INTERACTIVE ARCHITECTURE-BASE PRESENTATION OF HYPERVISOR PERFORMANCE

• US 20130247044A1
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bingham, Brian, Fletcher, Tristan
• Granted Patent: US 9,495,187 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]

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-levet 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:

providing an initial visualization of an information technology environment in a display of a user interface, the visualization of the environment in the display including a hierarchical tree having a set of nodes, each node of the set of nodes representing an element of the environment, the nodes being arranged in a parent-child relationship to represent parent-child relationships among the elements of the environment;

presenting, simultaneous with the initial visualization, a parent performance indicator indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by a parent node of the set of nodes;

detecting an input corresponding to a parent node;

expanding the visualization of the hierarchical tree about the parent node to extend to a set of child nodes; and

presenting, simultaneous with the expanded visualization, a child performance indicator for each child node of the set of child nodes indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by the child node, the child performance indicators being cumulatively reflected in the parent performance indicator such that problems with performance of elements in the environment can be tracked using the tree and parent-child relationships therein.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the input includes selection, by a user, of the parent node, and wherein the expanded visualization includes presenting a connection between the parent node and each child node of the set of child nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a user hovering over the parent node; and

presenting, in response to the detection, information about a distribution of the child performance indicators.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the parent performance indicator and the child performance indicators are generated dynamically based on a current state of the environment.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a user, information identifying a time period;

determining the parent performance indicator and child performance indicators based on performance metrics from the time period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent performance indicator and each of the child performance indicators comprises a performance state.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent performance indicator and each of the child performance indicators is presented by displaying a color corresponding to a performance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent node includes a host and at least one child node of the set of child nodes includes a virtual machine.

9. 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;

providing an initial visualization of an information technology environment in a display of a user interface, the visualization of the environment in the display including a hierarchical tree having a set of nodes, each node of the set of nodes representing an element of the environment, the nodes being arranged in a parent-child relationship to represent parent-child relationships among the elements of the environment;

presenting, simultaneous with the initial visualization, a parent performance indicator indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by a parent node of the set of nodes;

detecting an input corresponding to a parent node;

expanding the visualization of the hierarchical tree about the parent node to extend to a set of child nodes; and

presenting, simultaneous with the expanded visualization, a child performance indicator for each child node of the set of child nodes indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by the child node, the child performance indicators being cumulatively reflected in the parent performance indicator such that problems with performance of elements in the environment can be tracked using the tree and parent-child relationships therein.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the input includes selection, by a user, of the parent node, and wherein the expanded visualization includes presenting a connection between the parent node and each child node of the set of child nodes.

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

detect a user hovering over the parent node; and

present, in response to the detection, information about a distribution of the child performance indicators.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the parent performance indicator and the child performance indicators are generated dynamically based on a current state of the environment.

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

receive, from a user, information identifying a time period;

determine the parent performance indicator and child performance indicators based on performance metrics from the time period.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the parent performance indicator and each of the child performance indicators comprises a performance state.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the parent perfbrmance indicator and each of the child performance indicators is presented by displaying a color corresponding to a performance.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the parent node includes a host and at least one child node of the set of child nodes includes a virtual machine.

17. 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:

provide an initial visualization of an information technology environment in a display of a user interface, the visualization of the environment in the display including a hierarchical tree having a set of nodes, each node of the set of nodes representing an element of the environment, the nodes being arranged in a parent-child relationship to represent parent-child relationships among the elements of the environment;

present, simultaneous with the initial visualization, a parent performance indicator indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by a parent node of the set of nodes;

detect an input corresponding to a parent node;

expand the visualization of the hierarchical tree about the parent node to extend to a set of child nodes; and

present, simultaneous with the expanded visualization, a child performance indicator for each child node of the set of child nodes indicative of a performance of an element in the environment that is represented by the child node, the child performance indicators being cumulatively reflected in the parent performance indicator such that problems with performance of elements in the environment can be tracked using the tree and parent-child relationships therein.

18. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the input includes selection, by a user, of the parent node, and wherein the expanded visualization includes presenting a connection between the parent node and each child node of the set of child nodes.

19. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more data processors to:

detect a user hovering over the parent node; and

present, in response to the detection, information about a distribution of the child performance indicators.

20. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the parent performance indicator and the child performance indicators are generated dynamically based on a current state of the environment.

21. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more data processors to:

receive, from a user, information identifying a time period;

determine the parent performance indicator and child performance indicators based on performance metrics from the time period.

22. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the parent performance indicator and each of the child performance indicators comprises a performance state.

23. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the parent performance indicator and each of the child performance indicators is presented by displaying a color corresponding to a performance.

24. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the parent node includes a host and least one child node of the set of child nodes includes a virtual machine.