Modeling and evaluating application performance in a new environment

Abstract

A method for evaluating the performance of an application when migrated from a first environment in which the application is currently executing to a second, different environment includes generating a virtual application that mimics the resource consuming behavior of the application, executing the virtual application in the second environment, and evaluating the performance of the virtual application in the second environment.

1 . A system for evaluating a performance of a distributed, complex multi-tier application when migrated from a first environment in which the distributed, complex multi-tier application is currently executing to a second, different environment, the system comprising:
 an application structure analyzer for generating a virtual application that mimics a resource consuming behavior and an inter-tier behavior of the distributed, complex multi-tier application;   a drone control module for executing the virtual application in the second environment; and   a performance evaluator for evaluating a performance of the virtual application in the second environment.   
     
     
         2 .- 3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the distributed, complex multi-tier application is executed by a plurality of servers. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 at least one data collection agent residing on at least one of the plurality of servers, for collecting data indicative of the resource consuming behavior.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one data collection agent is integrated with a hypervisor of the at least one of the plurality of servers. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 a database for storing the data.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data is collected from the distributed, complex multi-tier application while the application is live. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data comprises a central processing unit utilization of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data comprises a disk input/output of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data comprises an amount of memory consumed per thread of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data further comprises data indicative of an internal threading structure of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the data indicative of an internal threading structure of the distributed, complex multi-tier application comprises a number of threads processed by the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the data indicative of an internal threading structure of the distributed, complex multi-tier application comprises a change over time to a thread processed by the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the data further comprises data indicative of a transaction path of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the resource consuming behavior is modeled on a per-transaction-step basis. 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing an executable program for evaluating a performance of a distributed, complex multi-tier application when migrated from a first environment in which the distributed, complex multi-tier application is currently executing to a second, different environment, where the program performs steps comprising:
 generating a virtual application that mimics a resource consuming behavior and an inter-tier behavior of the distributed, complex multi-tier application;   executing the virtual application in the second environment; and   evaluating a performance of the virtual application in the second environment.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein the generating comprises:
 collecting data indicative of the resource consuming behavior from the distributed, complex multi-tier application while the application is live;   producing a model of the resource consuming behavior; and   deploying one or more drones in the second environment, where the one or more drones consume resources according to the model.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein the virtual application is executed in the second environment without executing the distributed, complex multi-tier application in the second environment. 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the plurality of servers performs presentation, application processing, and data management for the distributed, complex multi-tier application as logically separate processes over the plurality of servers. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the data indicative of a transaction path comprises end-to-end trails of messages that travel across multiple servers of the distributed, complex multi-tier application. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the end-to-end trails start with an initial request originating with a first server of the multiple servers and end with a reply message originating with a second server of the multiple servers.