Agent Manager for Distributed Transaction Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Application performance monitoring (APM) systems face complexity in monitoring diverse applications implemented across various platforms and languages, requiring specific protocols and instructions for operation.
Innovation Solution
An agent manager is introduced to manage and configure agents across different applications and server platforms, receiving rules for deployment, management, and maintenance, and communicating with local and remote machines to configure agents for installation, updates, and modifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If APM systems monitor diverse applications across multiple platforms and languages, then monitoring coverage and capability are improved, but system complexity increases due to requiring specific protocols and instructions for each platform
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an agent manager as an intermediary component that receives configuration data from the controller and distributes it to appropriate agents. This mediator handles the complexity of platform-specific protocols by providing a standardized interface, allowing the controller to manage diverse applications without directly handling each platform's specific requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system divides the monitoring function into separate components: the controller that receives configuration data, the agent manager that processes and distributes configuration data, and individual agents that execute on specific platforms. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific tasks, reducing the complexity any single component must manage while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If APM systems support multiple platforms and languages, then versatility is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to different protocols and instructions required for each platform
Solution Approach 1:
The agent manager provides a universal interface for configuring agents across multiple platforms. By receiving configuration data in a standardized format from the controller and translating it into platform-specific instructions, the agent manager enables a single operation interface to manage diverse platforms, improving ease of operation while maintaining broad platform compatibility.
3Productivity
If agents are deployed across distributed systems, then monitoring capability is improved, but difficulty of tracking and managing agents increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where agents report their status and configuration to the agent manager, which in turn receives configuration data from the controller. This feedback loop enables centralized tracking of distributed agents, allowing the controller to monitor and manage agents across multiple machines while maintaining visibility and control over the distributed monitoring infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
An agent manager manages and configures a plurality of agents suitable for execution on different types of applications and server platforms. The agent manager may receive a collection of rules for determining how to deploy, manage and maintain different agents. The agent manager may collect data about the agents and a local machine, communicate with and configure the agents, and communicate with remote machines such as a controller. The agent manager may configure the agents based on one or more rules the agent receives, such as for example a set of rules provided by a controller. The agent manager may parse the received rules, identify any agents that need to be installed or uninstalled, installed agents that need to be turned on, off, or restarted, or agents that should be otherwise modified, for example with an update, a plug-in, a feature enabled or disabled, or some other update.