Cross-cloud management and troubleshooting

• US 10,009,238 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2015
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Iyer, Kannan C., Watson, Eric B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Holland, Jenee
• Application Number:
  US14/983,509
• Publication Number:
  US 20160119202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1482 by means of middleware or OS functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports

Abstract

A cloud management system is described herein that provides the ability for an application to span two or more clouds while allowing operation, management, and troubleshooting of the distributed application as a single application. The system provides infrastructure that communicates across datacenters for execution and for centralizing knowledge of instances of an application that are running at different locations. The infrastructure provided by the system monitors both the application and connections between the clouds, with intelligence to know if issues are within the application or because of the connection between the clouds. The system coordinates management functions across multiple cloud platforms/locations. Thus, the cloud management system creates a single monitoring and troubleshooting interface and knowledge and execution fabric across multiple clouds so that applications spread across multiple clouds can be monitored, managed, and debugged more easily.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for reporting management data, the method comprising:

receiving from an application management tool a management tool request to access management data for a distributed application having instances running in two or more datacenters;

identifying one or more types of the management data that satisfy the received management tool request;

determining a particular datacenter of the two more datacenters at which each of two or more instances of the distributed application is running;

gathering the management data from each from the two or more instances;

unifying the gathered management data into a uniform response to the received management tool request; and

reporting the gathered and unified management data in response to the received management tool request,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the management tool request comprises receiving the management tool request through a programmatic application programming interface (API) for requesting management data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the API comprises a uniform interface for accessing the management data, and wherein the uniform interface is abstracted from at least one of where or at how many locations instances are running.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more types of the management data comprises determining that the management tool request relates to information produced by each of the at least two instances of the application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more types of the management data comprises determining which information to gather from each instance of the two or more instances and whether the one or more types of the management data was already gathered locally from data pushed to a central location by each instance of the two or more instances.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the particular datacenter comprises determining where the application is running and where the system will find the management data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the management data comprises accessing at least one instance in a private datacenter and at least one instance in a cloud computing facility.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the management data comprises contacting each of the at least two instances of the application for information responsive to the received management tool request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending one or more troubleshooting commands to one or more remote application instances, wherein the one or more troubleshooting commands request that the remote application instances perform at least one troubleshooting operation and report requested data back to a central location.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein unifying the gathered data comprises formatting the gathered data for use by the management tool, and wherein the management tool need not be aware of the distributions of applications.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein unifying the gathered data comprises formatting the gathered data so that the computer system can migrate the application amongst locations based at least in part on application loads while providing a consistent management and troubleshooting interface.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein reporting the gathered and unified management data comprises sending the data to the management tool through an interface via which the management tool request was received.

13. A computer-implemented method for handling troubleshooting requests, the method comprising:

receiving management data at a remote application instance that handles a portion of a work load generated by requests from clients of a distributed application running instances at one or more distributed remote locations;

determining a home location of the distributed application, wherein the home location is a location at which the management data reported by multiple instances of the distributed application is made available for access;

sending the received management data from the remote application instance to the determined home location of the distributed application;

receiving a troubleshooting request from a management tool run at the home location to troubleshoot the remote application instance;

performing one or more troubleshooting actions in response to the received troubleshooting request; and

sending a troubleshooting result to the home location in response to the received troubleshooting request,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the management data includes at least one indication of application operation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the indication includes at least one of performance data, log information, error details, statistical information, or sales history.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving configuration information from the home location upon creation of the remote application instance.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving information indicating that the remote application instance is a remote instance of the distributed application.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

migrating the distributed application to multiple locations in response to an indication that processing is to be performed at the multiple locations.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein sending the received management data from the remote application instance is migrated from the remote location to the home location.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein sending the received management data from the remote application instance is migrated from the remote location to the home location in response to loads being migrated to the home location from the remote location.