Patent ID: 8826242

Claim:
A method for monitoring distributed applications executed by a processor, the method comprising: receiving timestamps from multiple tiers of a distributed application, the multiple tiers comprising a server tier that includes a server that hosts a server component of the distributed application, and a client tier that includes a plurality of client devices, each of the client devices hosting an instance of a client component of the distributed application, each timestamp comprising an associated event; receiving tags from the multiple tiers to monitor propagation of data related to the associated event through the multiple tiers; receiving action statements from the multiple tiers to flag certain types of actions related to the associated event; logging the associated event into an event tracing session that is statically unrelated to providers of the multiple tiers such that one or more providers may be disabled prior to an end of the event tracing session and at least one additional provider is added to the event tracing session following the one or more providers being disabled; based in part on the timestamps, correlating two or more events associated with execution of the distributed application across multiple tiers; assessing performance of the distributed application based in part on the correlation of the two or more events; and generating a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface including an option to display timestamps related to a combination of the multiple tiers and an option to display timestamps related to individual ones of the multiple tiers.