US6086618A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Method and computer program product for estimating total resource usage requirements of a server application in a hypothetical user configuration
Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC
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Filing: 1998-01-26
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Granted: 2000-07-11
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Expires: 2018-01-26
Abstract
Abstract A method for developing system resource usage "cost" equations, creating models based upon such cost equations, and estimating total system resource usage and computer program product incorporating such cost equations. A server application is analyzed and certain transactions are defined therein that occur in response to interaction with a client application that in many instances originates from user behavior. System resources are also identified and resource usage measurements are determined for each transaction. One way of determining the resource usage measurements is by creating a load of a particular transaction on an "instrumented" server application and measuring the resources used in connection with the transaction. Cost equations for each type of system resource can then be constructed taking a component from each transaction that uses a particular system resource so that the cost equations are defined in terms of transactions. By reducing user behavior to transactions, accurate estimates of total hardware resource usage for a server application in a particular scenario can be easily attained.
Inventors
- 👤 Hilal Al-Hilali
- 👤 Perry Clarke
- 👤 David Edward Guimbellot
- 👤 David Andrew Howell
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-28 13:24
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F11/00; G06F11/30; G06F11/34; G06F11/3447; G06F11/3409; G06F2201/00; G06F2201/87; G06F2201/88
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 28
Claim 1
Independent Claim
161 words
A method for estimating system resource usage requirements of a server application comprising: a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application; a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured; a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource; a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements so that user loads that are reduced to transaction rates are input into the system resource cost equation to estimate resource usage; and a specific act of a user using the estimated resource usage to configure the server application.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
161 words
A method for estimating system resource usage requirements of a server application comprising: a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application; a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured; a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource; a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements so that user loads that are reduced to transaction rates are input into the system resource cost equation to estimate resource usage; and a specific act of a user using the estimated resource usage to configure the server application.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
29 words
A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
109 words
A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the system resource usage measurements are generated by performing the following: a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type; a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type; a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; and a specific act of determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each defined transaction type.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as recited in claim 3 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
15 words
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 1.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the transaction types includes receiving an electronic mail message.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the transaction types includes a combination of logging in and logging out of the server application.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of server application system resources include software resources.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
83 words
A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising: a specific act of creating a user profile for a hypothetical configuration having information regarding the number of and behavior of users that are reduced to terms of transaction rates; and a specific act of ascertaining total system resource usage requirements of the server application for the hypothetical configuration by using the user profile information with the cost equations for each system resource to estimate the total system resource usage for the hypothetical configuration.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
29 words
A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
109 words
A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the system resource usage measurements are generated by performing the following: a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type; a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type; a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; and a specific act of determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each defined transaction type.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as recited in claim 12 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
15 words
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 10.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
230 words
A method for creating a system resource requirement estimation model for a server application comprising: a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application; a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured; a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource comprising the following: a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type; a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type; and a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements; and a specific act of providing for the receipt of hypothetical configuration information that simulates the number of and behavior of anticipated users in terms of transaction rates so that total resource usage is estimated by using the hypothetical configuration information combined with the developed cost equations.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
230 words
A method for creating a system resource requirement estimation model for a server application comprising: a specific act of defining a set of transaction types performed by the server application in response to user behavior of a client application; a specific act of identifying a set of server application system resources to be measured; a specific act of generating system resource usage measurements for each defined transaction type performed by the server application and for each identified system resource comprising the following: a specific act of instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each defined transaction type; a specific act of creating loads on the server application that exercise each defined transaction type; and a specific act of measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each defined transaction type while under the created load; a specific act of developing at least one system resource cost equation for each identified system resource, wherein the system resource cost equation includes a component from each defined transaction type, wherein the system resource cost equation is based on the system resource usage measurements; and a specific act of providing for the receipt of hypothetical configuration information that simulates the number of and behavior of anticipated users in terms of transaction rates so that total resource usage is estimated by using the hypothetical configuration information combined with the developed cost equations.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as recited in claim 16 wherein each defined transaction type in the server application is loaded separately.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
29 words
A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the defined transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
72 words
A method as recited in claim 16 further comprising the step of verifying the accuracy of the model by performing the following: a specific act of generating an actual load on the server application based on hypothetical configuration information; a specific act of measuring the actual system resource usage; and a specific act of comparing the actual system resource usage with the estimated system resource usage estimated from the developed cost equations.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
15 words
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the specific acts recited in claim 16.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
136 words
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for estimating system resource requirements of a server software application given a user profile of a hypothetical configuration, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises computer-executable instructions for performing the following specific acts: receiving a user profile of a hypothetical configuration that contains the number of users and the behavior of the users that are reduced to terms of transaction rates of identified transaction types performed by the server application; computing a total estimated resource usage for the hypothetical configuration based on the user profile and system resource cost equations, each system resource cost equation developed from generated resource usage measurements of applicable identified transaction types performed by the server application; and showing the total system resource estimate of a customer configuration thereby allowing accurate planning on the part of the customer.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
136 words
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for estimating system resource requirements of a server software application given a user profile of a hypothetical configuration, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises computer-executable instructions for performing the following specific acts: receiving a user profile of a hypothetical configuration that contains the number of users and the behavior of the users that are reduced to terms of transaction rates of identified transaction types performed by the server application; computing a total estimated resource usage for the hypothetical configuration based on the user profile and system resource cost equations, each system resource cost equation developed from generated resource usage measurements of applicable identified transaction types performed by the server application; and showing the total system resource estimate of a customer configuration thereby allowing accurate planning on the part of the customer.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
30 words
A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 19 wherein the system resource usage measurements are selected from the group consisting of CPU cost, disk cost, network cost, and memory cost.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
98 words
A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22 wherein the resource usage measurements are generated comprising the following specific acts: instrumenting the server application to count occurrences of each identified transaction type; creating loads on the server application that exercise each identified transaction type separately; measuring the actual usage of each particular system resource for each identified transaction type while under the created load; and determining each system resource usage measurement by dividing the actual usage for each particular system resource by the count of transaction occurrences, said division done for each identified transaction type and system resource.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
27 words
A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22 wherein the identified transaction types correspond to at least one access to the server application by the client application.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2003-07-11 | 2004-01-10 | 2004-07-11 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2007-07-11 | 2008-01-10 | 2008-07-11 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2011-07-11 | 2012-01-10 | 2012-07-11 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |