Patent ID: 8769089

Claim:
A method for improving a distributed application using diagnostic heartbeating, the method comprising: an application, executing using a processor and a memory in a first data processing system, sending a registration to a messaging component in the first data processing system, the registration requesting state information for a set of member components in a distributed domain; after the application sending the registration to the messaging component, the application receiving the state information from the messaging component, the state information including current status and diagnostic information relating to the set of member components obtained from diagnostic attributes of diagnostic heartbeat packets received by the messaging component, wherein a diagnostic heartbeat packet is a packet comprising a header, a set of heartbeat parameters, and a set of diagnostic attributes, wherein a basic heartbeat packet is a packet comprising a second set of heartbeat parameters, a size of the basic heartbeat packet being specified in a heartbeat parameter in the second set of heartbeat parameters, wherein the set of diagnostic attributes is configured to specify a combination of a packet size that is different from the size of the basic heartbeat packet, a protocol being used to transmit the diagnostic heartbeat packet, and a specific bit pattern used in the diagnostic heartbeat packet.