Top-Down Performance Assessment of a Hypervisor

• US 20130239111A1
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Inventors: Bingham, Brian, Fletcher, Tristan
• Granted Patent: US 8,904,389 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

Techniques promote monitoring of hypervisor systems by presenting dynamic representations of hypervisor architectures that include performance indicators. A reviewer can interact with the representation to progressively view select lower-level performance indicators. Higher level performance indicators can be determined based on tower level state assessments. A reviewer can also view historical performance metrics and indicators, which can aid in understanding which configuration changes or system usages may have led to sub-optimal performance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing, on a computing device, an architecture identifying relationships between a plurality of components in a system providing virtual-machine processing, the plurality of components including a plurality of virtual machines;

monitoring, for each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, a performance metric of the virtual machine;

identifying, on the computing device and based on the architecture, a set of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines including the set of virtual machines;

determining, on the computing device, a first performance indicator for the set of virtual machines, the first performance indicator depending on the performance metrics for virtual machines in the set of virtual machines;

presenting the first performance indicator;

identifying, on the computing device and base on the architecture, a plurality of subsets of the set of virtual machines;

determining, on the computing device, a second performance indicator for each subset of the plurality of subsets of virtual machines, the second performance indicator depending on the performance metric(s) for virtual machine(s) in the subset of virtual machines; and

subsequent to the presentation of the first performance indicator, simultaneously presenting the second performance indicators for the subsets of virtual machines.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an input identifying a selection of the set of virtual machines,

wherein the second performance indicators are presented in response to the input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the first performance indicator comprises displaying a color in association with a representation of the set of virtual machines.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first performance indicator comprises:

accessing, for each virtual machine in the set of virtual machines, an individual performance-satisfaction state identifying whether operation of the virtual machine is satisfactory;

generating a group performance metric identifying whether operation of the set of virtual machines, as a whole, is satisfactory;

evaluating a state criterion based on the group performance metric; and

determining a group performance-satisfaction state based on whether the state criterion was met, the first performance indicator comprising the group performance-satisfaction state.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a first representation of a first part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the first performance indicator; and

presenting a second representation of a second part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the second performance indicator, the second part of the architecture being more detailed than the first part of the architecture.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

presenting the first performance indicator comprises presenting a first representation of a first performance-satisfaction state,

the first performance indicator identifies whether operation of the set of virtual machines is satisfactory,

presenting the second performance indicator comprises presenting a second representation of a second performance-satisfaction state, and

the second performance indicator identifies whether operation of the subset of virtual machines is satisfactory.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an input identifying a selection of a virtual machine of the subset of virtual machines; and

subsequent to the detection, presenting a plurality of historical performance metrics characterizing performance of the virtual machine.

8. A system, comprising:

one or more data processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the processor to perform operations including;

accessing an architecture identifying relationships between a plurality of components in a system providing virtual-machine processing, the plurality of components including a plurality of virtual machines;

monitoring, for each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, a performance metric of the virtual machine;

identifying, based on the architecture, a set of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines including the set of virtual machines;

determining a first performance indicator for the set of virtual machines, the first performance indicator depending on the performance metrics for virtual machines in the set of virtual machines;

presenting the first performance indicator;

identifying, based on the architecture, a plural of subsets of the set of virtual machines;

determining a second performance indicator for each subset of the plurality of subsets of virtual machines, the second performance indicator depending on the performance metric(s) for virtual machine(s) in the subset of virtual machines; and

subsequent to the presentation of the first performance indicator, simultaneously presenting the second performance indicators for the subsets of virtual machines.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed on the one or more data processors, further cause the process to:

detect an input identifying a selection of the set of virtual machines,

wherein the second performance indicators are presented in response to the input.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the presenting the first performance indicator comprises displaying a color in association with a representation of the set of virtual machines.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein determining the first performance indicator comprises:

accessing, for each virtual machine in the set of virtual machines, an individual performance-satisfaction state identifying whether operation of the virtual machine is satisfactory;

generating a group performance metric identifying whether operation of the set of virtual machines, as a whole, is satisfactory;

evaluating a state criterion based on the group performance metric; and

determining a group performance-satisfaction state based on whether the state criterion was met, the first performance indicator comprising the group performance-satisfaction state.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed on the one or more data processors, further cause the process to:

present a first representation of a first part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the first performance indicator; and

present a second representation of a second part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the second performance indicator, the second part of the architecture being more detailed than the first part of the architecture.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein:

presenting the first performance indicator comprises presenting a first representation of a first performance-satisfaction state,

the first performance indicator identifies whether operation of the set of virtual machines is satisfactory,

presenting the second performance indicator comprises presenting a second representation of a second performance-satisfaction state, and

the second performance indicator identifies whether operation of the subset of virtual machines is satisfactory.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed on the one or more data processors, further cause the process to:

detecting an input identifying a selection of a virtual machine of the subset of virtual machines; and

subsequent to the detection, presenting a plurality of historical performance metrics characterizing performance of the virtual machine.

15. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to:

access an architecture identifying relationships between a plurality of components in a system providing virtual-machine processing, the plurality of components including a plurality of virtual machines;

monitor, for each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, a performance metric of the virtual machine;

identify, based on the architecture, a set of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines including the set of virtual machines;

determine a first performance indicator for the set of virtual machines, the first performance indicator depending on the performance metrics for virtual machines in the set of virtual machines;

present the first performance indicator;

identify, based on the architecture, a plurality of subsets of the set of virtual machines;

determine a second performance indicator for each subset of the plurality of subsets of virtual machines, the second performance indicator depending on the performance metric(s) for virtual machine(s) in the subset of virtual machines; and

subsequent to the presentation of the first performance indicator, simultaneously present the second performance indicators for the subsets of virtual machines.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more data processors to:

detect an input identifying a selection of the set of virtual machines,

wherein the second performance indicators are presented in response to the input.

17. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the presenting the first performance indicator comprises displaying a color in association with a representation of the set of virtual machines.

18. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein determining the first performance indicator comprises:

accessing, for each virtual machine in the set of virtual machines, an individual performance-satisfaction state identifying whether operation of the virtual machine is satisfactory;

generating a group performance metric identifying whether operation of the set of virtual machines, as a whole, is satisfactory;

evaluating a state criterion based on the group performance metric; and

determining a group performance-satisfaction state based on whether the state criterion was met, the first performance indicator comprising the group performance-satisfaction state.

19. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more data processors to:

present a first representation of a first part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the first performance indicator; and

present a second representation of a second part of the architecture simultaneously with the presentation of the second performance indicator, the second part of the architecture being more detailed than the first part of the architecture.

20. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein:

presenting the first performance indicator comprises presenting a first representation of a first performance-satisfaction state,

the first performance indicator identifies whether operation of the set of virtual machines is satisfactory,

presenting the second performance indicator comprises presenting a second representation of a second performance-satisfaction state, and

the second performance indicator identifies whether operation of the subset of virtual machines is satisfactory.

21. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more data processors to:

detect an input identifying a selection of a virtual machine of the subset of virtual machines;

an

subsequent to the detection, present a plurality of historical performance metrics characterizing performance of the virtual machine.