DEPENDENCY MAPPING AMONG A SYSTEM OF SERVERS, ANALYTICS AND VISUALIZATION THEREOF

• US 20140164607A1
• Filed: 11/27/2013
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bai, Kun, Podlaseck, Mark E., Tacci, Michael, Thompson, Lawrence H., Kau, Christian B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,960,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

Analytics and visualization for logical dependency mapping of computer servers may be provided. Data collected from computer servers is received and analyzed to discover logical dependencies among the computer servers, for example, to discover communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers. The computer servers may be grouped into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion. The one or more dependency groups and their logical dependencies may be output.

Claims

1. A method of creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, comprising:

allowing a data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data;

receiving the data collected from the computer servers;

discovering logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers;

grouping the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion; and

outputting the one or more dependency groups including at least the logical dependencies.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical dependencies comprise server to server communications originating from one or more of operating systems, middleware, or applications of the computer servers or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises configured dependencies wherein a server is configured to establish a communication with a paired server, the server and the paired server being members of the computer servers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises observed server to server communications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises data analyzed from systems log files to identify prior server to server communications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the allowing the data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data, comprises allowing the data collection utility to test for a presence of a predefined set of server components associated with the computer servers, and to collect the data based on discovering the predefined set of server components.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the outputting the one or more dependency groups further comprises providing graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising applying filtering interactively to the one or more dependency groups for enabling multiple views of the one or more dependency groups.

9. A computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method of creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, the method comprising:

allowing a data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data;

receiving the data collected from the computer servers;

discovering logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers;

grouping the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion; and

outputting the one or more dependency groups including at least the logical dependencies.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the logical dependencies comprise server to server communications originating from one or more of operating systems, middleware, or applications of the computer servers or combinations thereof.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the data comprises configured dependencies wherein a server is configured to establish a communication with a paired server, the server and the paired server being members of the computer servers, the data further comprises observed server to server communications, and the data further comprises data analyzed from systems log files to identify prior server to server communications.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the allowing the data collection utility to run on the computer servers to collect data, comprises allowing the data collection utility to test for a presence of a predefined set of server components associated with the computer servers, and to collect the data based on discovering the predefined set of server components.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the outputting the one or more dependency groups further comprises providing graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising applying filtering interactively to the one or more dependency groups for enabling multiple views of the one or more dependency groups.

15. A system for creating a logical dependency mapping of computer servers, comprising:

a processor;

a processing engine operable to execute on the processor and further operable to receive data collected from the computer servers, the processing engine further operable to discover logical dependencies among the computer servers by analyzing the data for communications between one or more of operating systems, middleware and applications associated with the computer servers, the processing engine further operable to group the computer servers into one or more dependency groups based at least on a user-defined grouping criterion, the processing engine further operable to output the one or more dependency groups including the logical dependencies;

a web-based graphical user interface operable to execute on the processor, wherein the processing engine receives the data via the web-based graphical user interface; and

a storage device comprising a database repository for storing the one or more dependency groups including the logical dependencies.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a visualization engine operable to receive the output and further operable to provide graphical visualization of the one or more dependency groups.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the graphical visualization comprises a view showing the one or more dependency groups of the computer servers and links representing discovered dependencies among the computer servers.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the graphical visualization comprises interactively filtered view of the one or more dependency groups.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the visualization engine is further operable to allow interactive tagging of the computer servers represented in the graphical visualization to define one or more groupings.