System for monitoring and managing datacenters

• US 10,142,353 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2016
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yadav, Navindra, Singh, Abhishek Ranjan, Gandham, Shashidhar, Scheib, Ellen Christine, Madani, Omid, Parandehgheibi, Ali, Pang, Jackson Ngoc Ki, Jeyakumar, Vimalkumar, Watts, Michael Standish, Nguyen, Hoang Viet, Deen, Khawar, Prasad, Rohit Chandra, Gupta, Sunil Kumar, Rao, Supreeth Hosur Nagesh, Gupta, Anubhav, Kulshreshtha, Ashutosh, Spadaro, Roberto Fernando, Vu, Hai Trong, Malhotra, Varun Sagar, Chang, Shih-Chun, Viswanathan, Bharathwaj Sankara, Rachita Agasthy, Fnu, Barlow, Duane Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Siddiqi, Mohammad A
• Application Number:
  US15/134,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20160359872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

An example method includes detecting, using sensors, packets throughout a datacenter. The sensors can then send packet logs to various collectors which can then identify and summarize data flows in the datacenter. The collectors can then send flow logs to an analytics module which can identify the status of the datacenter and detect an attack.

Claims

1. A system within a datacenter, comprising:

two or more sensors configured to;

capture a packet;

describe the packet in a packet log;

send the packet log to a collector;

the collector being configured to;

receive the packet logs from the two or more sensors;

determine that the packet logs describe a connection between two endpoints in a datacenter;

describe the connection in a flow log; and

an analytics module configured to;

determine a status of the datacenter, using any connections in the flow log;

detect an attack that originated from within the datacenter from at least the determined status of the datacenter; and

modify, in response to the detected attack, a security policy of the datacenter.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more sensors is installed on a hypervisor.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein one of the two or more sensors is installed on a virtual machine.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more sensors is installed on a switch.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein access to the datacenter is limited by a firewall.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics module is further configured to:

present a report describing flows in the datacenter.

7. A method executed within a datacenter, comprising:

receiving, a first packet log from a first sensor and a second packet log from a second sensor, the first packet log and the second packet log describing packets that are captured by the respective sensors;

determining that the first packet log and the second packet log describes a connection between two endpoints in a datacenter;

describing any connections within the first packet log and the second packet log in a flow log; and

sending the flow log to an analytics module determining a status of the datacenter, using any connections in the flow log;

detect an attack that originated from within the datacenter from at least the determined status of the datacenter; and

modify, in response to the detected attack, a security policy of the datacenter.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first sensor is installed on a hypervisor.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein access to the datacenter is limited by a firewall.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first sensor is installed on a switch.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first sensor is installed on a virtual machine.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the computer to:

receive, from a collector, a flow log describing a connection between two endpoints in a datacenter; and

determine a status of a datacenter, using the flow log, using any connections in the flow log;

detect an attack that originated from within the datacenter from at least the determined status of the datacenter; and

modify, in response to the detected attack, a security policy of the datacenter.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

present a report describing flows in the datacenter.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

configure a sensor to send a packet log to the collector.