FAILURE ANALYSIS IN CLOUD BASED SERVICE USING SYNTHETIC MEASUREMENTS

• US 20160036671A1
• Filed: 07/30/2014
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sadovsky, Art, Sadykov, Timur, Narayanan, Venkat, Ojha, Smita, Avner, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 9,692,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage

Abstract

A failure analysis of a cloud based service is provided using synthetic measurements of the cloud based service. The synthetic measurements associated with a customer experience is executed on the cloud based service to determine a health of the cloud based service. The synthetic measurements simulate the customer experience which includes a use scenario of a customer of the cloud based service. Failures associated with the health of the cloud based service are aggregated, where the failures are detected from the synthetic measurements. A distribution is generated from the failures. The distribution is presented to a stakeholder.

Claims

1. A method executed on a computing device to provide a failure analysis in a cloud based service using synthetic measurements, the method comprising:

executing the synthetic measurements associated with a customer experience on the cloud based service to determine a health of the cloud based service;

aggregating failures associated with the health of the cloud based service, wherein the failures are detected from the synthetic measurements;

generating a distribution of the failures; and

presenting the distribution to a stakeholder.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

simulating the customer experience at the cloud based service, wherein the customer experience includes a use scenario of the cloud based service associated with a customer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the distribution to the stakeholder that includes an administrator of the cloud based service.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the distribution to the stakeholder that includes one or more teams that manage components of the cloud based service associated with the failures aggregated in the distribution.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a subset of the failures generated by a component of the cloud based service is managed by a team;

filtering the distribution to focus on the subset; and

transmitting an alert that includes the distribution to the team as the stakeholder.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping characteristics of the distribution to one or more suggested actions associated with the failures.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining one or more teams that manage one or more components of the cloud based service associated with the failures; and

transmitting each one of the one or more suggested actions to a corresponding team from the one or more teams.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the failures for an aggregation based on one or more shared characteristics that includes one or more from a set of a location of a component associated with one or more of the failures and an identification of the component associated with one or more of the failures.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a subset of the failures that match one or more recovery actions associated with the cloud based service; and

removing the subset from the distribution.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

matching the failures to one or more corresponding components of the cloud based service; and

organizing the distribution based on the one or more corresponding components.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-executing the synthetic measurements for a continued determination of the health of the cloud based service; and

appending new failures into the distribution.

12. A computing device to provide a failure analysis in a cloud based service using synthetic measurements, the computing device comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a management application in conjunction with instructions stored in the memory, wherein the management application is configured to;

execute the synthetic measurements associated with a customer experience on the cloud based service to determine a health of the cloud based service, wherein the customer experience includes a use scenario of the cloud based service associated with a customer;

aggregate failures associated with the health of the cloud based service, wherein the failures may be detected from the synthetic measurements;

generate a distribution of the failures; and

present the distribution to a stakeholder.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the management application is further configured to:

generate a histogram of the failures as the distribution; and

include in the histogram a percentage value for a subset of the failures based on a total number of the failures.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the management application is further configured to:

compare the percentage value to a threshold; and

in response to a determination that the percentage value exceeds the threshold, determine that the subset is a primary cause of a malfunction at a corresponding component of the cloud based service.

15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the management application is further configured to:

include information of attempted recovery actions associated with the failures in the distribution.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the management application is further configured to:

include information captured with the failures in the distribution, wherein the information includes one or more from a set of an identification of a component associated with one of the failures and a status of the component.

17. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the management application is further configured to:

sort the distribution to alert the stakeholder to focus on a subset of the failures at a top end of the sorted distribution.

18. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon to provide a failure analysis in a cloud based service using synthetic measurements, the instructions comprising:

executing the synthetic measurements associated with a customer experience on the cloud based service to determine a health of the cloud based service, wherein the customer experience includes a use scenario of the cloud based service associated with a customer;

aggregating failures associated with the health of the cloud based service, wherein the failures are detected from the synthetic measurements;

generating a distribution of the failures;

determining a subset of the failures that match one or more recovery actions associated with the cloud based service;

removing the subset from the distribution; and

presenting the distribution to a stakeholder.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise:

generating a histogram of the failures as the distribution;

including in the histogram a percentage value for a subset of the failures based on a total number of the failures;

comparing the percentage value to a threshold; and

in response to a determination that the percentage value exceeds the threshold, determining that the subset associated with the percentage value is a primary cause of a malfunction at a corresponding component of the cloud based service.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise:

presenting the distribution to the stakeholder that includes an administrator of the cloud based service or one or more teams that manage components of the cloud based service associated with the failures aggregated in the distribution.