Datacenter operations using search and analytics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9767197-B1
Application number	US-201414464579-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 20, 2014
Priority date	Aug 20, 2014
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A datacenter management system uses data collection proxies to collect performance data and configuration data for different physical and virtual entities in the datacenter. A schema is used to represent the different entities, entity relationships, and entity properties in the datacenter. A search engine identifies the intent of a natural language based search query based on the schema and a datacenter dictionary. The search engine then searches the data based on the search query intent. A dictionary manager converts both periodic and aperiodic data into a time series. This allows the search engine to operate as a time machine identifying both performance data and configuration data for any selectable time period.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by the computing device, a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of a datacenter;
identifying, by the computing device, physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;
identifying, by the computing device, hierarchal relationships of virtual entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;
identifying, by the computing device, an intent of the natural language based search query based on the phrase or the abbreviation and the identified physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities and the identified hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities;
performing a natural language based search, by the computing device, of data pertaining to operation of the data center based on the intent of the natural language based search query; and
generating results of the search other than results from a keyword based search.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the computing device, configuration data and performance data associated with the physical entities and the virtual entities.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
converting the configuration data and the performance data associated with aperiodic events into a time series; and
combining the configuration data and the performance data associated with the aperiodic events with the configuration data and the performance data associated with periodic events.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein converting the data associated with aperiodic events into a time series comprises:
generating a first document version for the configuration data and the performance data; and
generating a second document version for the configuration data and the performance data in response to one of the aperiodic events.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the computing device, a datacenter dictionary containing keywords, sentence structures, and grammar associated with the datacenter, wherein the grammar associates an abbreviation with a part of speech including a noun or a verb; and
identifying, by the computing device, the intent of the natural language based search query based on the datacenter dictionary.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing device, a network configured in the datacenter; and
visualizing, by the computing device, a topology for the network.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein visualizing the topology includes displaying a series of layers representing at least one of the physical entities and the virtual entities associated with the network.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the results of the search include a state of a network, and
wherein the method further comprises:
storing, by the computing device, the state of the network in a collaboration database; and
enabling, by the computing device, access and manipulation of the state of the network by different users.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing device, a network associated with the datacenter;
identifying, by the computing device, two of the physical entities associated with the network;
identifying, by the computing device, ports associated with the two of the physical entities associated with the network; and
identifying, by the computing device, mismatches between the ports.

10. An apparatus, comprising:
a processing device configured to:
associate configuration data and performance data for physical entities and virtual entities of a datacenter;
receive a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of the datacenter;
identify physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;
identify hierarchal relationships of virtual entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;
identify an intent of the natural language based search query based on the phrase or the abbreviation and the identified physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities and the identified hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities;
generate an execution plan for searching the configuration data and the performance data based on the based on the intent of the natural language based search query; and
generate results based on the execution plan other than results from a keyword based search.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
periodically extract at least some of the performance data for the physical entities and the virtual entities; and
aperiodically extract changes in the configuration data from the physical entities and the virtual entities.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further configured to convert the periodically extracted performance data and aperiodic changes in the configuration data into time-series data.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
generate a first document version for the configuration data and performance data associated with a first one of the physical entities or the virtual entities;
detect an event associated with the performance data and/or configuration data for the first one of the physical entities or the virtual entities;
associate a first time period with the first document version ending at a time associated with the event;
generate a second document version for the configuration data and performance data associated with the first one of the physical entities or the virtual entities; and
associate a second time period with the second document version starting at the time associated with the event.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
identify a request time associated with the natural language based search query;
compare request time with the first time period for the first document version;
identify in the results the performance data and/or configuration data in the first document version based on an overlap of the request time with the first time period;
compare the request time with the second time period for the second document version; and
identify in the results the performance data and/or configuration data in the second document version based on an overlap of the search time with the second time period.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing device is further configured to visualize the results based on the execution plan.

16. A system, comprising:
proxies configured to collect data for physical entities and virtual entities associated with a datacenter, wherein the data includes configuration data and performance data;
a dictionary comprising keywords, sentence structures, and grammar associated with the datacenter, wherein the grammar associates an abbreviation with a part of speech including a noun or a verb; and
a search engine configured to:
receive a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of the datacenter;
identify physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;
identify h

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Agarwal Shiv
• Gupta Apurv
• Gupta Mukul
• Sharma Abhijit
• Toshniwal Rohit

Classifications

• G06F16/951 Primary

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/90332 Primary

  Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems · CPC title

• G06F17/30864 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic