Patent ID: 7487407

Claim:
A method for identifying a cause for a response time problem for a transaction in a distributed computing system that includes a central server and a plurality of subsystems, where a single transaction is divided into a plurality of sub-transactions and each sub-transaction is sent to a given subsystem of the plurality of subsystems, the method comprising: storing data, by an agent at each subsystem, relating to the sub-transactions performed by the subsystems, wherein the data is stored at the each subsystem in a queue that contains transaction instance data for multiple different transactions that have been processed by the each subsystem, wherein the transaction instance data is specific data generated for a given sub-transaction processed by the subsystem; discovering a problem in connection with completion of a particular transaction; identifying the each subsystem of the plurality of subsystems involved in the particular transaction using at least one identifier stored at the each subsystem, wherein the at least one identifier includes a first identifier uniquely identifying the particular transaction, and a second identifier identifying a policy associated with the particular transaction; forwarding the data stored at each identified subsystem to the central server, the forwarded data including instance data relating to the sub-transaction of the particular transaction performed by the identified subsystems and aggregate data relating to sub-transactions of transactions performed by the identified subsystems; and performing a Root-Cause Analysis using the forwarded aggregate data and the forwarded instance data to identify the subsystem that caused the response time problem with the particular transaction.