Modeled Software System Health Analysis Using Ledger State Models
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Solution Overview
Problem
Determining whether distributed software systems in commerce platforms are executing as expected and properly carrying out their intended functions is complex due to the use of different programming languages, implementations, and data formats, especially in large-scale operations with millions to billions of transactions per day.
Innovation Solution
A ledger system implements a double-entry bookkeeping mechanism to model software systems as state machines, analyzing transaction balances to detect proper functioning and health, agnostic to underlying implementations, using ledger transaction data to identify zero balances as indicators of correct operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If distributed services systems use multiple programming languages, implementations, and data formats to provide diverse services, then service versatility and adaptability improve, but system monitoring complexity and difficulty of detecting proper function increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between the diverse service systems and the monitoring system. This intermediary translates various service states and transactions into a unified ledger representation, allowing the monitoring system to analyze health across multiple services without needing to understand their specific implementations in different programming languages or data formats.
Solution Approach 2:
The ledger system serves as a universal monitoring mechanism that can track the health of any service in the distributed system. By representing all services in a common ledger format with standardized states and transactions, the system achieves multi-functionality in monitoring diverse services through a single unified approach, eliminating the need for service-specific monitoring mechanisms.
2Productivity
If the system processes millions to billions of transactions per day in distributed services, then productivity and service capability improve, but the complexity of determining proper execution and system health increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the health analysis process into discrete ledger-based checks that can be processed independently and in parallel. Each service's health can be analyzed by examining its specific ledger entries without needing to process the entire transaction volume, allowing scalable health monitoring that keeps pace with high transaction volumes through efficient data segmentation and independent analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of directly analyzing the complex real-time transaction streams from multiple services, the system creates a simplified copy of service state information in the ledger format. This copied representation captures the essential health information in a standardized form that is much easier to process and analyze, reducing the complexity of health analysis while maintaining accuracy in determining system health at scale.
3Measurement precision
If the system analyzes detailed operational data to determine proper function, then measurement precision of system health improves, but processing time and loss of time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential health information from complex transaction data and represents it in the ledger as key state variables and transaction outcomes. By taking out and isolating only the critical information needed for health assessment (such as state transitions, transaction completion, and error conditions), the system achieves precise health measurement without processing unnecessary detailed operational data, thereby reducing processing time.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus are described for performing a health analysis of a modeled software system of a distributed services system. A stream of ledger transaction messages generated during execution of the software system are received and stored in a data store. A ledger data model is accessed, where the data model represents a state machine having states, data, and transitions between states indicative of proper functioning of the underlying software system. A ledger clearing operation is performed to generate monetary balances of states in the data model for a plurality of transactions, and aggregated values associated with operational characteristics of various states of the data model. From the aggregated values, a graphical user interface is caused to be display the values of the operational characteristics aggregated over a set of transactions as health indicators of the underlying operations performed by a software system, across software systems, or other subsets of configurable options.