METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ESTIMATING AND ANALYZING FLOW ACTIVITY AND PATH PERFORMANCE DATA IN CLOUD OR DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

• US 20140215058A1
• Filed: 09/13/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Lyatiss, Inc. (Lyatiss SAS)
• Inventors: Guillier, Romaric, Soudan, Sebastien, Vicat-Blanc, Pascale
• Granted Patent: US 9,762,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/14 using software, i.e. software packages network security related monitoring H04L63/1408

Abstract

Virtual resources associated with an execution of a user'"'"'s applications in a cloud or distributed resource configuration including virtual or physical machines, network services and storage are identified. A source and destination virtual machine, utilized by the user'"'"'s applications, are determined, and at least one source or destination virtual machine belongs to the identified virtual resources. Measurement software for a virtual machine is downloaded. The measurement software acquires data for connections established in a transport layer for communicating between the source and destination virtual machine. Data acquired from the measurement software is received at a first time, and the data includes measurements of variables for the data communications via the connections. Based upon the measurements, metrics that characterize the data communications at a first time are generated. Measurements made at an additional number of times are also received. Based upon the measurements, metrics are generated as a function of time.

Claims

1. A method in an electronic device including a processor and a memory, the method comprising:

identifying in the processor virtual resources associated with an execution of a user'"'"'s applications in a cloud or distributed resource configuration including virtual or physical machines, network services and storage;

determining in the processor a source virtual machine and a destination virtual machine, utilized by the user'"'"'s applications, wherein at least one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine belongs to the identified virtual resources;

downloading under control of the processor measurement software for execution on one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine, wherein the measurement software is configured to acquire data associated with a plurality of connections established in a transport layer that enable data communications between the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine;

receiving in the processor first data acquired from the measurement software at a first time wherein the first data includes measurements of a plurality of variables associated with the data communications via the plurality connections;

based upon the measurements, generating in the processor one or more metrics that characterize the data communications at a first time;

receiving in the processor measurements made at a number of times after the first time; and

based upon the measurements generating in the processor the one or more metrics as a function of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of variables are one of TCP (Transport Control Protocol) variables, UDP (User Datagram Protocol) variables or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the TCP variables are measured using the TCB (Transmission Control Block) in a TCP stack.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the TCP or the UDP variables are measured for each of the plurality of connections.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of connections is a plurality of TCP or UDP connections.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a first metric is associated with a latency metric.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a second metric is associated with a throughput.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining IP addresses, ports, and UUIDs (universally unique identifiers) of the virtual resources, which are associated with each of the plurality of connections

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a first metric based upon measurements associated with a subset of the plurality of connections.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting the one or more metrics for visual presentation on a display coupled to the electronic device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating and outputting a topology map of the identified virtual resources in the cloud or distributed resource configuration.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the source or the destination include multiple instantiations of one of the customer'"'"'s application component.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein each virtual resource is a virtual machine, a virtual load balancer, a virtual router, a virtual switch, or a virtual link

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of variables are sampled from TCP variables that are updated by a TCP stack when a packet is sent and an acknowledgement is received on one or more of the connections.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a frequency of sampling from TCP variables is set by a user or specific TCP variables from which to sample are selected by a user.

16. An apparatus for cloud or distributed computing resource management, the apparatus formed from one or more electronic devices that are configured to perform the following operations:

identifying virtual resources associated with an execution of a user'"'"'s applications in a cloud or distributed resource configuration including virtual or physical machines, network services and storage;

determining a source virtual machine and a destination virtual machine, utilized by the user'"'"'s applications, wherein at least one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine belongs to the identified virtual resources;

downloading measurement software for execution on one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine, wherein the measurement software is configured to acquire data associated with a plurality of connections established in a transport layer that enable data communications between the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine;

receiving first data acquired from the measurement software at a first time wherein the first data includes measurements of a plurality of variables associated with the data communications via the plurality connections;

based upon the measurements, generating one or more metrics that characterize the data communications at a first time;

receiving measurements made at a number of times after the first time; and

based upon the measurements generating the one or more metrics as a function of time.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of variables are one of TCP (Transport Control Protocol) variables, UDP (User Datagram Protocol) variables or combinations thereof.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the TCP variables are measured using the TCB (Transmission Control Block) in a TCP stack.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the TCP or the UDP variables are measured for each of the plurality of connections.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of connections are TCP or UDP connections.

21. At least one computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that are arranged to perform the following operations:

identifying in the processor virtual resources associated with an execution of a user'"'"'s applications in a cloud or distributed resource configuration including virtual or physical machines, network services and storage;

determining in the processor a source virtual machine and a destination virtual machine, utilized by the user'"'"'s applications, wherein at least one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine belongs to the identified virtual resources;

downloading under control of the processor measurement software for execution on one of the source virtual machine or the destination virtual machine, wherein the measurement software is configured to acquire data associated with a plurality of connections established in a transport layer that enable data communications between the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine;

receiving in the processor first data acquired from the measurement software at a first time wherein the first data includes measurements of a plurality of variables associated with the data communications via the plurality connections;

based upon the measurements, generating in the processor one or more metrics that characterize the data communications at a first time;

receiving in the processor measurements made at a number of times after the first time; and

based upon the measurements generating in the processor the one or more metrics as a function of time.