Auto update of sensor configuration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016359658-A1
Application number	US-201615170765-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 1, 2016
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for updating configurations in sensors deployed in multi-layer virtualized environments. In some examples, a system can track information of sensors and collectors in the network. In response to determining that a specific collector becomes unavailable (e.g., the specific collector is down, offline or becomes unsupported), the system can determine affected sensors corresponding to the specific collector, determine a new collector among active collectors of the network for each of the affected sensors, and dynamically update configuration and settings of the affected sensors to maintain proper collector-to-sensor mappings and other settings on the affected sensors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
determining collector information of a plurality of collectors in a network; analyzing the collector information of the plurality of collectors to determine active collectors among the plurality of collectors; determining that a specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable; removing the specific collector from the active collectors; receiving sensor information from a plurality of sensors of the network; determining at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors that corresponds to the specific collector; reassigning the at least one sensor to another collector among the active collectors; and causing the at least one sensor to update configuration based at least upon collector information of the another collector.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors comprises status, location, and collector-to-sensor mappings of the specific collector.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a new collector is added to the network; determining collector information of the new collector; determining that the new collector is active based upon the collector information of the new collector; and adding the new collector to the active collectors.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors is determined by analyzing network data pushed from the plurality of collectors to a monitoring system of the network.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining loading of the active collectors based upon the network data pushed from the active collectors, wherein reassigning the at least one sensor to the another collector among the active collectors is based at least upon the loading of the active collectors.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors comprises health information of each collector of the plurality of collectors, the health information comprising memory usage, central processing unit (CPU) utilization, bandwidth, and errors of a corresponding collector.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein determining that the specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable comprises:
determining that health of the specific collector deteriorates beyond a threshold level.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor information of the plurality of sensors comprises a location, characteristics and context of the at least one sensor.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the location of the at least one sensor comprises whether the at least one sensor resides in a virtual machine (VM), a hypervisor, or a switch of the network, and wherein the characteristics and context of the at least one sensor comprises information of an underlying operating system (OS) of the at least one sensor.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing traffic data between the specific collector and the at least one sensor, wherein determining that the specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable comprises: determining that the at least one sensor has a problem in contacting the specific collector.

11 . A system comprising:
a processor; and a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
determining collector information of a plurality of collectors in a network;
analyzing the collector information of the plurality of collectors to determine active collectors among the plurality of collectors;
determining that a specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable;
removing the specific collector from the active collectors;
receiving sensor information from a plurality of sensors of the network;
determining at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors that corresponds to the specific collector;
reassigning the at least one sensor to another collector among the active collectors; and
causing the at least one sensor to update configuration based at least upon collector information of the another collector.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors comprises status, location, and collector-to-sensor mappings of the specific collector.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
determining that a new collector is added to the network; determining collector information of the new collector; determining that the new collector is active based upon the collector information of the new collector; and adding the new collector to the active collectors.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors is determined by analyzing network data pushed from the plurality of collectors to a monitoring system of the network.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
determining loading of the active collectors based upon the network data pushed from the active collectors, wherein reassigning the at least one sensor to the another collector among the active collectors is based at least upon the loading of the active collectors.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the collector information of the plurality of collectors comprises health information of each collector of the plurality of collectors, the health information comprising memory usage, central processing unit (CPU) utilization, bandwidth, and errors of a corresponding collector.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein determining that the specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable comprises:
determining that health of the specific collector deteriorates beyond a threshold level.

18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the sensor information of the plurality of sensors comprises a location, characteristics and context of the at least one sensor, wherein the location of the at least one sensor comprises whether the at least one sensor resides in a virtual machine (VM), a hypervisor, or a switch of the network, and wherein the characteristics and context of the at least one sensor comprises information of an underlying operating system (OS) of the at least one sensor.

19 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
analyzing traffic data between the specific collector and the at least one sensor, wherein determining that the specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable comprises: determining that the at least one sensor has a problem in contacting the specific collector.

20 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for updating sensor configuration in a network, that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:
determining collector information of a plurality of collectors in the network; analyzing the collector information of the plurality of collectors to determine active collectors among the plurality of collectors; determining that a specific collector among the active collectors becomes unavailable; removing the specific collector from the active collecto

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Yadav Navindra
• Singh Abhishek Ranjan
• Gupta Anubhav
• Gandham Shashidhar
• Pang Jackson Ngoc Ki
• Chang Shih-Chun
• Vu Hai Trong

Classifications

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• H04W72/54

  based on quality criteria · CPC title

• H04L41/0894

  Policy-based network configuration management · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L43/0864

  Round trip delays · CPC title