Nonintrusive dynamically-scalable network load generation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12580839-B2
Application number	US-202318470025-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2023
Priority date	Sep 9, 2014
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

A method for nonintrusive network load generation may include determining available resources in a distributed computing system, where the distributed computing system includes a plurality of computing devices and a target deployment. Based on an amount of available resources between the target deployment and a plurality of source computing devices, the plurality of source computing devices may be selected to generate a network load directed from the plurality of source computing devices to the target deployment. The plurality of source computing devices may be a subset of the plurality of computing devices in the distributed computing system. A network-traffic generator service may be provided to the plurality of source computing devices in order to generate the network load directed from the plurality of source computing devices to the target deployment. The performance of the distributed computing system in response to the generated network load may be monitored.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
selecting a source computing device from a plurality of source computing devices, the source computing device providing allocated resources allocated to support live traffic operations of the source computing device and providing spare resources that are available during the live traffic operations to generate testing traffic associated with a first network load for validating network connectivity to a target deployment of a distributed computing system, wherein the source computing device is selected based on the spare resources satisfying:
a predetermined capacity threshold for the target deployment, the predetermined capacity threshold being based on network bandwidth capacity and compute capacity associated with the source computing device; and
a predetermined availability threshold for the source computing device;
providing, to the source computing device, an instruction to generate the first network load using a network-traffic generator service provided to the source computing device; monitoring metrics associated with the first network load on the distributed computing system; and evaluating the network connectivity of the target deployment based on the metrics.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network load satisfies a predetermined threshold to test a level of service specified in a service-level agreement (SLA), wherein the target deployment is a target storage cluster and the predetermined threshold is based on the level of service included in the SLA associated with an end user of the target storage cluster.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating a request to terminate the first network load, wherein the request to terminate the first network load is based on detecting unexpected errors or failures; and in response to the request to terminate the first network load, triggering a cleanup action for the distributed computing system, the cleanup action comprising terminating the network-traffic generator service.

4 . A computerized system comprising:
a processor; and computer memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
selecting a source computing device from a plurality of source computing devices, the source computing device providing spare resources that are available during the live traffic operations to generate testing traffic associated with a first network load for validating network connectivity to a target deployment of a distributed computing system, wherein the source computing device is selected based on the spare resources satisfying:
a predetermined capacity threshold for the target deployment, the predetermined capacity threshold being based on network bandwidth capacity and compute capacity associated with the source computing device; and
a predetermined availability threshold for the source computing device;

providing, by a validation server to the source computing device, an instruction to generate the first network load using a network-traffic generator service provided to the source computing device by the validation server;
monitoring, by the validation server, metrics associated with the first network load on the distributed computing system; and
evaluating the network connectivity of the target deployment based on the metrics.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the first network load satisfies a predetermined threshold to test a level of service specified in a service-level agreement (SLA), wherein the target deployment is a target storage cluster and the predetermined threshold is based on the level of service included in the SLA associated with an end user of the target storage cluster.

6 . The system of claim 4 , wherein monitoring the metrics comprises generating reference points at different network loads, wherein the reference points correspond to performance metrics of the distributed computing system.

7 . The system of claim 4 , wherein monitoring the metrics comprises monitoring network infrastructure metrics, network-traffic generator service metrics, and target deployment metrics.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein monitoring the network infrastructure metrics comprises receiving an alert that the first network load should be redistributed.

9 . The system of claim 4 , the operations further comprising communicating performance metrics, wherein the performance metrics include an indication of whether the performance metrics are satisfied.

10 . The system of claim 9 , the operations further comprising causing monitoring of the performance metrics associated with the first network load, wherein the performance metrics are associated with scaling up or scaling down network loads generated via the network-traffic generator service.

11 . The system of claim 4 , the operations further comprising dynamically scaling the first network load from the source computing device.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein dynamically scaling the first network load comprises:
configuring an initial minimal load to be generated by the source computing device, wherein the initial minimal load is directed from the source computing device to the target deployment; determining the initial minimal load is stable; monitoring performance metrics of the distributed computing system; and based on the performance metrics satisfying a predetermined performance standard, generating an increased network load directed from the source computing device to the target deployment by scaling up the network-traffic generator service, wherein the increased network load is greater than the initial minimal load.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein dynamically scaling the first network load comprises:
configuring an initial minimal load to be generated by the source computing device, wherein the initial minimal load is directed from the source computing device to the target deployment; determining the initial minimal load is stable; monitoring performance metrics for the distributed computing system; and based on the performance metrics satisfying a predetermined performance standard, providing the network-traffic generator service to additional source computing devices in order to generate an additional network load directed from the additional source computing devices to the target deployment.

14 . A computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to:
verify settings associated with a target deployment of a distributed computing system, the settings specifying a performance level for network connectivity to the target deployment; based on verifying the settings associated with the distributed computing system, select a source computing device from a plurality of source computing devices, the source computing device generating a first network load for validating the network connectivity to the target deployment, the first network load being generated using a network-traffic generator service, the source computing device providing used resources operating on live traffic and spare resources that are available for generating testing traffic, the spare resources satisfying:
a predetermined capacity threshold for the target deployment, the predetermined capacity threshold being based on network bandwidth capacity and compute capacity associated with the source computing device; and
a predetermined availability threshold for the source computing device; and
cause display of information associated with the target deployment and the first network load.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Jubran Marwan E
• Gershaft Aleksandr Mikhailovich
• Hu Weiping

Classifications

• H04L41/0896

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title

• H04L43/12

  Network monitoring probes · CPC title

• H04L43/08

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

• H04L47/822

  Collecting or measuring resource availability data · CPC title

• H04L43/50 Primary

  Testing arrangements · CPC title