Dependency mapping among a system of servers, analytics and visualization thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9960974-B2
Application number	US-201314091797-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2013
Priority date	Nov 30, 2012
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

Analytics and visualization for logical dependency mapping of computer servers may be provided. Data collected from computer servers is received and analyzed to discover logical dependencies among the computer servers, for example, to discover communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers. The computer servers may be grouped into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion. The one or more dependency groups and their logical dependencies may be output.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, comprising:
allowing a data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data;
receiving the data collected from the computer servers;
discovering logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers;
grouping the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion; and
outputting the one or more dependency groups including at least the logical dependencies,
wherein the discovering logical dependencies comprises identifying prior server to server communications among the computer servers in system log files and monitoring network connections and identifying server to server activities among the computer servers based on traffic in the network connections,
wherein the outputting the one or more dependency groups further comprises providing graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups,
the graphical visualization comprising a view panel displaying servers and lines connecting the servers, wherein a well-connected server gravitates to a center of a collection of servers and loosely coupled and autonomous servers assemble along a perimeter of the collection in the view panel, the graphical visualization further comprising a panel showing a filter stack comprising filtered sets of servers categorized into different types as parent rectangles and sub-types as sub-rectangles within the parent rectangles, color of the sub-rectangles visualizing dependency density of servers within each of the sub-rectangles.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical dependencies comprise server to server communications originating from one or more of operating systems, middleware, or applications of the computer servers or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprises configured dependencies wherein a server is configured to establish a communication with a paired server, the server and the paired server being members of the computer servers.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprises observed server to server communications.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprises data analyzed from systems log files to identify prior server to server communications.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allowing the data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data, comprises allowing the data collection utility to test for a presence of a predefined set of server components associated with the computer servers, and to collect the data based on discovering the predefined set of server components.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying filtering interactively to the one or more dependency groups for enabling multiple views of the one or more dependency groups.

8. A system for creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, comprising:
a processor;
a processing engine operable to execute on the processor and further operable to receive data collected from the computer servers, the processing engine further operable to discover logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers, the processing engine further operable to group the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion, the processing engine further operable to output the one or more dependency groups including the logical dependencies;
a web-based graphical user interface operable to execute on the processor, wherein the processing engine receives the data via the web-based graphical user interface; and
a storage device comprising a database repository for storing the one or more dependency groups including the logical dependencies,
wherein the discovering logical dependencies comprises identifying prior server to server communications among the computer servers in system log files and monitoring network connections and identifying server to server activities among the computer servers based on traffic in the network connections,
wherein the web-based graphical user interface outputs a graphical visualization comprising a view panel displaying servers and lines connecting the servers, wherein a well-connected server gravitates to a center of a collection of servers and loosely coupled and autonomous servers assemble along a perimeter of the collection in the view panel, the graphical visualization further comprising a panel showing a filter stack comprising filtered sets of servers categorized into different types as parent rectangles and sub-types as sub-rectangles within the parent rectangles, color of the sub-rectangles visualizing dependency density of servers within each of the sub-rectangles.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a visualization engine operable to receive the output and further operable to provide the graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the graphical visualization comprises a view showing the one or more dependency groups of the computer servers and links representing discovered dependencies among the computer servers.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the graphical visualization comprises interactively filtered view of the one or more dependency groups.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the visualization engine is further operable to allow interactive tagging of the computer servers represented in the graphical visualization to define one or more groupings.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method of creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, the method comprising:
allowing a data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data;
receiving the data collected from the computer servers;
discovering logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers;
grouping the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion; and
outputting the one or more dependency groups including at least the logical dependencies,
wherein the discovering logical dependencies comprises identifying prior server to server communications among the computer servers in system log files and monitoring network connections and identifying server to server activities among the computer servers based on traffic in the network connections,
wherein the outputting the one or more dependency groups further comprises providing graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups,
the graphical visualization comprising a view panel displaying servers and lines connecting the servers, wherein a well-connected server gravitates to a center of a collection of servers and loosely coupled and autonomous servers assemble along a perimeter of the collection in the view panel, the graphical visualization further comprising a panel showing a filter stack comprising filtered sets of servers categorized into different types as parent rectangles and sub-types as sub-rectangles within the parent rectangles, color of the sub-rectangles visualizing dependency density of servers within each of the sub-rectangles.

14. The computer readable

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bai Kun
• Kau Christian B
• Podlaseck Mark E
• Tacci Michael
• Thompson Lawrence H

Classifications

• H04L41/147

  for predicting network behaviour · CPC title

• G06F3/04847

  Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials · CPC title

• H04L41/145

  involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title