USAGE REPORTING FROM A CLOUD-HOSTED, DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM

• US 20130124720A1
• Filed: 12/15/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wood, Kevin, Alam, Salim, Watson, Colin, Burgess, Gregory Marshall
• Granted Patent: US 9,317,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

Collecting usage data in a cluster computing environment. A method includes at a tracker service receiving a request from an at least partially cloud based deployment for an interval for the deployment to report usage information in usage reports. The usage information includes information defining how software in a deployment is used. In response to the request from the deployment, the method further includes, the tracker service providing an interval to the deployment. The method further includes at the tracker service, receiving usage reports from the deployment according to the provided interval.

Claims

1. In a cluster computing environment where at least a portion of the cluster is deployed in a cloud, a method of collecting usage data, the method comprising:

at a tracker service receiving a request from an at least partially cloud based deployment for an interval for the deployment to report usage information in usage reports, the usage information including information defining how software in a deployment is used;

in response to the request from the deployment, the tracker service providing an interval to the deployment; and

at the tracker service, receiving usage reports from the deployment according to the provided interval.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving usage reports according to the provided interval comprises receiving different data instances from different entities in a single deployment according to the provided interval, and as a result aggregating the different data instances into a single data instance.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising pruning duplicated data instances received during a single instance of the interval down to a single data instance based on the duplicated data instances coming from a single deployment.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising merging different data instances received during a single instance of the interval into a single data instance based on the different data instances coming from a single deployment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein merging different data instances comprises selecting a maximum data value from among the different data instances.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein merging different data instances comprises selecting at least one of an average, mean, or statistical aggregation of data values from among the different data instances.

7. In a cluster computing environment where at least a portion of the cluster is deployed in a cloud, a method of providing usage data, the method comprising:

requesting from a tracker service, an interval in which to send usage data reports, the usage data reports comprising information defining how software in a deployment is used;

receiving from the tracker service the interval; and

sending usage data reports to the tracker service based on the interval.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the method is performed in a deployed distributed system, where at least a portion of the deployed system is deployed in a cloud and at least a portion of the deployed system is deployed on-site, such that the portion of the system that is deployed in the cloud is an extensions of the portion of the system that is deployed on site and wherein sending the usage data reports is performed by a proxy that is part of the cloud deployment that is a delegate for an on-site head node to worker nodes that are in the cloud.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein sending the usage data reports is performed by an on-site head node.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the method is performed in a distributed system where the system is substantially a cloud deployment and wherein sending the usage data reports is performed by a cloud based head node.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising creating the usage data reports by mining a database for job history.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising creating the usage data reports by receiving individual reports from nodes in the cluster at a data collection service.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending an interim report including usage data at less than the received interval, wherein the interim report comprises an indication of interim interval defining an interval since a last regular report.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the interim report is sent as a result of a node beginning a shut down.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the interim report is sent as a result of an error or other event.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein in the usage data reports comprise customer usage data.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein in the usage data reports comprise deployment data for a system deployment system.

18. A computing system comprising:

a usage aggregator module, wherein the usage aggregator module is configured to gather usage data from worker nodes deployed in a cloud based deployment, the usage data including information defining how software in a deployment is used;

a tracker service, coupled to the usage aggregator module, wherein the tracker service gathers usage data from usage aggregator modules according to a pre-determined interval;

a usage processing tool coupled to the tracker service, wherein the usage processing tool is configured to process usage data including aggregating data in usage reports; and

a reporting database coupled to the usage processing tool, wherein the usage processing tool is configured to store processed usage data in the reporting database.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the usage processing tool is configured to aggregate multiple instances of the same data into a single instance by pruning data instances.

20. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the usage processing tool is configured to aggregate multiple instances of the same data into a single instance by pruning data instances.