INVENTORY SERVICE FOR DISTRIBUTED INFRASTRUCTURE

• US 20140280872A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stickle, Thomas Charles
• Granted Patent: US 10,333,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for an inventory application. Machine instances execute a monitoring service to determine the process names of applications executed in the machine instance. An inventory application identifies the applications executed on the machine instances as a function of data obtained from the monitoring services. Analytics reports can be generated from data embodying the identified applications.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, comprising:

code that executes a plurality of machine instances;

code that obtains by a first service executed in the machine instances, a plurality of process identifiers, each of the process identifiers being associated with one of a plurality of applications executed in the respective one of the machine instances;

code that queries by the first service a web service call to obtain metadata associated with the respective one of the machine instances;

code that generates by the first service, a plurality of identifications of the applications as a function of the process identifiers and a user preference associated with the respective one of the machine instances, the identifications comprising a version number corresponding to a respective one of the applications;

code that obtains the identifications and the metadata from each of the machine instances by a second service not executed in the machine instances; and

code that generates an analytics report as a function of the identifications and the metadata.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of a machine instance identifier or an account identifier.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the analytics report embodies an application usage with respect to a data center region or a customer account.

4. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device;

at least one machine instance executed in the at least one computing device;

a monitoring service executed in the machine instance comprising;

logic that generates data identifying at least one application being executed in the machine instance; and

an inventory service executable in the at least one computing device, the inventory service comprising;

logic that obtains the data from the monitoring service.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the monitoring service further comprises:

logic that determines a name of at least one process executed in the machine instance;

logic that identifies the at least one application as a function of the name; and

wherein the data is generated as a function of the identification.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the data is generated as a function of a user preference associated with the machine instance.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the data comprises a process identification associated with the at least one application, and the inventory service further comprises logic that identifies the at least one application as a function of the process identification included in the data.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the inventory service further comprises logic that compares the data to at least one of a security policy or a best practices policy.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the monitoring service further comprises:

logic that determines a version number of the at least one application; and

wherein the data further comprises version number.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the inventory service further comprises:

logic that determines whether an update for the application is available as a function of the version number; and

logic that communicates a notification to a customer associated with the machine instance indicating the update.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the inventory service further comprises:

logic that adds the data to a data aggregation; and

logic that generates an analytics report as a function of the data aggregation.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the analytics report embodies an application usage distribution with respect to a distributed data center region, an account identifier, or an identifier of the at least one machine instance.

13. The system of claim 4, wherein system further comprises an instance metadata service executable in the at least one computing device comprising logic that exposes an application program interface enabling a web service call to return metadata associated with the at least one machine instance.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the monitoring service further comprises:

logic that obtains the metadata from the instance metadata service; and

wherein the data further comprises the metadata.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the inventory service further comprises:

logic that obtains the metadata from the instance metadata service; and

wherein the data further comprises the metadata.

16. A method, comprising the steps of:

obtaining, in a first at least one computing device, by a first service, at least one process identifier associated with at least one application executed in the first computing device;

generating, in the first computing device, by the first service, an identification of the at least one application as a function of the at least one process identifier; and

communicating, by the first computing device, the identification from by the first service to a second service executed in a second at least one computing device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

adding, in the second computing device, the identification to an identification aggregation; and

generating, in the computing device, an analytics report as a function of the identification aggregation.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises comparing, in the second computing device, the identification to at least one of a security policy or a best practice policy.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

executing, in the second computing device, a machine instance metadata service enabling a web service call to obtain metadata associated with the first computing device;

querying, in the first computing device, by the first service, the web service call to obtain the metadata; and

wherein the identification further comprises the metadata.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of a unique identifier of the first computing device or an account identifier associated with the first computing device.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the identification is generated as a function of a user preference associated with the first computing device defining a subset of the at least one application which may be included in the identification.