Automatic health check and performance monitoring for applications and protocols using deep packet inspection in a datacenter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11025514-B2
Application number	US-201614994661-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2016
Priority date	Oct 30, 2015
Publication date	Jun 1, 2021
Grant date	Jun 1, 2021

Abstract

A method of collecting health check metrics for a network is provided. The method, at a deep packet inspector on a physical host in a datacenter, receives a copy of a network packet from a load balancer. The packet includes a plurality of layers. Each layer corresponds to a communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols. The method identifies an application referenced in the packet. The method analyzes the information in one or more layers of the packet to determine metrics for the source application. The method sends the determined metrics to the load balancer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of adjusting load balancing in a network, the method comprising:
at a deep packet inspector executing on a physical host in a datacenter:
receiving from a load balancer executing on the physical host a copy of a network packet copied at the load balancer, the packet comprising a plurality of layers, each layer corresponding to a communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols;
identifying an application that was a source of the packet;
analyzing the information above a transport layer of the packet to compute a response
time of the application that is longer than a first particular threshold value; and
sending the calculated response time to the load balancer to reduce future communications between the load balancer and the identified application.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identified application is provided by one of a webserver, an application server, and a database server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the information comprises computing one of a frequency of access to a database and a number of database operations performed by the identified application that is below a second particular threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the information comprises determining an indication that the identified application has failed based on a status code identified in a packet layer over a transport layer of the packet.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying one or more protocols used in one or more layers of the packet; and
analyzing the information in one or more layers of the packet to determine metrics for the identified protocols.

6. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for adjusting load balancing in a network, the program executable by a processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
at a deep packet inspector executing on a physical host in a datacenter:
receiving from a load balancer executing on the physical host a copy of a network packet copied at the load balancer, the packet comprising a plurality of layers, each layer corresponding to a communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols;
identifying an application that was a source of the packet;
analyzing the information above a transport layer of the packet to compute a response
time of the application that is longer than a first particular threshold value; and
sending the calculated response time determined health check metrics to the load balancer to initiate sending a health-check message to the identified application.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the identified application is provided by one of a webserver, an application server, and a database server.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6 , wherein analyzing the information comprises computing one of a frequency of access to a database and a number of database operations performed by the identified application that is below a second particular threshold value.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6 , the program further comprising sets of instructions for:
identifying one or more protocols used in one or more layers of the packet; and
analyzing the information in one or more layers of the packet to determine metrics for the identified protocols.

10. A system comprising:
a set of processing units; and
a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for adjusting load balancing in a network, the program executable by a processing unit in the set of processing units, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
at a deep packet inspector executing on a physical host in a datacenter:
receiving from a load balancer executing on the physical host a copy of a network packet copied at the load balancer, the packet comprising a plurality of layers, each layer corresponding to a communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols;
identifying an application that was a source of the packet;
analyzing the information above a transport layer of the packet to compute a response time of the application that is longer than a first particular threshold value; and
sending the calculated response time to the load balancer to reduce future communications between the load balancer and the identified application.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the identified application is provided by one of a webserver, an application server, and a database server.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein analyzing the information comprises computing one of a frequency of access to a database and a number of database operations performed by the identified application that is below a second particular threshold value.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein analyzing the information comprises determining an indication that the identified application has failed based on a status code identified in a packet layer over a transport layer of the packet.

14. The system of claim 10 , the program further comprising sets of instructions for:
identifying one or more protocols used in one or more layers of the packet; and
analyzing the information in one or more layers of the packet to determine metrics for the identified protocols.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein reducing future communications with the identified application comprises one of marking the identified application as failed and marking a server on which the application executes as failed.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application executes on a server that is part of a cluster of servers that execute the same application, and wherein reducing future communications with the identified application comprises terminating communications with the identified application and directing subsequent communications to another application executing on another server.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response time of the application that is longer than the first particular threshold value is an indication that the application has failed.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response time comprises an indication that a connection attempt with the application has failed.

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Tiagi Alok S
• Jain Jayant
• Sengupta Anirban
• Nimmagadda Srinivas
• Lund Rick

Classifications

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• H04L67/1001

  for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers · CPC title

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• H04L41/5009

  Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title