Patent ID: 7177823

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of monitoring jobs in a queue of a distributed system, said method comprising: responsive to a request by a client monitor application for jobs information on computer jobs in a queue having a user selected state of execution, wherein computer jobs in the queue are in any one of a plurality of possible states of execution, collecting by a monitoring server application jobs information on a set of computer jobs in the queue of a distributed system having the user selected state, said jobs information comprising JobTracker information for the set of computer jobs, said JobTracker information including jobs data on each computer job of the set of computer jobs having the user selected, tracked job state and, for each job having said tracked job state, a time of entering the tracked job state; employing or displaying, by the client monitor application, said jobs information for the set of computer jobs in the queue having the user selected state; wherein said jobs information comprises multiple characteristics, said multiple characteristics including said JobTracker information, and at least one of jobs data, filesystem information, cluster information and core files information, said jobs data comprising for each job in a queue at least some of job id, job owner, job starting time, job state, job priority, job class, and name of node where the job is running, said filesystem information including filesystem usage, said cluster information including for each node of said system, a name of the node, status of a scheduler, number of in-queue jobs, number of active jobs, average load, idle time, type of node architecture and operating system running on the node, and said core files information including a list of core files; wherein said collecting jobs information further comprises: reading a set of nodes of said system; querying nodes of said set of nodes on said jobs information; and retrieving from said system results of said querying; wherein said reading comprises: retrieving from said system a full set of nodes of said system; and removing down nodes from said full set of nodes, wherein said down nodes include nodes that fail to respond to operating system commands within a predefined period of time; wherein said querying comprises at least some of: querying nodes in said set of nodes on jobs information; querying nodes in said set of nodes on JobTracker information; querying nodes in said set of nodes on filesystem information; querying nodes in said set of nodes on cluster information; and querying nodes in said set of nodes on core files information; and wherein said querying nodes on JobTracker information comprises: selecting said tracked job state from a predefined list of job states; and producing a list of jobs in a queue of said system having said tracked job state.