A method and apparatus for analyzing the performance of a data processing
system, particularly a distributed data processing system, provide a
system user with tools for analyzing an application running thereon.
Information about the flow and performance of the application can be
specified, captured, and analyzed, without modifying it or degrading its
performance or data security characteristics, even if it is distributed
across multiple machines. The user interface permits the system user to
filter the performance information, to set triggers which the performance
analyzer is able to reduce and/or combine, to observe multiple
time-synchronized displays of performance data either in real time or post
mortem, and to play and re-play the operation of an automatically
generated application model. The invention is implemented in part by
providing suitable Application Program Interfaces (APIs) in the operating
system of the data processing system.
