Distributed client/server end-to-end response time: instrumentation, methodology and experience with a commercial product

Abstract

This paper deals with the acquisition and management of end-to-end response time (ETE RT) and the components of response time in a client/server application. End-to-end response time represents a user orientation in performance management, as contrasted with resource-oriented performance metrics such as CPU utilization and I/O rates. On one hand end-to-end response time of a user transaction is associated with the business transaction supported by the application. On the other hand end-to-end response time is also related to the resources consumed by the transaction. Thus, ETE RT serves as a very important link between the business understanding of computing equipment use and the technical understanding of computing systems. We describe a product that was instrumented for ETE RT measurements. We discuss the methodology, and present examples of how the measurement facility was used in production environments.