Abstract: Synthetic transactions for a network system are generated based on monitoring of the network system to determine whether the network system may be blind to traffic. A process determines whether an application within an application server in a network system is processing traffic received by the application server, and whether a web server within the network system and in communication with the application server is receiving traffic that requires processing by the application. The process determines that the network system may be blind to the traffic, and, in response, generates a synthetic transaction instruction and a corresponding synthetic transaction to test whether the network system is blind to the traffic. Based on a response of the network system to the synthetic transaction, the process determines whether there is a malfunction of the application server or a period of low traffic activity of the application server.

Abstract: File operations on files in a peripheral system are controlled by an intelligent controller with a file processor. The files are accessed as if the intelligent controller were an addressable virtual storage space. This is accomplished first by communicating controller commands for the intelligent controller through read/write commands addressed to a Command Region of a virtual storage device. The controller commands set up a Mapped Data Region in the virtual storage device for use in controlling data transfer operations to and from the peripheral system. With the Mapped Data Regions set up, blocks of data are transferred between the host and the intelligent controller in response to read/write commands addressed to the Mapped Data Region of the virtual storage device. In an additional feature of the invention file operations are communicated between host and controller through a device driver at the host and a device emulator at the intelligent controller.