected network data which corresponds to the application data received from the first module;
generating, by the second module, flow metrics from the identified subset; and
transmitting, by the second module, the identified subset and the flow metrics to a remote controller on a second machine, wherein the remote controller correlates application metrics received from the first module with the flow metrics received from the second module using distributed transaction information, and reports results of the correlation as an indication of network performance within a context of the application during execution from a remote server.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distributed transaction information includes call chain data collected within the context of the application during execution.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the call chain data includes a sequence of one or more nodes that have previously processed the distributed business transaction.

4. The method of claim 3 , including:
receiving, by the second module, the network flow tuple and distributed transaction information;
generating, by the second module, metrics for network flow group data that matches the received network flow tuple; and
reporting the network flow group metrics and the distributed transaction information to the remote controller.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the collected application data includes application flow data and the network data includes network flow data and network infrastructure data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first module is a first agent installed on the first machine and the second module is a second agent or plug-in installed on the first machine.

7. The method of claim 1 , including:
collecting, by the first module, the distributed transaction information from the application being monitored; and
providing, by the first module, the distributed transaction information to the second module.

8. The method of claim 1 , including:
collecting, by the first module, a network flow tuple for the application; and
providing, by the first module, the distributed transaction information and the network flow tuple to the second module.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein correlating includes:
receiving application performance metrics generated from the application data collected by the first module; and
receiving network performance metrics generated from the network data collected by the second module,
wherein the remote controller correlates the application performance metrics and network performance metrics using the call chain data that indicate a sequence of machines that have previously processed the distributed transaction are associated with each of the application performance metrics and network performance metrics.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for correlating application performance data and network performance data for a distributed transaction, the method comprising:
collecting application data by a first module installed on a first machine, the application data collected during execution of an application implemented as part of the distributed transaction;
receiving, by a second module installed on the first machine, the application data collected during execution of the application while implementing at least a portion of the distributed transaction;
collecting network data associated with network flow by the second module installed on the first machine;
identifying, by the second module, a subset of the collected network data which corresponds to the application data received from the first module;
generating, by the second module, flow metrics from the identified subset; and
transmitting, by the second module, the identified subset and the flow metrics to a remote controller on a second machine, wherein the remote controller correlates application metrics received from the first module with the flow metrics received from the second module using distributed transaction information, and reports results of the correlation as an indication of network performance within a context of the application during execution from a remote server.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the distributed transaction information includes call chain data, the call chain data including a sequence of one or more nodes that have previously processed the distributed business transaction.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , the second module receiving the network flow tuple and distributed transaction information, the second module generating metrics for network flow group data that matches the received network flow tuple and reporting the network flow group metrics and distributed transaction information to a remote controller.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the network data includes network flow data and network infrastructure data.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first module is a first agent installed on the first machine and the second module is a second agent installed on the first machine.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first module is a first agent installed on the first machine and the second module is a plug-in installed in the first agent on the first machine.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first module collects the distributed transaction information from the application being monitored by the first module, the first module providing the second module with the distributed transaction information.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first module collecting a network flow tuple for the application, the first module providing the distributed transaction information and the network flow tuple to the second module.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein correlating includes:
receiving application performance metrics generated from the application data collected by the first module;
receiving network performance metrics generated from the network data collected by the second module; and
wherein the remote controller correlates the application performance metrics and network performance metrics using the call chain data that indicate a sequence of machines that have previously processed the distributed transaction are associated with each of the application performance metrics and network performance metrics.

19. An apparatus, comprising:
one or more network interfaces to communicate on links within a computer n

Assignees

• Appdynamics Llc
• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Nataraj Harish
• Leftik Adam
• Chandel Ajay
• Bansal Jyoti
• Sunkara Bhaskar

Classifications

• G06F2201/865

  Monitoring of software · CPC title

• G06F11/3006

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title

• H04L41/5009

  Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] · CPC title

• G06F11/3419

  by assessing time · CPC title

• H04L41/142 Primary

  using statistical or mathematical methods · CPC title