Generating metric data streams from spans ingested by a cloud deployment of an instrumentation analytics engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11526425-B1
Application number	US-202016835179-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2020
Priority date	Mar 30, 2020
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

A method of generating metrics data associated with a microservices-based application comprises ingesting a plurality of spans and mapping an ingested span of the plurality of spans to a span identity, wherein the span identity comprises a tuple of information identifying a type of span associated with the span identity, wherein the tuple of information comprises user-configured dimensions. The method further comprises grouping the ingested span by the span identity, wherein the ingested span is grouped with other spans from the plurality of spans comprising a same span identity. The method also comprises computing metrics associated with the span identity and using the metrics to generate a stream of metric data associated with the span identity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of generating metrics data associated with a microservices-based application executing in a distributed computing environment, the method comprising:
ingesting a plurality of spans associated with one or more applications executing in the distributed computing environment;
mapping an ingested span of the plurality of ingested spans to a span identity, wherein the span identity comprises a tuple of information identifying a type of span associated with the span identity, and wherein the tuple of information comprises a subset of attributes extracted from the ingested span;
grouping the ingested span by the span identity with other spans from the plurality of ingested spans that share a same span identity;
computing metrics associated with the span identity by aggregating information extracted from spans associated with the span identity; and
generating, based on the metrics, a stream of metric data associated with the span identity by converting the aggregated information extracted from the spans associated with the span identity into the stream of metric data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tuple of information comprises user-configured dimensions.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
filtering out the stream of metric data responsive to a determination that the span identity is associated with an operation selected to be filtered out by a user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ingesting comprises ingesting the plurality of spans into an instrumentation analytics engine disposed in a cloud network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tuple of information comprises attributes selected from one or more of an operation name, a service name, a kind tag, an error flag or a flag to indicate if an associated span is part of a service mesh.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing metrics comprises:
generating a fixed size bin histogram for the span identity;
inserting values associated with each span corresponding to the span identity in respective bins of the fixed size bin histogram;
computing the metrics by tracking counts associated with each bin in the fixed size bin histogram; and
resetting bin counts after a fixed time duration.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing metrics comprises:
generating a fixed size bin histogram for the span identity;
inserting duration values associated with each span corresponding to the span identity in respective bins of the fixed size bin histogram;
computing the metrics by tracking duration counts associated with each bin in the fixed size bin histogram; and
resetting bin counts after a fixed time duration.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing metrics comprises:
generating a fixed size bin histogram for the span identity;
inserting values associated with each span corresponding to the span identity in respective bins of the fixed size bin histogram;
computing the metrics by tracking counts associated with each bin in the fixed size bin histogram; and
resetting the counts after a fixed time duration; and
wherein the generating the fixed size bin histogram comprises:
outputting the metrics prior to the resetting; and
quantizing metrics associated with the stream of metric data.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metrics computed are selected from one or more of a minimum span duration, a median span duration, a maximum span duration, a p90 latency value, a p99 latency value and a count of spans associated with the span identity.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
aggregating data from the stream of metric data associated with the span identity with other streams of metric data generated for the span identity; and
monitoring a service in the microservices-based application associated with the span identity using the aggregated data.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring an alert triggered when values associated with the stream of metric data cross a given threshold.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ingesting the spans comprises ingesting the plurality of spans into an instrumentation analytics engine disposed in a cloud network, and wherein the instrumentation analytics engine is associated with a Software as a Service (SaaS) based service.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring an alert triggered when values associated with the stream of metric data cross a given threshold; and
responsive to triggering of the alert, extending the span identity with additional user-configured dimensions to extract further information regarding an operation associated with the span identity.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the span identity is associated with a cross-service call; and
responsive to a determination that the span identity is associated with a cross-service call, extending the span identity with additional user-configured dimensions to extract further information regarding the cross-service call.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the span identity is associated with a user-selected operation; and
responsive to a determination that the span identity is associated with a user-selected operation, extending the span identity with additional user-configured dimensions to extract further information regarding the user-selected operation.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein for causing a computer system to perform a method of generating metrics data associated with a microservices-based application executing in a distributed computing environment, the method comprising:
ingesting a plurality of spans associated with one or more applications executing in the distributed computing environment;
mapping an ingested span of the plurality of ingested spans to a span identity, wherein the span identity comprises a tuple of information identifying a type of span associated with the span identity, and wherein the tuple of information comprises a subset of attributes extracted from the ingested span;
grouping the ingested span by the span identity with other spans from the plurality of ingested spans that share a same span identity;
computing metrics associated with the span identity by aggregating information extracted from spans associated with the span identity; and
generating, based on the metrics, a stream of metric data associated with the span identity by converting the aggregated information extracted from the spans associated with the span identity into the stream of metric data.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the tuple of information comprises user-configured dimensions.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:
filtering out the stream of metric data responsive to a determination that the span identity is associated with an operation selected to be filtered out by a user.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the ingesting comprises ingesting the plurality of spans into an instrumentation analytics engine disposed in a cloud network.

20. A system for performing a method of generating metrics data associated with a microservices-based application, the system comprising:
a processing device communicatively coupled with a memory and configured to:
ingest a plurality of spans associated with one or more applications executing in a

Assignees

• Splunk Inc

Inventors

• Karis Steven
• Petazzoni Maxime
• Pound Matthew William
• Ross Joseph Ari
• Smith Charles
• Stewart Scott

Classifications

• G06F2201/865

  Monitoring of software · CPC title

• G06F11/3466 Primary

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title

• G06F11/3452

  Performance evaluation by statistical analysis · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title

• G06F11/302

  where the computing system component is a software system · CPC title