Dynamic troubleshooting workspaces for cloud and network management systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10708342-B2
Application number	US-201514798355-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2015
Priority date	Feb 27, 2015
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for dynamic troubleshooting workspaces. A system can collect network statistics for a network and, based on the statistics, present a first workspace having a first set of interface components, each of the first set of interface components representing a respective network context, and each of the first set of interface components including a first set of objects associated with the respective network context. Next, the system can associate selected interface components from the first set of interface components to yield associated interface components, and dynamically present a second workspace having a second set of interface components selected based on the associated interface components, each of the second set of interface components representing a different respective network context related to the associated interface components, and each of the second set of interface components including a second set of objects associated with the different respective network context.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
collecting network statistics for a network;
based on the network statistics, presenting a first workspace having a first plurality of interface components containing respective network objects;
associating interface components from the first plurality of interface components to yield a network context including an indication of a relationship between the associated interface components, the network context associated with at least a network device and a network event, the indication triggering a second workspace based on the relationship; and
in response to the triggering of the second workspace, dynamically presenting the second workspace comprising a second plurality of interface components, each of the second plurality of interface components containing one or more network objects according to the network context,
wherein
the indication is a link extending between the associated interface components, and
the first plurality of interface components and the second plurality of interface components comprise tiles.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network context is associated with the network device, the network event and at least one of a network service, a network parameter, and a virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network event comprises a network condition, wherein the network service comprises at least one of a cloud service, a virtual private network service, a firewall service, a remote access service, and a web security service, wherein the network device comprises one of a server, a router, a switch or a firewall, and wherein the network parameter comprises at least one of a location or a configuration.

4. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein,
the collecting of the network statistics is performed via a cloud device, and
the first workspace and the second workspace are presented via a cloud-based dashboard.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
dynamically associating selected interface components from the second plurality of interface components based on one of an input or a system instruction, to yield a second set of associated interface components; and
presenting a third workspace having a third plurality of interface components selected based on the associated interface components, each of the third plurality of interface components representing a second different respective network context related to the second set of associated interface components, and each of the third plurality of interface components comprising a third set of objects associated with the second different respective network context.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first component from the second plurality of interface components comprises a service model representation and a second component from the second plurality of interface components comprises a topology representation, the topology representation comprising at least one of an overlay topology and an underlay topology.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein associating the selected interface components comprises visually connecting the selected interface components.

8. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
collecting network statistics for a network;
based on the network statistics, presenting a first workspace having a first plurality of interface components, each of the first plurality of interface components representing a respective network context associated with at least a network device and a network event, each of the first plurality of interface components comprising a first set of objects associated with the respective network context;
dynamically associating selected interface components from the first plurality of interface components to yield associated interface components and an indication of a relationship between the associated interface components, the indication triggering a second workspace based on the relationship; and
in response to the triggering of the second workspace, dynamically presenting the second workspace having a second plurality of interface components, the second plurality of interface components selected based on the associated interface components, each of the second plurality of interface components representing a different respective network context related to the associated interface components, and each of the second plurality of interface components comprising a second set of objects associated with the different respective network context,

wherein
the indication is a link extending between the associated interface components from the second plurality of interface components, and
the first plurality of interface components and the second plurality of interface components comprise tiles.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the respective network context is based on the network device and the network event and at least one of a network service, a network parameter, and a virtual machine.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the network event comprises a network condition, wherein the network service comprises at least one of a cloud service, a virtual private network service, a firewall service, a remote access service, and a web security service, wherein the network device comprises one of a server, a router, a switch or a firewall, and wherein the network parameter comprises at least one of a location or a configuration.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein a first component from the second plurality of interface components comprises a service model representation and a second component from the second plurality of interface components comprises a topology representation, the topology representation comprising at least one of an overlay topology and an underlay topology.

12. The system of claim 8 , the operations further comprise:
dynamically associating selected interface components from the second plurality of interface components based on one of an input or a system instruction, to yield a second set of associated interface components; and
presenting a third workspace having a third plurality of interface components selected based on the associated interface components, each of the third plurality of interface components representing a second different respective network context related to the second set of associated interface components, and each of the third plurality of interface components comprising a third set of objects associated with the second different respective network context.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein associating the selected interface components comprises visually connecting the selected interface components.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
collecting network statistics for a network;
based on the network statistics, presenting a first workspace having a first plurality of interface components, each of the first plurality of interface components representing at least a network device and a network event, each of the first plurality of interface components comprising a first set of objects associated with the network device and the network event;
connecting selected interface components from the first plurality of interface components to yield connected interface components via an indication of a relationship between the connected interface components, the indication triggering a second workspace based on the relationship; and
in

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Ebtekar Ali
• Garrison Daniel Robert

Classifications

• H04L67/10 Primary

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L41/122 Primary

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title