Intelligent selection of vantage points for monitoring subservices based on potential impact to services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11201799-B2
Application number	US-201916601792-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 15, 2019
Priority date	Oct 15, 2019
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

A method includes configuring services as respective collections of subservices on network devices of a network, and decomposing definitions of the services into subservice dependency graphs each indicating the subservices and dependencies between the subservices that collectively implement a respective one of the services. The method further includes traversing the subservice dependency graphs to identify, at one or more intersections of the subservice dependency graphs, one or more shared subservices among the subservices of the services, wherein the one or more shared subservices are shared by the services. The method also includes monitoring subservice health states of the one or more shared subservices, and determining health states of the services based on the subservice health states of the one or more shared subservices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
configuring services as respective collections of subservices on network devices of a network;
decomposing definitions of the services into subservice dependency graphs each indicating the subservices and dependencies between the subservices that collectively implement a respective one of the services, and each including (i) a unique identifier of the respective one of the services to which the each of the subservice dependency graphs pertains, (ii) subservice nodes that represent, and include identifiers of, the subservices of the respective one of the services, and (iii) edges that connect the subservice nodes;
traversing the subservice dependency graphs by traversing the subservice nodes and the edges of each of the subservice dependency graphs to identify shared subservice nodes among the subservice nodes of the subservice dependency graphs, so as to identify, at intersections of the subservice dependency graphs, shared subservices among the subservices of the services, wherein the shared subservices are shared by the services;
determining a most shared subservice that is shared by a greatest number of the services compared to other shared subservices among the subservices;
monitoring subservice health states of the shared subservices, including the most shared subservice; and
determining health states of the services based on the subservice health states of the shared subservices.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
traversing the subservice dependency graphs to identify non-shared subservices of the subservices of the services that are not shared by the services; and
monitoring subservice health states of the non-shared subservices,
wherein the determining the health states of the services includes determining the health states of the services based on the subservice health states of the shared subservices and the subservice health states of the non-shared subservices.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the monitoring the subservice health states of the shared subservices includes monitoring subservice health states of one or more of the shared subservices at a first rate; and
the monitoring the subservice health states of the non-shared subservices includes monitoring the subservice health states of the non-shared subservices at a second rate that is less than the first rate.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network devices include routers, switches, or gateways.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring includes:
based on the subservice dependency graphs of the services, configuring the shared subservices to measure and report subservice metrics indicative of the health states of the shared subservices;
obtaining the subservice metrics from the shared subservices; and
determining the subservice health states of the shared subservices based on the subservice metrics, as reported.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring includes monitoring subservice health states of one or more of the shared subservices at a first rate, and the method further comprises:
responsive to the determining indicating that any one of the health states of the services is a failing health state, monitoring the subservice health states of the one or more of the shared subservices at a second rate that is greater than the first rate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring includes:
monitoring a subservice health state of the most shared subservice at a first rate; and
monitoring subservice health states of ones of the shared subservices that are not the most shared subservice at a second rate that is less than the first rate.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the definitions respectively includes a service type and a service instance, and the method further comprises, for each of the definitions:
generating from the service type and the service instance a service tag that is unique to the respective one of the services to which the each of the definitions pertains so as to distinguish the respective one of the services from other services among the services on the network; and
applying the service tag to respective ones of the subservice dependency graphs to associate the subservice dependency graphs with the services.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
each of the subservice health states respectively indicates a passing subservice health state or a failing subservice health state for a corresponding one of one or more of the shared subservices; and
the determining the health states of the services includes, for each one of the services:
when one or more of the subservice health states indicate the failing subservice health state, setting the health state of the one of the services to indicate a failing health state; and
when all of the subservice health states indicate a passing subservice health state, setting the health state of the one of the services to indicate a passing health state.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subservices of each of the services include one or more of:
operations performed by the network devices in the network;
communication behavior of interfaces of the network devices;
layer 1 (L1) network connectivity configured on the network devices, layer 2 (L2) network connectivity on the network devices, or layer 3 (L3) network connectivity on the network devices;
packet routing protocols on the network devices; and
logical network functions.

11. A system comprising:
one or more network interface units; and
one or more processors coupled to the one or more network interface units and configured to perform:
configuring services as respective collections of subservices on network devices of a network;
decomposing definitions of the services into subservice dependency graphs each indicating the subservices and dependencies between the subservices that collectively implement a respective one of the services, and each including (i) a unique identifier of the respective one of the services to which the each of the subservice dependency graphs pertains, (ii) subservice nodes that represent, and include identifiers of, the subservices of the respective one of the services, and (iii) edges that connect the subservice nodes;
generating, from a service type and a service instance respectively included in each of the definitions, a service tag that is unique to the service to which the definition pertains so as to distinguish the service from other services;
applying the service tag to respective ones of the subservice dependency graphs to associate the subservice dependency graphs with the services;
traversing the subservice dependency graphs by traversing the subservice nodes and the edges of each of the subservice dependency graphs to identify shared subservice nodes among the subservice nodes of the subservice dependency graphs, so as to identify, at one or more intersections of the subservice dependency graphs, one or more shared subservices among the subservices of the services, wherein the one or more shared subservices are shared by the services;
monitoring subservice health states of the one or more shared subservices; and
determining health states of the services based on the subservice health states of the one or more shared subservices.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform:
traversing the subservice dependency graphs to identify non-shared subservices of the subservices of the services that are not shared by the services; and
monitoring subservice health states of the non-shared subservices,
wherein the one or more processors are configured to perform th

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Clarke Joseph M
• Claise Benoit
• Pignataro Carlos M
• Vyncke Eric

Classifications

• H04L41/5012 Primary

  determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time · CPC title

• H04L41/5032 Primary

  Generating service level reports · CPC title

• H04L67/51

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

• H04L43/06

  Generation of reports · 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