Apparatus And Method For Monitoring Network Performance

• US 20150071091A1
• Filed: 09/12/2013
• Published: 03/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Govil, Ravi, Khawaja, Khurram, Owens, Mark
• Application Number:
  US14/024,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20150071091A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

A manner of monitoring network performance using an AMA (active monitoring agent). A network manager, generally operating on one of the network nodes, establishes an AMA associated with two end points, at least one of the end points including a VM running an application. VM migration is monitored, and if a detected migration is associated with an active AMA then the new endpoint or endpoints associated with the AMA are calculated and a new AMA is established. A VM pair table is updated to reflect the change.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring network performance, comprising:

establishing a first AMA (active monitoring agent) to monitor communication between at first set of nodes, at least one of the first set of nodes comprising a VM;

detecting that a VM has migrated; and

determining the new node location of the migrated VM.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising populating a VM pair table to include the first AMA.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a second AMA to monitor communication between a second set of nodes, the second set of nodes comprising the migrated VM.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising updating the VM pair table to include the second AMA.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the first AMA is associated with more than one VM pair.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising disestablishing the first AMA subsequent to detecting that the VM has migrated if the first AMA is not associated with more than one VM pair.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for a listing of applications running on the network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the request comprises a request for a listing of the top applications running on the network.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting a list for display, the list for display comprising at least some of the applications running on the network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to establish an AMA.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the request comprises an indication of an application running on the network.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising locating a pair of nodes associated with the application.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring communication between the nodes.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating a performance table based on the communication monitoring.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the AMA is an SAA (service assurance agent).

16. A network management node, comprising:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor;

a network monitor;

a VM locator; and

a VM manager.

17. A machine readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that when executed cause the machine to:

establish a first AMA to monitor communication between at first set of nodes, at least one of the first set of nodes comprising a VM;

detect that a VM has migrated;

determine the new node location of the migrated VM; and

establish a second AMA to monitor communication between a second set of nodes, the second set of nodes comprising the migrated VM.