Patent Publication Number: US-2018032905-A1

Title: Adaptive Anomaly Grouping

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     In pursuit of the highest level of service performance and user experience, companies around the world are engaging in digital transformation by enhancing investments in digital technology and information technology (IT) services. By leveraging the global system of interconnected computer networks afforded by the Internet and the World Wide Web, companies are able to provide ever increasing web services to their clients. The web services may be provided by a web application which uses multiple services and applications to handle a given transaction. The applications may be distributed over several interconnected machines, such as servers, making the topology of the machines that provide the service more difficult to track and monitor. 
     SUMMARY 
     Examples of implementations of dynamic query chunking and streaming of results of the chunked queries are disclosed. 
     In one aspect, a machine learning system for performing crash grouping is disclosed. The machine learning system includes a processor; a memory; and one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by a processor to perform operations including: receive stack traces associated with corresponding anomaly events; automatically generate initial rules for grouping the anomaly events responsive to the received stack traces; apply the generated initial rules to the anomaly events; receive additional stack traces, user input, or both; update the initial rules based on the received additional stack traces, user input, or both; organize the anomaly events corresponding to the received stack traces and additional stack traces into one or more groups of anomaly events using the updated rules; and provide a user interface to display the one or more groups of anomaly events. 
     The system can be implemented in various ways to include one or more of the following features. For example, the one or more modules can be executable by a processor to generate the initial rules including apply weights to properties of the received stack traces. The one or more modules can be executable by a processor to update the initial rules including adjust the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the user input. The one or more modules can be executable by a processor to update the initial rules including adjust the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the new stack traces. The one or more modules can be executable by a processor to identify new properties based on the new stack traces and apply weights to the new properties. The one or more modules can be executable by a processor to enable users to share the generated initial rules or adjusted rules with each other. The one or more modules can be executable by a processor to update the initial rules including adjust the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the shared rules or adjusted rules. 
     In another aspect, a method for performing machine learned crash grouping is disclosed. The method includes receiving stack traces associated with corresponding anomaly events; automatically generating initial rules for grouping the anomaly events responsive to the received stack traces; applying the generated initial rules to the anomaly events; receiving additional stack traces, user input, or both; updating the initial rules based on the received additional stack traces, user input, or both; organizing the anomaly events corresponding to the received stack traces and additional stack traces into one or more groups of anomaly events using the updated rules; and providing a user interface to display the one or more groups of anomaly events. 
     The method can be implemented in various ways to include one or more of the following features. For example, generating the initial rules can include applying weights to properties of the received stack traces. Updating the initial rules can include adjusting the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the user input. Updating the initial rules can include adjusting the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the new stack traces. The method can include identifying new properties based on the new stack traces and apply weights to the new properties. The method can include enabling users to share the generated initial rules or adjusted rules with each other. Updating the initial rules can include adjusting the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the shared rules or adjusted rules. 
     In yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying instructions when executed by a processor to cause operations to be performed is disclosed. The operations include receiving stack traces associated with corresponding anomaly events; automatically generating initial rules for grouping the anomaly events responsive to the received stack traces; applying the generated initial rules to the anomaly events; receiving additional stack traces, user input, or both; updating the initial rules based on the received additional stack traces, user input, or both; organizing the anomaly events corresponding to the received stack traces and additional stack traces into one or more groups of anomaly events using the updated rules; and providing a user interface to display the one or more groups of anomaly events. 
     The non-transitory computer readable medium can be implemented in various ways to include one or more of the following features. For example, the operations for generating the initial rules can include applying weights to properties of the received stack traces. The operations for updating the initial rules can include adjusting the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the user input. The operations for updating the initial rules can include adjusting the weights of the properties of the received stack traces based on the new stack traces. The operations can include identifying new properties based on the new stack traces and apply weights to the new properties. The operations can include enabling users to share the generated initial rules or adjusted rules with each other. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an exemplary monitoring system for performing machine learned crash grouping. 
         FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, and 2E  are process flow diagrams of exemplary processes for performing adaptive crash grouping using machine learning. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of an exemplary application intelligence platform performing machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary system for performing machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document, including the processes disclosed with respect to  FIGS. 1-3 . 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system implementing the disclosed technology. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The Internet and the World Wide Web have enabled the proliferation of web services available for virtually all types of businesses. Due to the accompanying complexity of the infrastructure supporting the web services, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the highest level of service performance and user experience to keep up with the increase in web services. For example, it can be challenging to piece together monitoring and logging data across disparate systems, tools, and layers in a network architecture. Moreover, even when data can be obtained, it is difficult to directly connect the chain of events and cause and effect. 
     To maintain the highest level of service performance and user experience, each web application can be monitored to provide insight into information that can negatively affect the overall performance of the web application. For example, information including bottle necks in communication, communication failures and other information regarding performance of the services that provide the web application can be detected. 
     Application Anomaly Generated Stack Trace 
     When an anomaly occurs in an application running in a monitored system, agents may capture a stack trace with the current state of the anomaly. Examples, of the anomaly include a crashing thread or any other exceptions detected. The captured stack trace is reported to a user, for example through an end user monitoring (EUM) cloud server. The user can review the captured stack trace to perform root cause analysis and determine a bug that caused the anomaly, such as a crash, for example. Because the same bug or anomaly can be the root cause of multiple crashes, it would be beneficial for the user to review similar crashes caused by the same anomaly together. In addition, reviewing groups of crashes can enable the user to identify the most troublesome bug or anomaly and avoid having to repeat the analysis. Because the same bug or anomaly may create substantially different stack traces, traditionally used static comparisons of stack traces may not be sufficient. 
     Adaptive Anomaly Grouping 
     The technology disclosed in this patent document provides for dynamic and efficient application intelligence platforms, systems, devices, methods, and computer readable media including non-transitory type that embody instructions for causing a machine including a processor to perform various operations disclosed in this patent document to perform machined learned anomaly event grouping.  FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an exemplary monitoring system  100  for performing adaptive anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event grouping using machine learning. The monitoring system includes multiple (e.g., hundreds or thousands) of agents  102 ,  104 , . . .  106  installed at customer machines where the applications to be monitored are also installed. For a SaaS model, each of multiple customers  108 ,  110 , . . .  112  has multiple agents installed. Each agent collects two types of data: metadata and actual data for each metadata. Metadata includes metric such as average response time, CPU %, load, calls per minute, number of slow calls, and etc. The actual data for each metadata is the actual data behind the metadata collected by the agent. The proliferation of the number of customers and agents can quickly escalate the total number of metrics collected. Part of the data collected can include data on crash events and exceptions detected by the agents monitoring an application. The collected data are sent by the agents to a controller  116  installed at a cloud server over the internet  114 . The controller stores the collected data in a data store, such as a database DB  118 . The controller provides output of the collected data to a user  124  using a user interface  120 . The user  124  can also provide input through the user interface  120  for the controller to process. For example, the user interface  120  can be used to receive user input requesting a report of the collected data, a query for the collected data, etc. The system also includes a machine learning system  122  for performing the disclosed adaptive anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) grouping based on machine learning. 
       FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, and 2E  are process flow diagrams of exemplary processes  200 ,  202 ,  204 ,  206 , and  208  for performing adaptive crash grouping using machine learning. When an application crashes, the crash event causes a stack trace to be generated. Agents installed at remote machines can capture the crash event generated stack traces and send the captured crash event generated back to a server for processing. The method  200  includes receiving the generated stack trace for a given anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event ( 210 ). In addition, some applications also send these stack traces even if the application did not crash, because it “caught” the “exception”. Thus, in this patent document, the stack traces are described as being generated in response to a crash event or an exception event. 
     The disclosed technology on anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event grouping using machine learning allows a user to review the problems associated with a given app in groups rather than sifting through every instance of a crash or an exception. By reviewing the crash events or exception events in groups, the user can identify the common crashes or exceptions and focus the efforts on the biggest issues. In grouping anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event, commonalities or equalities between crashes or exceptions can be identified based on certain rules to ignore certain properties. Rather than using a hard-coded algorithm that must be updated statically or manually whenever an improvement is identified or applied in the same way to every user, the disclosed technology allows the algorithm to learn better groups, with and without external supervision from the user. In addition, certain of the rules for updating the machine learning algorithm can be implemented on a user-by-user basis, and others of the rules can be learned globally. 
     Initial rules for grouping anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events are generated ( 220 ). The generated initial rules are provided to a crash event grouping system (e.g., machine learning system  122 ) to group the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events ( 230 ). The generated initial rules are updated supervised or unsupervised using new stack traces from new anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events or user input, or both ( 240 ). Additional anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events, user input, or both can be fed to the machine learning algorithm to update the rules for grouping the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events ( 250 ). For example, additional anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events can indicate that an anomaly with a given call to the database results in the same crash as the groups of crashes with an anomaly with CPU load. Based on this additional learning, the rules can be changed to group the crashes or exceptions associated with two different anomalies together. 
     In addition, a user input can be provided to update the rules. For example, the user can indicate that two crash groups should be grouped together. In response to such user input, the rules can be changed to combine the user indicated groups. 
     Based on the updated rules, the crash events can be grouped. Depending on the updated rules, a single group or multiple groups can be created and the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events organized into the created group or groups. 
     Exemplary Outputs of Crash Grouping Algorithm 
     A user interface is provided to display a result of the generated grouping or groupings of anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events to the user ( 270 ). Typically, an app may experience a few common problems (i.e., big groups), and many uncommon problems (i.e., small groups). The output of the machine learned crash grouping algorithm can include a group or cluster of instances of crashes or caught exceptions of an application, with the group signifying a common problem with the app. The user can review an instance of the cluster to identify the significance of different stack frames. 
     Exemplary Inputs of Crash Grouping Algorithm 
     Crash Reports of the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events include a lot of information that can be used for grouping the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. Specifically, different types of properties in the crash reports can be used to group the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. 
     The Stack Trace 
     The stack trace generated responsive to a given anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event is an important part of the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event. The generated stack trace is specific for an anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event and identifies each of the methods that were trying to execute when the application crashed or the exception was caught. A given stack trace includes a list of Stack Frames. Table 1 shows an exemplary typical stack trace, where each row is a stack frame. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 An Exemplary Stack Trace 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
            
               
                 # 
                 Package 
                 Class 
                 Symbol 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 1 
                 MyApplication 
                 MusicPlayer 
                 loadPlaylist 
               
               
                 2 
                 Networking 
                 NetworkConnection 
                 onDataRecieved 
               
               
                 3 
                 Framework 
                 Application 
                 runLoop 
               
               
                 4 
                 MyApplication 
                 MyApplication 
                 main 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     A stack frame, such as the one shown in Table 1 includes three main properties, including Package, Class, and Symbol. The Package identifies the location of the code, the Class indicates what “file” the code came from, and the symbol represent the piece of code that was trying to execute before the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event. Other fields include frame number (shown above), as well as file name and line number, offsets into the image, and others. 
     Applying Weights to Properties of Crash Events in the Algorithm 
     As shown in  FIG. 2B , generating the initial rules for grouping the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events include applying different weights to different properties of the crash events ( 222 ). The weights applied to the properties can depend on the nature of the property and a pattern of the properties (e.g., similarities) among the different crash events. 
     While some properties can be used to clearly organize the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events based on the properties, those properties are not used by the machine learning algorithm to group the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. The machine learning algorithm may not assign high weights to such a property, but instead, such ignorable properties can be used by a tool using the algorithm to subdivide the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) event data set. This is because a crash in one app may not necessarily be similar to a crash in another app. These properties with initially low weights can change based on the machine learning algorithm. Table 2 below shows an exemplary property name and an associated exemplary value for the property name. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 Exemplary Properties 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 Property Name 
                 Example Value 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Mobile Application 
                 com.sample.myapplication 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Properties with Varying Weights 
     Some properties are relevant for consideration by the Machine learning algorithm and are applied with varying degrees of weights in the initial training. The degree of relevance or the weight given to each relevant property can vary from crash group to crash group. The machine learning algorithm applies different weights to the properties and identify a pattern among the different anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events in one or more of the relevant properties to group those anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events that match the pattern. For example, with respect to an exemplary property, CPU Type property, a certain crash may only occur on 64 bit machines. Thus, a group can be formed for all anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events that occur on 64 bit machines. However, in other groups, the CPU Type property may not matter for grouping because the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events in those groups may occur on 64 bit and 32 bit machines. In other words, a common property for a given group may not be the same common property for another group. Moreover, the weights initially applied to these properties can vary during the machine learning process as new anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events are fed to the machine learning algorithm. Table 3 below provides exemplary property names and associated exemplary values that can be used to form one or more groups of anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 3 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 Exemplary Relevant Properties 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 Property Name 
                 Example Value 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Application Version 
                 4.2.3 
               
               
                   
                 CPU Type 
                 ARM-64 
               
               
                   
                 Memory Usage 
                 105/1000 MB (10%) 
               
               
                   
                 Hardware Model 
                 iPhone 6S 
               
               
                   
                 Thread 
                 17 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Important Properties with High Weights 
     Some properties considered by the machine learning algorithm for grouping are assigned high weights. These properties with high weights assigned in the algorithm are universally considered to be important for all groupings. For example, the actual exception that occurred is one such high weight property. This is because an exception is not likely to be different for the same issue for most of the situations. 
     Training and Improving Machine Learning Algorithm 
     The machine learning algorithm can be trained to initially assign low weights to properties which would appear in almost every crash. For example, the machine learning algorithm can be trained to initially ignore properties, such as “main” and “runLoop” that have a low weight assigned. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2C , updating the initial rules for grouping the crash events include adjusting the weights applied to the properties of the stack traces ( 240 ). The adjusted weights can be based on new stack traces received, user input, or both ( 250 ). In addition, adjusting the weights can include deleting certain weights and adding new weights based on the new stack traces or user input. The initial weights assigned to the other two property type, including the varying weights and high weights as are modified based on machine learning. In an exemplary scenario, an anomaly with the networking library may create corrupted data and cause the music player to not load the playlist properly. Such scenario is likely to be associated with many crashes where different components are failing after the networking library receives data. On the other hand, the music player&#39;s code may have a bug in it where it doesn&#39;t know how to handle some part of the data that the music player has received. This would likely cause more music player crashes. 
     Unsupervised Machine Learning Process 
     When a new crash arrives at the server, the crash event would be analyzed across all of its properties, and the server would find a group (“cluster”) that the crash event fits best in. If the crash event is determined to be too different from any other cluster, a new cluster could be formed, with the new crash at its center. 
     If the new crash event is determined to belong an existing cluster, the new crash event can be added to that cluster, and then (in some implementations) the cluster&#39;s fingerprint, or pattern, or rule can be updated based on all of the crashes in the cluster including the new cluster. An exemplary rule for this cluster could be that “most crashes in this cluster have NetworkConnection in it, but nothing else in common”). Such rule may indicate that any new crash event that has NetworkConnection in it, is likely to fit into this group. In this manner, unsupervised machine learning process can be used to learn and improve the grouping of the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. 
     Cross Application or Cross User Learning 
     In some implementations, machine learning can be shared across different applications and different users. Specifically, the rules or weights learned in the previous process could apply to other applications, or even other users. In an exemplary instance, ‘NetworkConnection’ may not be part of the app code, but may include a known bug from another application or different user. Thus, when a different user experiences a crash with this stack frame in it, it is likely that frame was the reason for the crash, and so that frame should have higher weight, which was learned from a different user or a different application, or both. As shown in  FIG. 2D , the shared rules or weights can be applied to the algorithm to update the rules ( 252 ). 
     Reassessment of Groups 
     As shown in  FIG. 2E , in some implementations, the created groups can be reassessed periodically by running analysis on all the crashes or exceptions to re-distribute the anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events in the groups ( 280 ). For example, if one group has many anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events in the group that may be too dissimilar, the group could split into multiple groups to better capture the dissimilar anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. 
     Supervised Machine Learning Process 
     In addition to the unsupervised learning, the algorithm could also learn and revise the grouping based on input by users or other external entity. In one exemplary implementation, the user or other external entity can determine that the method “main” is almost always in the stack trace, and based on this determination, the user or other external entity can teach this determination to the machine learning algorithm by forcing the weight of “main” to zero so that such frame will never be considered in grouping anomaly (e.g., crash or exception) events. 
     In another exemplary implementation, a user or another external entity could determine that two groups are substantially the same and should be grouped together as a single group. The system, can provide a user interface (UI) to receive user input indicating that the two groups are the same. The input received through the UI is provided to the machine learning algorithm and combine the two clusters as a single group. Thus, the specific rule in the algorithm that influenced the forming of the two groups or clusters would now be assigned less weight. Such user influenced rule would only apply to that user, to prevent a malicious user from breaking other&#39;s groups. 
     Sharing User Influenced Grouping Rules 
     In some implementations, different users can share such user specific rules with one another and enable each user to choose to apply the shared rule. In some implementations, the machine learning algorithm could take the weighting of certain rules for all users to determine how similar they are to each other, and then learn what the algorithm should be for a new user. In this manner, the machine learning algorithm can include grouping user specific rules to group them together to change algorithm for each user or to recommend changes to the algorithm for each user. 
     Value Added 
     This partially-supervised on-line clustering process adds value for a user by enabling the user to obtain better and more personalized groups, which would not be possible with a hard-coded algorithm. This allows the user to spend less time digging through reports, and instead view and analyze the most important issues right away. 
     Application Intelligence Platform Architecture 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of an exemplary application intelligence platform  300  that can implement the disclosed machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document. The application intelligence platform is a system that monitors and collect metrics of performance data for an application environment being monitored. At the simplest structure, the application intelligence platform includes one or more agents  310 ,  312 ,  314 ,  316  and one or more controllers  320 . While  FIG. 3  shows four agents communicatively linked to a single controller, the total number of agents and controller can vary based on a number of factors including the number of applications monitored, how distributed the application environment is, the level of monitoring desired, the level of user experience desired, etc. 
     Controllers and Agents 
     The controller  320  is the central processing and administration server for the application intelligence platform. The controller  320  serves a browser-based user interface (UI)  330  that is the primary interface for monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting the monitored environment. The controller  320  can control and manage monitoring of business transactions distributed over application servers. Specifically, the controller  320  can receive runtime data from agents  310 ,  312 ,  314 ,  316  and coordinators, associate portions of business transaction data, communicate with agents to configure collection of runtime data, and provide performance data and reporting through the interface  330 . The interface  330  may be viewed as a web-based interface viewable by a client device  340 . In some implementations, a client device  340  can directly communicate with controller  320  to view an interface for monitoring data. 
     In the Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation, a controller instance  320  is hosted remotely by a provider of the application intelligence platform  300 . In the on-premise (On-Prem) implementation, a controller instance  320  is installed locally and self-administered. 
     The controllers  320  receive data from different agents  310 ,  312 ,  314 ,  316  deployed to monitor applications, databases and database servers, servers, and end user clients for the monitored environment. Any of the agents  310 ,  312 ,  314 ,  316  can be implemented as different types of agents specific monitoring duties. For example, application agents are installed on each server that hosts applications to be monitored. Instrumenting an agent adds an application agent into the runtime process of the application. 
     Database agents are software (e.g., Java program) installed on a machine that has network access to the monitored databases and the controller. Database agents queries the databases monitored to collect metrics and passes the metrics for display in the metric browser—database monitoring and in the databases pages of the controller UI. Multiple database agents can report to the same controller. Additional database agents can be implemented as backup database agents to take over for the primary database agents during a failure or planned machine downtime. The additional database agents can run on the same machine as the primary agents or on different machines. A database agent can be deployed in each distinct network of the monitored environment. Multiple database agents can run under different user accounts on the same machine. 
     Standalone machine agents are standalone programs (e.g., standalone Java program) that collect hardware-related performance statistics from the servers in the monitored environment. The standalone machine agents can be deployed on machines that host application servers, database servers, messaging servers, Web servers, etc. A standalone machine agent has an extensible architecture. 
     End user monitoring (EUM) is performed using browser agents and mobile agents to provide performance information from the point of view of the client, such as a web browser or a mobile native application. Browser agents and mobile agents are unlike other monitoring through application agents, database agents, and standalone machine agents that being on the server. Through EUM, web use (e.g., by real users or synthetic agents), mobile use, or any combination can be monitored depending on the monitoring needs. 
     Browser agents are small files using web-based technologies, such as JavaScript agents injected into each instrumented web page, as close to the top as possible, as the web page is served and collects data. Once the web page has completed loading, the collected data is bundled into a beacon and sent to the EUM cloud for processing and ready for retrieval by the controller. Browser real user monitoring (Browser RUM) provides insights into the performance of a web application from the point of view of a real or synthetic end user. For example, Browser RUM can determine how specific Ajax or iframe calls are slowing down page load time and how server performance impact end user experience in aggregate or in individual cases. 
     A mobile agent is a small piece of highly performant code that gets added to the source of the mobile application. Mobile RUM provides information on the native iOS or Android mobile application as the end users actually use the mobile application. Mobile RUM provides visibility into the functioning of the mobile application itself and the mobile application&#39;s interaction with the network used and any server-side applications the mobile application communicates with. 
     The controller  320  can include an analytics system  350  for providing the machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document. In some implementations, the analytics system  350  can be implemented in a separate machine (e.g., a server) different from the one hosting the controller  320 . 
     Application Intelligence Monitoring 
     The disclosed technology can provide application intelligence data by monitoring an application environment that includes various services such as web applications served from an application server (e.g., Java virtual machine (JVM), Internet Information Services (IIS), Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Web server, etc.), databases or other data stores, and remote services such as message queues and caches. The services in the application environment can interact in various ways to provide a set of cohesive user interactions with the application, such as a set of user services applicable to end user customers. 
     Application Intelligence Modeling 
     Entities in the application environment (such as the JBoss service, MQSeries modules, and databases) and the services provided by the entities (such as a login transaction, service or product search, or purchase transaction) are mapped to an application intelligence model. In the application intelligence model, a business transaction represents a particular service provided by the monitored environment. For example, in an e-commerce application, particular real-world services can include user logging in, searching for items, or adding items to the cart. In a content portal, particular real-world services can include user requests for content such as sports, business, or entertainment news. In a stock trading application, particular real-world services can include operations such as receiving a stock quote, buying, or selling stocks. 
     Business Transactions 
     A business transaction representation of the particular service providedy the monitored environment provides a view on performance data in the context of the various tiers that participate in processing a particular request. A business transaction represents the end-to-end processing path used to fulfill a service request in the monitored environment. Thus, a business environment is a type of user-initiated action in the monitored environment defined by an entry point and a processing path across application servers, databases, and potentially many other infrastructure components. Each instance of a business transaction is an execution of that transaction in response to a particular user request. A business transaction can be created by detecting incoming requests at an entry point and tracking the activity associated with request at the originating tier and across distributed components in the application environment. A flow map can be generated for a business transaction that shows the touch points for the business transaction in the application environment. 
     Performance monitoring can be oriented by business transaction to focus on the performance of the services in the application environment from the perspective of end users. Performance monitoring based on business transaction can provide information on whether a service is available (e.g., users can log in, check out, or view their data), response times for users, and the cause of problems when the problems occur. 
     Business Applications 
     A business application is the top-level container in the application intelligence model. A business application contains a set of related services and business transactions. In some implementations, a single business application may be needed to model the environment. In some implementations, the application intelligence model of the application environment can be divided into several business applications. Business applications can be organized differently based on the specifics of the application environment. One consideration is to organize the business applications in a way that reflects work teams in a particular organization, since role-based access controls in the Controller UI are oriented by business application. 
     Nodes 
     A node in the application intelligence model corresponds to a monitored server or JVM in the application environment. A node is the smallest unit of the modeled environment. In general, a node corresponds to an individual application server, JVM, or CLR on which a monitoring Agent is installed. Each node identifies itself in the application intelligence model. The Agent installed at the node is configured to specify the name of the node, tier, and business application under which the Agent reports data to the Controller. 
     Tiers 
     Business applications contain tiers, the unit in the application intelligence model that includes one or more nodes. Each node represents an instrumented service (such as a web application). While a node can be a distinct application in the application environment, in the application intelligence model, a node is a member of a tier, which, along with possibly many other tiers, make up the overall logical business application. 
     Tiers can be organized in the application intelligence model depending on a mental model of the monitored application environment. For example, identical nodes can be grouped into a single tier (such as a cluster of redundant servers). In some implementations, any set of nodes, identical or not, can be grouped for the purpose of treating certain performance metrics as a unit into a single tier. 
     The traffic in a business application flows among tiers and can be visualized in a flow map using lines among tiers. In addition, the lines indicating the traffic flows among tiers can be annotated with performance metrics. In the application intelligence model, there may not be any interaction among nodes within a single tier. Also, in some implementations, an application agent node cannot belong to more than one tier. Similarly, a machine agent cannot belong to more than one tier. However, more than one machine agent can be installed on a machine. 
     Backend System 
     A backend is a component that participates in the processing of a business transaction instance. A backend is not instrumented by an agent. A backend may be a web server, database, message queue, or other type of service. The agent recognizes calls to these backend services from instrumented code (called exit calls). When a service is not instrumented and cannot continue the transaction context of the call, the agent determines that the service is a backend component. The agent picks up the transaction context at the response at the backend and continues to follow the context of the transaction from there. 
     Performance information is available for the backend call. For detailed transaction analysis for the leg of a transaction processed by the backend, the database, web service, or other application need to be instrumented. 
     Baselines and Thresholds 
     The application intelligence platform uses both self-learned baselines and configurable thresholds to help identify application issues. A complex distributed application has a large number of performance metrics and each metric is important in one or more contexts. In such environments, it is difficult to determine the values or ranges that are normal for a particular metric; set meaningful thresholds on which to base and receive relevant alerts; and determine what is a “normal” metric when the application or infrastructure undergoes change. For these reasons, the disclosed application intelligence platform can perform anomaly detection based on dynamic baselines or thresholds. 
     The disclosed application intelligence platform automatically calculates dynamic baselines for the monitored metrics, defining what is “normal” for each metric based on actual usage. The application intelligence platform uses these baselines to identify subsequent metrics whose values fall out of this normal range. Static thresholds that are tedious to set up and, in rapidly changing application environments, error-prone, are no longer needed. 
     The disclosed application intelligence platform can use configurable thresholds to maintain service level agreements (SLAs) and ensure optimum performance levels for your system by detecting slow, very slow, and stalled transactions. Configurable thresholds provide a flexible way to associate the right business context with a slow request to isolate the root cause. 
     Health Rules, Policies, and Actions 
     In addition, health rules can be set up with conditions that use the dynamically generated baselines to trigger alerts or initiate other types of remedial actions when performance problems are occurring or may be about to occur. 
     For example, dynamic baselines can be used to automatically establish what is considered normal behavior for a particular application. Policies and health rules can be used against baselines or other health indicators for a particular application to detect and troubleshoot problems before users are affected. Health rules can be used to define metric conditions to monitor, such as when the “average response time is four times slower than the baseline”. The health rules can be created and modified based on the monitored application environment. 
     Examples of health rules for testing business transaction performance can include business transaction response time and business transaction error rate. For example, health rule that tests whether the business transaction response time is much higher than normal can define a critical condition as the combination of an average response time greater than the default baseline by 3 standard deviations and a load greater than 50 calls per minute. This health rule can define a warning condition as the combination of an average response time greater than the default baseline by 2 standard deviations and a load greater than 100 calls per minute. The health rule that tests whether the business transaction error rate is much higher than normal can define a critical condition as the combination of an error rate greater than the default baseline by 3 standard deviations and an error rate greater than 10 errors per minute and a load greater than 50 calls per minute. This health rule can define a warning condition as the combination of an error rate greater than the default baseline by 2 standard deviations and an error rate greater than 5 errors per minute and a load greater than 50 calls per minute. 
     Policies can be configured to trigger actions when a health rule is violated or when any event occurs. Triggered actions can include notifications, diagnostic actions, auto-scaling capacity, running remediation scripts. 
     Metrics 
     Most of the metrics relate to the overall performance of the application or business transaction (e.g., load, average response time, error rate, etc.) or of the application server infrastructure (e.g., percentage CPU busy, percentage of memory used, etc.). The Metric Browser in the controller UI can be used to view all of the metrics that the agents report to the controller. 
     In addition, special metrics called information points can be created to report on how a given business (as opposed to a given application) is performing. For example, the performance of the total revenue for a certain product or set of products can be monitored. Also, information points can be used to report on how a given code is performing, for example how many times a specific method is called and how long it is taking to execute. Moreover, extensions that use the machine agent can be created to report user defined custom metrics. These custom metrics are base-lined and reported in the controller, just like the built-in metrics. 
     All metrics can be accessed programmatically using a Representational State Transfer (REST) API that returns either the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. Also, the REST API can be used to query and manipulate the application environment. 
     Snapshots 
     Snapshots provide a detailed picture of a given application at a certain point in time. Snapshots usually include call graphs that allow that enables drilling down to the line of code that may be causing performance problems. The most common snapshots are transaction snapshots. 
     Exemplary Implementation of Application Intelligence Platform 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary system  400  for providing machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document, including the processes disclosed with respect to  FIGS. 1-3 . The system  400  in  FIG. 4  includes client device  405  and  492 , mobile device  415 , network  420 , network server  425 , application servers  430 ,  440 ,  450  and  460 , asynchronous network machine  470 , data stores  480  and  485 , controller  490 , and data collection server  495 . The controller  490  can include an analytics system  496  for providing machine learned crash grouping as disclosed in this patent document. In some implementations, the analytics system  496  can be implemented in a separate machine (e.g., a server) different from the one hosting the controller  490 . 
     Client device  405  may include network browser  410  and be implemented as a computing device, such as for example a laptop, desktop, workstation, or some other computing device. Network browser  410  may be a client application for viewing content provided by an application server, such as application server  430  via network server  425  over network  420 . 
     Network browser  410  may include agent  412 . Agent  412  may be installed on network browser  410  and/or client  405  as a network browser add-on, downloading the application to the server, or in some other manner. Agent  412  may be executed to monitor network browser  410 , the operating system of client  405 , and any other application, API, or other component of client  405 . Agent  412  may determine network browser navigation timing metrics, access browser cookies, monitor code, and transmit data to data collection  460 , controller  490 , or another device. Agent  412  may perform other operations related to monitoring a request or a network at client  405  as discussed herein. 
     Mobile device  415  is connected to network  420  and may be implemented as a portable device suitable for sending and receiving content over a network, such as for example a mobile phone, smart phone, tablet computer, or other portable device. Both client device  405  and mobile device  415  may include hardware and/or software configured to access a web service provided by network server  425 . 
     Mobile device  415  may include network browser  417  and an agent  419 . Mobile device may also include client applications and other code that may be monitored by agent  419 . Agent  419  may reside in and/or communicate with network browser  417 , as well as communicate with other applications, an operating system, APIs and other hardware and software on mobile device  415 . Agent  419  may have similar functionality as that described herein for agent  412  on client  405 , and may repot data to data collection server  460  and/or controller  490 . 
     Network  420  may facilitate communication of data among different servers, devices and machines of system  400  (some connections shown with lines to network  420 , some not shown). The network may be implemented as a private network, public network, intranet, the Internet, a cellular network, Wi-Fi network, VoIP network, or a combination of one or more of these networks. The network  420  may include one or more machines such as load balance machines and other machines. 
     Network server  425  is connected to network  420  and may receive and process requests received over network  420 . Network server  425  may be implemented as one or more servers implementing a network service, and may be implemented on the same machine as application server  430  or one or more separate machines. When network  420  is the Internet, network server  425  may be implemented as a web server. 
     Application server  430  communicates with network server  425 , application servers  440  and  450 , and controller  490 . Application server  450  may also communicate with other machines and devices (not illustrated in  FIG. 4 ). Application server  430  may host an application or portions of a distributed application. The host application  432  may be in one of many platforms, such as including a Java, PHP, .Net, and Node.JS, be implemented as a Java virtual machine, or include some other host type. Application server  430  may also include one or more agents  434  (i.e. “modules”), including a language agent, machine agent, and network agent, and other software modules. Application server  430  may be implemented as one server or multiple servers as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
     Application  432  and other software on application server  430  may be instrumented using byte code insertion, or byte code instrumentation (BCI), to modify the object code of the application or other software. The instrumented object code may include code used to detect calls received by application  432 , calls sent by application  432 , and communicate with agent  434  during execution of the application. BCI may also be used to monitor one or more sockets of the application and/or application server in order to monitor the socket and capture packets coming over the socket. 
     In some embodiments, server  430  may include applications and/or code other than a virtual machine. For example, servers  430 ,  440 ,  450 , and  460  may each include Java code, .Net code, PHP code, Ruby code, C code, C++ or other binary code to implement applications and process requests received from a remote source. References to a virtual machine with respect to an application server are intended to be for exemplary purposes only. 
     Agents  434  on application server  430  may be installed, downloaded, embedded, or otherwise provided on application server  430 . For example, agents  434  may be provided in server  430  by instrumentation of object code, downloading the agents to the server, or in some other manner. Agent  434  may be executed to monitor application server  430 , monitor code running in a virtual machine  432  (or other program language, such as a PHP, .Net, or C program), machine resources, network layer data, and communicate with byte instrumented code on application server  430  and one or more applications on application server  430 . 
     Each of agents  434 ,  444 ,  454  and  464  may include one or more agents, such as language agents, machine agents, and network agents. A language agent may be a type of agent that is suitable to run on a particular host. Examples of language agents include a JAVA agent, .Net agent, PHP agent, and other agents. The machine agent may collect data from a particular machine on which it is installed. A network agent may capture network information, such as data collected from a socket. 
     Agent  434  may detect operations such as receiving calls and sending requests by application server  430 , resource usage, and incoming packets. Agent  434  may receive data, process the data, for example by aggregating data into metrics, and transmit the data and/or metrics to controller  490 . Agent  434  may perform other operations related to monitoring applications and application server  430  as discussed herein. For example, agent  434  may identify other applications, share business transaction data, aggregate detected runtime data, and other operations. 
     An agent may operate to monitor a node, tier or nodes or other entity. A node may be a software program or a hardware component (e.g., memory, processor, and so on). A tier of nodes may include a plurality of nodes which may process a similar business transaction, may be located on the same server, may be associated with each other in some other way, or may not be associated with each other. 
     A language agent may be an agent suitable to instrument or modify, collect data from, and reside on a host. The host may be a Java, PHP, .Net, Node.JS, or other type of platform. Language agent may collect flow data as well as data associated with the execution of a particular application. The language agent may instrument the lowest level of the application to gather the flow data. The flow data may indicate which tier is communicating with which tier and on which port. In some instances, the flow data collected from the language agent includes a source IP, a source port, a destination IP, and a destination port. The language agent may report the application data and call chain data to a controller. The language agent may report the collected flow data associated with a particular application to a network agent. 
     A network agent may be a standalone agent that resides on the host and collects network flow group data. The network flow group data may include a source IP, destination port, destination IP, and protocol information for network flow received by an application on which network agent is installed. The network agent may collect data by intercepting and performing packet capture on packets coming in from a one or more sockets. The network agent may receive flow data from a language agent that is associated with applications to be monitored. For flows in the flow group data that match flow data provided by the language agent, the network agent rolls up the flow data to determine metrics such as TCP throughput, TCP loss, latency and bandwidth. The network agent may then report the metrics, flow group data, and call chain data to a controller. The network agent may also make system calls at an application server to determine system information, such as for example a host status check, a network status check, socket status, and other information. 
     A machine agent may reside on the host and collect information regarding the machine which implements the host. A machine agent may collect and generate metrics from information such as processor usage, memory usage, and other hardware information. 
     Each of the language agent, network agent, and machine agent may report data to the controller. Controller  490  may be implemented as a remote server that communicates with agents located on one or more servers or machines. The controller may receive metrics, call chain data and other data, correlate the received data as part of a distributed transaction, and report the correlated data in the context of a distributed application implemented by one or more monitored applications and occurring over one or more monitored networks. The controller may provide reports, one or more user interfaces, and other information for a user. 
     Agent  434  may create a request identifier for a request received by server  430  (for example, a request received by a client  405  or  415 associated with a user or another source). The request identifier may be sent to client  405  or mobile device  415 , whichever device sent the request. In embodiments, the request identifier may be created when a data is collected and analyzed for a particular business transaction. 
     Each of application servers  440 ,  450  and  460  may include an application and agents. Each application may run on the corresponding application server. Each of applications  442 ,  452  and  462  on application servers  440 - 460  may operate similarly to application  432  and perform at least a portion of a distributed business transaction. Agents  444 ,  454  and  464  may monitor applications  442 - 462 , collect and process data at runtime, and communicate with controller  490 . The applications  432 ,  442 ,  452  and  462  may communicate with each other as part of performing a distributed transaction. In particular, each application may call any application or method of another virtual machine. 
     Asynchronous network machine  470  may engage in asynchronous communications with one or more application servers, such as application server  450  and  460 . For example, application server  450  may transmit several calls or messages to an asynchronous network machine. Rather than communicate back to application server  450 , the asynchronous network machine may process the messages and eventually provide a response, such as a processed message, to application server  460 . Because there is no return message from the asynchronous network machine to application server  450 , the communications among them are asynchronous. 
     Data stores  480  and  485  may each be accessed by application servers such as application server  450 . Data store  485  may also be accessed by application server  450 . Each of data stores  480  and  485  may store data, process data, and return queries received from an application server. Each of data stores  480  and  485  may or may not include an agent. 
     Controller  490  may control and manage monitoring of business transactions distributed over application servers  430 - 460 . In some embodiments, controller  490  may receive application data, including data associated with monitoring client requests at client  405  and mobile device  415 , from data collection server  460 . In some embodiments, controller  490  may receive application monitoring data and network data from each of agents  412 ,  419 ,  434 ,  444  and  454 . Controller  490  may associate portions of business transaction data, communicate with agents to configure collection of data, and provide performance data and reporting through an interface. The interface may be viewed as a web-based interface viewable by client device  492 , which may be a mobile device, client device, or any other platform for viewing an interface provided by controller  490 . In some embodiments, a client device  492  may directly communicate with controller  490  to view an interface for monitoring data. 
     Client device  492  may include any computing device, including a mobile device or a client computer such as a desktop, work station or other computing device. Client computer  492  may communicate with controller  490  to create and view a custom interface. In some embodiments, controller  490  provides an interface for creating and viewing the custom interface as a content page, e.g., a web page, which may be provided to and rendered through a network browser application on client device  492 . 
     Applications  432 ,  442 ,  452  and  462  may be any of several types of applications. Examples of applications that may implement applications  432 - 462  include a Java, PHP, .Net, Node.JS, and other applications. 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a computer system  500  for implementing the present technology. System  500  of  FIG. 5  may be implemented in the contexts of the likes of clients  505 ,  592 , network server  525 , servers  530 ,  540 ,  550 ,  560 , a synchronous network machine  570  and controller  590 . 
     The computing system  500  of  FIG. 5  includes one or more processors  510  and memory  520 . Main memory  520  stores, in part, instructions and data for execution by processor  510 . Main memory  510  can store the executable code when in operation. The system  500  of  FIG. 5  further includes a mass storage device  530 , portable storage medium drive(s)  540 , output devices  550 , user input devices  560 , a graphics display  570 , and peripheral devices  580 . 
     The components shown in  FIG. 5  are depicted as being connected via a single bus  590 . However, the components may be connected through one or more data transport means. For example, processor unit  510  and main memory  520 may be connected via a local microprocessor bus, and the mass storage device  530 , peripheral device(s)  580 , portable or remote storage device  540 , and display system  570  may be connected via one or more input/output (I/O) buses. 
     Mass storage device  530 , which may be implemented with a magnetic disk drive or an optical disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device for storing data and instructions for use by processor unit  510 . Mass storage device  530  can store the system software for implementing embodiments of the present invention for purposes of loading that software into main memory  520 . 
     Portable storage device  540  operates in conjunction with a portable non-volatile storage medium, such as a compact disk, digital video disk, magnetic disk, flash storage, etc. to input and output data and code to and from the computer system  500  of  FIG. 5 . The system software for implementing embodiments of the present invention may be stored on such a portable medium and input to the computer system  500  via the portable storage device  540 . 
     Input devices  560  provide a portion of a user interface. Input devices  560  may include an alpha-numeric keypad, such as a keyboard, for inputting alpha-numeric and other information, or a pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball, stylus, or cursor direction keys. Additionally, the system  500  as shown in  FIG. 5  includes output devices  550 . Examples of suitable output devices include speakers, printers, network interfaces, and monitors. 
     Display system  570  may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) or other suitable display device. Display system  570  receives textual and graphical information, and processes the information for output to the display device. 
     Peripherals  580  may include any type of computer support device to add additional functionality to the computer system. For example, peripheral device(s)  580  may include a modem or a router. 
     The components contained in the computer system  500  of  FIG. 5  can include a personal computer, hand held computing device, telephone, mobile computing device, workstation, server, minicomputer, mainframe computer, or any other computing device. The computer can also include different bus configurations, networked platforms, multi-processor platforms, etc. Various operating systems can be used including Unix, Linux, Windows, Apple OS, and other suitable operating systems, including mobile versions. 
     When implementing a mobile device such as smart phone or tablet computer, the computer system  500  of  FIG. 5  may include one or more antennas, radios, and other circuitry for communicating over wireless signals, such as for example communication using Wi-Fi, cellular, or other wireless signals. 
     While this patent document contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any invention or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this patent document in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination. 
     Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described in this patent document should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments. 
     Only a few implementations and examples are described and other implementations, enhancements and variations can be made based on what is described and illustrated in this patent document.