Creating a group of members based on monitoring a social network

• US 10,404,645 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2018
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Vijayaraghavan, Spracklen, Lawrence, Celebi, Emre
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US15/889,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20180167350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 574 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, operational conditions of members of the virtualization infrastructure are monitored by a social network monitoring agent, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to a social network such that at least a portion of the members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network. A group of members of the virtualization infrastructure is automatically created within the social network based at least in part on the operational conditions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing members of the virtualization infrastructure with access to a shared message stream of a social network such that the members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular other members which generated the messages, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure comprise a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure are arranged in a hierarchy within the social network based on a parent/child relationship of the members;

monitoring the operational conditions of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, wherein the social network monitoring agent monitors the messages posted to the shared message stream, the non-human members comprising the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network such that at least a portion of the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network, and wherein at least one posted message comprises an association with an indication that at least one non-human member identifies with a specific operational condition of the posted message; and

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the operational conditions.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the messages comprise hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the creating a group of non-human members comprises:

creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network in response to monitoring a pre-determined number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

prioritizing the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure based on a number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

increasing visibility of the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure based on popularity of the hash tags for particular operational conditions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the operational conditions comprises:

monitoring the operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the creating a group of non-human members comprises:

creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure of the social network having similar operational conditions.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure comprise:

a system administrator;

a virtualization management server;

a plurality of hosts; and

the plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the members of the social network are arranged in the hierarchy such that the system administrator follows the virtualization management server, and the virtualization management server follows at least one of the hosts.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, the method comprising:

providing members of the virtualization infrastructure with access to a shared message stream of a social network such that the members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular other members which generated the messages, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure comprise a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure are arranged in a hierarchy within the social network based on a parent/child relationship of the members;

monitoring the messages posted to the shared message stream of the social network by non-human members of the social network associated with the virtualized infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, the non-human members comprising the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network such that at least a portion of the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network, and wherein at least one posted message comprises an association with an indication that at least one non-human member identifies with a specific operational condition of the posted message; and

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the monitored messages.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the messages comprises hash tags identifying the operational conditions of the members of the virtualization infrastructure.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the creating a group of non-human members comprises:

creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network in response to monitoring a pre-determined number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the method further comprising:

prioritizing the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure based on a number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

increasing a visibility of the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure based on popularity of hash tags for particular operational conditions.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the creating a group of non-human members comprises:

creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure of the social network having similar operational conditions.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

monitoring the operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.

18. A computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, the computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring messages posted to a shared message stream of a social network by members of the social network associated with a virtualization infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, wherein the members of the social network are mapped to components of the virtualization infrastructure such that at least a portion of the components of the virtualization infrastructure are members of the social network, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular members which generated the messages, wherein the components of the virtualization infrastructure comprise a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the components of the virtualization infrastructure are arranged in a hierarchy within the social network based on a parent/child relationship of the members, wherein the posted messages comprise hash tags identifying the operational conditions of the members of the virtualization infrastructure, wherein members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network, and wherein at least one posted message comprises an association with an indication that at least one non-human member identifies with a specific operational condition of the posted message;

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the operational conditions; and

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

monitoring the operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.