Preprocessing and storage of cloud service usage reports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10938882-B2
Application number	US-201916506305-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2019
Priority date	Jul 9, 2019
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for streaming billing data associated with third-party network resources consumed by a managed network to a remote network management platform are disclosed. Streaming of billing usage data associated with third-party resources may use resource identifiers to associate resources with line items in a service bill generated by the third-party network. A proxy server in the managed network may intermediate streaming from the third-party network to a remote server in a computational instance of the remote network management platform. Billing data may be recorded partly in a metric-base database configured for storing time series data corresponding to usage quantities of third-party resources consumed by the managed network per unit time, and partly in a static records database configured for storing database records associated with the time series data, and including data for identifying the third-party resources and for recording static information relating to billing for the third-party resources.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for streaming billing data to a remote network management platform from a third-party network, wherein the billing data are associated with usage of resources provided by the third-party network to a managed network that is associated with a computational instance of the remote network management platform, the system comprising:
a metric-base database (MBDB) disposed within the remote network management platform and configured for storing time series data, wherein the time series data comprise data specifying usage quantities of third-party resources consumed by the managed network per unit time over specified time intervals;
a static records database (SRDB) disposed within the remote network management platform and configured for storing database records that are associated with the time series data and include data for identifying the third-party resources and for recording static information relating to billing for the third-party resources; and
one or more server devices configured to:
determine a resource identifier associating a particular third-party resource with a particular line item in a service bill generated by the third-party network for third-party resources consumed by the managed network;
based on the resource identifier, carry out download-streaming of billing usage data associated with the particular third-party resource from the third-party network to the one or more server devices;
monitor a status of the download-streaming of the billing usage data;
transmit status information indicative of the monitored status to a client computing device communicatively connected in or with the system, wherein the status information includes a percentage completion;
receive one or more interactive commands from the client computing device to control the download-streaming, wherein the one or more interactive commands correspond to control actions, the control actions comprising abort download, pause download, or restart download, or a combination thereof;
store the download-streamed billing usage data in a time-series file associated with the particular third-party resource in the MBDB; and
if the SRDB does not already contain a static record associated with the particular third-party resource, create and store in the SRDB a particular static record that includes a link to the time-series file for the particular third-party resource.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to:
determine a different resource identifier associating a different third-party resource with a different line item in the service bill;
based on the different resource identifier, carry out download-streaming of different billing usage data associated with the different third-party resource from the third-party network to the one or more server devices;
store the download-streamed different billing usage data in a different time-series file associated with the different third-party resource in the MBDB; and
if the SRDB does not already contain a static record associated with the different third-party resource, create and store in the SRDB a different static record that includes a link to the different time-series file for the different third-party resource.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service bill comprises a billing manifest file covering a specified date range and having a manifest filename common to one or more versions of the billing manifest file, wherein the billing manifest file includes (i) a list of one or more resource-report identifiers, each associated with a respective resource-usage report for a respective third-party resource, and (ii) an assembly identifier unique to a particular version of the billing manifest file, wherein each of the one or more versions corresponds to a unique combination of at least one of: the one or more resource-report identifiers in the list, or specific date ranges covered by the respective resource-usage reports associated with the one or more resource-report identifiers in the list;
wherein the one or more server devices are configured to download the billing manifest file from the third-party network;
and wherein determining the resource identifier comprises determining from the downloaded billing manifest file a resource-usage identifier associated with a resource-usage report for the particular third-party resource.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein based on the resource identifier, carrying out download-streaming of the billing usage data associated with the particular third-party resource from the third-party network to the one or more server devices comprises:
opening a download-streaming connection from the third-party network for the resource-usage report for the particular third-party resource.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to forgo download-streaming any resource-usage reports associated with resource-usage identifiers included in any given downloaded billing manifest file upon first determining that the assembly identifier included in the any given downloaded manifest file matches that of a previously downloaded and processed billing manifest file.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more server devices are comprised in a proxy server disposed within the managed network and a remote server disposed within the computational instance,
and wherein download-streaming of the billing usage data associated with the particular third-party resource from the third-party network to the one or more server devices comprises streaming the billing usage data from the third-party network to the remote server via the proxy server as an intermediary device.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the link to the time-series file for the particular third-party resource includes or is part of a MBDB file identifier of the time-series file, and the MBDB file identifier is associated with the resource identifier;
and wherein the one or more server devices are configured to:
determine the resource identifier from service bill information downloaded from the third-party network to the proxy server;
determine the MBDB file identifier based at least in part on the resource identifier;
if the MBDB file identifier is stored in a local cache associated with the proxy server, then retrieve the MDBD file identifier from the local cache;
if the MBDB file identifier is not stored in a local cache associated with the proxy server, then transmit a request for the MBDB file identifier from the proxy server to the remote server to obtain the MBDB file identifier;
derive the link from the MBDB file identifier; and
identify the time-series file for storing the download-streamed billing usage according to the derived link.

8. A proxy server for streaming billing data to a remote network management platform from a third-party network, wherein the billing data are associated with usage of resources provided by the third-party network to a managed network that is associated with a computational instance of the remote network management platform, and wherein the proxy server is disposed within the managed network and comprises:
a communicative connection to the third-party network;
a communicative connection to a remote server disposed within the computational instance;
one or more processors; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the proxy server to carry out operations including:
downloading, from the third-party network, a service bill for third-party resources consumed by the managed network, wherein the service bill comprises a billing manifest file covering a specified date range and having a manifest filename common to one or more versions o

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Lin Chowie Chunyan
• Kim Chanwook
• Pai Shravan Kalsanka
• Banaji Vani

Classifications

• H04L67/562

  Brokering proxy services · CPC title

• H04L67/53

  using third party service providers · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• H04L67/025 Primary

  for remote control or remote monitoring of applications · CPC title