Systems and methods for tracking processing unit usage

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring the CPU time consumed by a software agent operating in a computer system is disclosed. A resource tracking process is executed on the system. When an operating agent is detected, an agent lifetime timer is initialized. Then, CPU resources for the agent are identified and stored. Checks are made at predetermined intervals to determine if the agent is still alive. When the agent terminates, a measurement is made of the CPU time utilized by the agent. The measurement is then stored in memory.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Management and workflow collaboration software systems are used by organizations to maintain the efficiency of workforces. Among other things, these systems, herein referred to as enterprise systems, allow employees to communicate, obtain information, requisition products and services, generate documents, and perform online training. Management systems may also connect portions of an organization that are separated geographically. As a result, management systems are often spread across multiple servers coupled to the network. The distributed nature of management systems along with the requirement that they perform numerous operations simultaneously makes them very large and complex. [0002] Adding to the complexity of management systems is the fact that many of these systems have evolved over time. This evolution has largely been driven by customer needs and has resulted in rather basic management systems evolving into the large, complex ones predom...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] In preferred embodiments, processing unit resource consumption can be tracked on two levels. First, the overall CPU consumption is tracked. When the CPU utilization for the process becomes high, an individual agent's CPU consumption is tracked. Tracking the overall usage determines when the usage is high, while the second determines which agent(s) are causing the problem.

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Problems solved by technology

The distributed nature of management systems along with the requirement that they perform numerous operations simultaneously makes them very large and complex.

Adding to the complexity of management systems is the fact that many of these systems have evolved over time.

The combination of old / new software-executable instructions and customer developed software instructions may produce operating environments that are difficult to troubleshoot.

If a particular software agent is not operating at the appropriate time, it may be due to either a problem with the scheduled agent, a problem with an agent currently running, or a problem with software processes that schedule agents.

Identifying the exact cause of late agents using the prior art is thus problematic.

Software agents may also consume system resources while operating.

Prior art systems and methods for monitoring agent activity may not easily identify problematic agents because there is no apriori mechanism for identifying when agents may become problematic.

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