Topology discovery for fault finding in virtual computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9537720-B1
Application number	US-201514964812-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 10, 2015
Priority date	Dec 10, 2015
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments include methods of topology discovery in a virtual environment. Aspects include tracking change events, responsive to a change event, rediscovering dependencies between devices in the virtual environment and maintaining a dependency mapping between the devices. Aspects also include, responsive to a fault event, building a first topology model of the virtual environment and generating a first set of the devices which the first topology model is dependent on. Aspects also include, responsive to a resolution event, building a second topology model and generating a second set of the devices which the second topology model is dependent on. Aspects further include generating a fault device set by combining the first set and the second set, deleting any duplicate devices, and utilizing the generated fault device set to determine which of the devices are more likely to be associated with future fault events.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of topology discovery in a virtual environment, the method comprising:
tracking change events in said virtual environment and responsive to a change event, rediscovering dependencies between devices in said virtual environment;
maintaining a dependency mapping between said devices in said virtual environment;
responsive to a fault event, building a first topology model of said virtual environment and generating a first set of said devices in said virtual environment which said first topology model is dependent on;
responsive to a resolution event, wherein the resolution event resolves the fault event, building a second topology model of said virtual environment and generating a second set of said devices in said virtual environment which said second topology model is dependent on after the resolution of the fault event;
generating a fault device set by combining said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices and deleting any of said devices which appears in both of said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices; and
displaying, via a graphical user interface, the generated device set to determine which of said devices are more likely to be associated with future fault events.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each device in said virtual environment is associated with a score according to how many fault device sets it has appeared in.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein fault events are generated in response to faults in virtual machines and host machines.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fault events in virtual machines are generated by probes running on the virtual machines.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fault events in host machines are generated by probes running on the host machines.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said dependency mapping comprises a timestamped journal.

7. A system for topology discovery in a virtual environment, the virtual environment comprising devices, the virtual environment tracking change events, generating fault events and resolution events, the system comprising:
a dependency mapping between said devices in said virtual environment;
a network discovery system, which:
responsive to a change event, rediscovers dependencies between devices in said virtual environment and maintains said dependency mapping;
responsive to a fault event, builds a first topology model of said virtual environment and generates a first set of said devices in said virtual environment which said first topology model is dependent on;
responsive to a resolution event, wherein the resolution event resolves the fault event, builds a second topology model of said virtual environment and generates a second set of said devices in said virtual environment which said second topology model is dependent on after the resolution of the fault event;
generates a fault device set by combining said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices and deleting any of said devices which appears in both of said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices; and
displays, via graphical user interface, the generated fault device set to determine which of said devices are more likely to be associated with future fault events.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein each device in said virtual environment is associated with a score according to how many fault device sets it has appeared in.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein fault events are generated by the virtual environment in response to faults in virtual machines and host machines.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the fault events in virtual machines are generated by probes running on the virtual machines.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the fault events in host machines are generated by probes running on the host machines.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein said dependency mapping comprises a timestamped journal.

13. A computer program product for topology discovery in a virtual environment, the computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to:
track change events in said virtual environment and responsive to a change event, rediscovering dependencies between devices in said virtual environment and maintaining a dependency mapping between said devices in said virtual environment;
responsive to a fault event, build a first topology model of said virtual environment and generating a first set of said devices in said virtual environment which said first topology model is dependent on;
responsive to a resolution event, wherein the resolution event resolves the fault event, build a second topology model of said virtual environment and generating a second set of said devices in said virtual environment which said second topology model is dependent on after the resolution of the fault event;
generate a fault device set by combining said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices and deleting any of said devices which appears in both of said first set of said devices and said second set of said devices; and
display, via a graphical user interface, the generated fault device set to determine which of said devices are more likely to be associated with future fault events.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein each device in said virtual environment is associated with a score according to how many fault device sets it has appeared in.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein fault events are generated in response to faults in virtual machines and host machines.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the fault events in virtual machines are generated by probes running on the virtual machines.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the fault events in host machines are generated by probes running on the host machines.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein said dependency mapping comprises a timestamped journal.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Baggott Christopher J
• Duggan Matthew E
• Franklin David R

Classifications

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/0677

  Localisation of faults · CPC title