Provenance in cloud computing systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9690609-B2
Application number	US-201414331455-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2014
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A method comprises pairing a virtual machine instance with a virtual agent that is registered with registry in an execution environment. In this regard, upon instantiating the virtual machine and the corresponding virtual agent, the virtual agent monitors for transaction(s), e.g., a specific invoked method, on that execution environment. The virtual agent is also configured for generating an event in response to detecting the transaction. The virtual agent provides a unique signature associated with the event, which identifies the origin of the virtual machine instance. Still further, the virtual agent is configured for forwarding the event to the registry for collating with other events so as to produce composite end-to-end logs of processes in a manner that enables provenance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
instantiating, in a cloud computing environment that supports dynamic provisioning and decommissioning of virtual machine instances, a virtual machine, whereupon a corresponding virtual agent is also automatically instantiated, wherein the virtual agent is independent from the virtual machine;
pairing the virtual machine with the corresponding virtual agent, whereupon the virtual agent monitors for a transaction performed by the paired virtual machine;
registering the virtual agent with a persistent registry that stores provenance information independently of underlying virtual machine transaction data; and
performing by the virtual agent:
detecting an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine, where the occurrence of the transaction is in response to the virtual machine participating in a process carried out in the cloud computing environment;
generating an event in response to detecting the occurrence of the transaction, where the generated event includes provenance information associated with the virtual machine by encoding into the event, a signature that uniquely identifies an origin of the virtual machine; and
forwarding the event to the registry;

wherein:
the forwarded event is collected with other events so as to produce a composite end-to-end log of the process in a manner that enables provenance of the virtual machine as participating in the process; and
the provenance information includes information associated with the virtual machine associated with the provenance information to provide origin information about the transaction data from the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
pairing the virtual machine with the corresponding virtual agent comprises:
pre-configuring a virtual machine template such that when executed, the virtual machine template automatically instantiates both the virtual machine and the virtual agent.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
encoding into the event, a signature that uniquely identifies the origin of the virtual machine instance comprises:
computing the signature based upon a 1-way hash.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
computing the signature based upon a 1-way hash comprises computing a 1-way hash of a unique identification assigned to the virtual agent, and a timestamp.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
detecting an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine comprises:
detecting at least one of a call, and a return call.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
detecting an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine comprises:
detecting a transaction derived at an applications programming interface (API) layer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
detecting an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine comprises:
detecting a transaction as an atomic event.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
generating a dashboard view by identifying select events collected into the registry that are associated with the process, wherein events are generated by different virtual agents working together to monitor different activities of the process associated with their corresponding virtual machines; and
arranging the select events as connected icons that illustrate the end-to-end flow of the process throughout a distributed infrastructure in the context of a composite process.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
encoding into the event, a signature that uniquely identifies the origin of the virtual machine instance comprises:
computing the signature based upon a 1-way hash of a unique identification assigned to the virtual agent, and a timestamp;

further comprising:
identifying a particular event in the dashboard view;
identifying the signature associated with the particular event; and
retrospectively verifying that the signature was generated by the unique identification at the time associated with the timestamp.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
generating a dashboard view by identifying select events collected into the registry that are associated with the process comprise:
representing each displayed event as an atomic transaction that occurred to fulfill the process; and
identifying on which virtual machine each atomic transaction occurred.

11. Computer-readable hardware that stores machine-executable program code for providing provenance of processes in a cloud environment, wherein the program code instructs a processor to:
instantiate, in a cloud computing environment that supports dynamic provisioning and decommissioning of virtual machine instances, a virtual machine, whereupon a corresponding virtual agent is also automatically instantiated, wherein the virtual agent is independent from the virtual machine;
pair the virtual machine with the corresponding virtual agent, whereupon the virtual agent monitors for a transaction performed by the paired virtual machine;
register the virtual agent with a persistent registry that stores provenance information independently of underlying virtual machine transaction data;
perform by the virtual agent:
detect an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine, where the occurrence of the transaction is in response to the virtual machine participating in a process carried out in the cloud computing environment;
generate an event in response to detecting the occurrence of the transaction, where the generated event includes provenance information associated with the virtual machine by encoding into the event, a signature that uniquely identifies an origin of the virtual machine; and

forward the event to the registry;

wherein:
the forwarded event is collected with other events so as to produce a composite end-to-end log of the process in a manner that enables provenance of the virtual machine as participating in the process; and
the provenance information includes information associated with the virtual machine associated with the provenance information to provide origin information about the transaction data from the virtual machine.

12. The computer-readable hardware of claim 11 , wherein the program code to:
pair the virtual machine with the virtual agent comprises program code to:
pre-configure a virtual machine template such that when executed, the virtual machine template automatically instantiates both the virtual machine and the virtual agent.

13. The computer-readable hardware of claim 11 , wherein the program code to:
encode into the event, a signature that uniquely identifies the origin of the virtual machine instance comprises program code to:
compute the signature based upon a 1-way hash.

14. The computer-readable hardware of claim 13 , wherein the program code to:
compute the signature based upon a 1-way hash comprises program code to:
computing a 1-way hash of a unique identification assigned to the virtual agent, and a timestamp.

15. The computer-readable hardware of claim 11 , wherein the program code to:
detect an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine, comprises program code to:
detect at least one of a call, and a return call.

16. The computer-readable hardware of claim 11 , wherein the program code to:
detect an occurrence of the transaction performed by the paired virtual machine, comprises program code to:
detect a transaction derived at an applications programming interface (API) layer.

17. The computer-readable hardware of claim 11 ,

Assignees

• Ca Inc

Inventors

• Lawler Eamonn

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45575

  Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/466

  Transaction processing · CPC title

• G06F2201/87

  Monitoring of transactions · CPC title

• G06F11/3006

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title