System and method for creating data models from complex raw log files

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9910870-B2
Application number	US-201414167301-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2014
Priority date	Jan 29, 2014
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

According to some embodiments, a method and an apparatus of creating a data model from a log file comprises receiving a log file and determining metadata based on the received log file. A proposed data model based on the determined metadata is transmitted and the data model is saved to a database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of creating a data model from a log file, the method comprising:
receiving an unstructured log file comprising nested sections and hierarchies;
determining, via a processor, metadata based on the received unstructured log file wherein the determining is based on receiving a determination of a master log entry that indicates a plurality of entries of the unstructured log file comprising a similar regular expression wherein the determination of the master log entry comprises (i) displaying, to a user, available entries from the log file that comprise the similar regular expression and (ii) receiving a selection from the user indicating which of available entries comprises the master log entry;
receiving, from a user, a plurality of fields to be associated with a data model based on the determined master log entry;
transmitting the data model to the user wherein the data model is based on the determined metadata, the master log entry and the plurality of fields; and
saving the data model to a database.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining metadata based on the received log file further comprises:
receiving a determination of a log entry separator; and
receiving an indication of a field separator.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the log entry separator comprises at least one of a new line, a time stamp, a carriage return, or a user defined indicator and the field separator comprises a space, a tab, or a comma, a character, a phrase, or user defined field separator.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of fields comprises:
a log field name, an indication to include the log field in the data model, a log field content type, and a regular expression associated with the log field.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data model is saved in a JSON format.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data model comprises (1) a plurality of fields and their associated regular expressions, (2) a plurality of configuration parameters for each field to indicate a field relationship and a content type and (3) an indicator for each field to indicate if the field contains information that should be extracted into a structured dataset.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
parsing the received unstructured log file to determine regular expressions; and
storing the determined regular expressions in a regular expression library.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
scanning the received unstructured log file;
determining if a same type of log file has been modeled based on a file extension associated with the received unstructured log file; and
in case that the same type of log file has been modeled, displaying an existing model to the user in response to the user attempting to model the received unstructured log file.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a plurality of fields comprises passing an indication of the determined master log entry and a line field delimiter to a log modeling engine to transmit the plurality of fields.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method creating a data model from a log file, the method comprising:
receiving an unstructured log file comprising nested sections and hierarchies;
determining, via a processor, metadata based on the received unstructured log file wherein the determining is based on receiving a determination of a master log entry that indicates a plurality of entries of the unstructured log file comprising a similar regular expression wherein the determination of the master log entry comprises (i) displaying, to a user, available entries from the log file that comprise the similar regular expression and (ii) receiving a selection from the user indicating which of available entries comprises the master log entry;
receiving, from a user, a plurality of fields to be associated with a data model based on the determined master log entry;
transmitting the data model to the user wherein the data model is based on the determined metadata, the master log entry and the plurality of fields; and
saving the data model to a database.

11. The medium of claim 10 , wherein determining metadata based on the received log file comprises:
receiving a determination of a log entry separator; and
receiving an indication of a field separator.

12. The medium of claim 11 , wherein the log entry separator comprises at least one of a new line, a time stamp, a carriage return or a user defined indicator.

13. The medium of claim 11 , wherein the field separator comprises a space, a tab, a comma, a character, a phrase, or a user defined field separator.

14. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of fields comprises:
a log field name, an indication to include the log field in the data model, a log field content type, and a regular expression associated with the log field.

15. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the data model is saved in a JSON format.

16. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method creating a data model from a log file, the method comprising:
receiving an unstructured log file comprising nested sections and hierarchies;
determining, via the processor, metadata based on the received unstructured log file wherein the determining is based on receiving a determination of a master log entry that indicates a plurality of entries of the unstructured log file comprising a similar regular expression wherein the determination of the master log entry comprises (i) displaying, to a user, available entries from the log file that comprise the similar regular expression and (ii) receiving a selection from the user indicating which of available entries comprises the master log entry;
receiving, from a user, a plurality of fields to be associated with a data model based on the determined master log entry;
transmitting the data model to the user wherein the data model is based on the determined metadata, the master log entry and the plurality of fields; and
saving the data model to a database.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein determining metadata based on the received log file comprises:
receiving a determination of a log entry separator; and
receiving an indication of a field separator.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the log entry separator comprises at least one of a new line, a time stamp, or a carriage return and the field separator comprises a space, a tab, or a comma.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of fields comprises:
a log field name, an indication to include the log field in the data model, a log field content type, and a regular expression associated with the log field.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the data model is saved in a JSON, XML or Modeling Markup language format.

Assignees

• Yan Nancy
• Sap Se

Inventors

• Yan Nancy

Classifications

• G06F16/212 Primary

  with details for data modelling support · CPC title

• G06F17/30294 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic