Patent attributes
An application mapping procedure obtains and aggregates application mapping information from a plurality of machines in a distributed system. An application dependency map, including first layer of application mapping information, is initialized, and then a first query is sent to one or more of the machines. In response, information identifying entities that have participated in predefined communications with entities identified in an existing layer of application mapping information in the application dependency map are received, and a second layer of application mapping information is added to the application dependency map, based at least in part on the information received in response to the first query. After adding the second layer of application mapping information to the application dependency map, a second query is sent to one or more of the of the endpoint machines, the second query being based at least in part on the application dependency map.
