PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTIC FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20170084062A1
• Filed: 09/23/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: GUO, Shugang, LU, Zhongping, Feng, Jin, Zhang, Yixiang
• Granted Patent: US 10,339,683 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A method for a processor to provide a chart of a performance metric in a collection interval includes creating regions by dividing the collection interval into regions of increasingly smaller time intervals and determining a mean and a variance for each region based on data points in that region, sorting the regions by their variances and means, and processing the sorted regions. Processing the sorted regions includes removing any child region when its parent region has a variance that substantially represents the child region, and replacing any two neighboring or intersecting regions with a merged region comprising the two neighboring or intersecting regions when the merged region has a variance that substantially represents the two neighboring or intersecting regions. The method further includes generating the chart by visually indicating highest ranking regions by variance in the chart and displaying the chart or transmitting the chart over a computer network.

Claims

1. A method for a processor to provide a chart comprising data points of a performance metric collected from a collection interval, the method comprising:

creating regions in the collection interval, comprising;

dividing the collection interval into regions of increasingly smaller time intervals; and

determining a variance for each region based on data points in that region;

sorting the regions by their variances;

processing the sorted regions, comprising;

removing any child region when its parent region has a variance that substantially represents the child region; and

replacing any two neighboring or intersecting regions with a merged region comprising the two neighboring or intersecting regions when the merged region has a variance that substantially represents the two neighboring or intersecting regions;

generating the chart, comprising visually indicating in the chart a plurality of highest ranking regions by variance; and

displaying the chart or transmitting the chart over a computer network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dividing the collection interval into the regions of increasing smaller time intervals and determining the variance for each region based on the data points in that region comprise:

creating a first region with its mean and variance based on a data list and adding the first region to a regions list;

splitting the data list into first and second data lists;

when the first data list is not less than a first minimum time interval, creating a second region with its variance based on the first data list and adding the second region to the regions list;

when the first data list is less than the first minimum time interval and the second data list is not less than a second minimum time interval, creating a third region with its variance based on the second data list and adding the third region to the regions list; and

when the first data list is less than the first minimum time interval, the second data list is less than the second minimum time interval, but another second data list at a higher level is not less than the second minimum time interval, creating a fourth region with its variance based on the other second data list and adding the fourth region to the regions list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein removing any child region when its parent region has the variance that substantially represents the child region comprises:

when the child region has a variance smaller than the parent region, removing the child region; and

when the parent region has a variance smaller than the child region, removing the child region when a ratio between the variance of the parent region and the variance of the child region is greater than a threshold, or otherwise removing the parent region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing any two neighboring regions with the merged region comprising the two neighboring regions when the merged region has the variance that substantially represents the two neighboring regions comprises:

determining a ratio of the variance of the merged region to a higher of two variance of the two neighboring regions;

when the ratio is greater than a threshold;

setting the variance of the merged region equal to the higher variance;

removing one of the two neighboring regions having the higher variance; and

replacing the other of the two neighboring regions with the merged region.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing any two intersecting regions with the merged region comprising the two intersecting regions when the merged region has the variance that substantially represents the two intersecting regions comprises:

determining a ratio of the variance of the merged region to a higher of two variance of the two intersecting regions;

when the ratio is greater than a threshold;

setting the variance of the merged region equal to the higher variance;

removing one of the two intersecting regions having the higher variance; and

replacing the other of the two intersecting regions with the merged region; and

when the ratio is not greater than the threshold, removing the other of the two interesting regions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the sorted regions further comprises removing any region that has a variance less than another region when the region is a child or parent of the other region or the region intersects the other region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the sorted regions further comprises removing data points at ends of any region when a new slope fitted to remaining data points in the region without the removed data points is greater than or equal to an old slope fitted to original data points in the region including the removed points.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the sorted regions further comprises adding one or more points to start or end of any region when the region with the added data points has a new variance that substantially represents that region without the added points.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the region with the added data points has a new variance that substantially represents that region without the added points when a ratio of the new variance of the region with the added data points to an old variance of the region without the added points is greater than a threshold.

10. A virtual machine manager, comprising:

a performance analyzer to provide a plurality of highest ranking regions by variance in a regions list, the performance analyzer comprising;

an region abstractor to create regions for the regions list from a list of data points for a performance metric of a virtual machine;

a region sorter to sort the regions in the regions list by variance and mean;

a region pruner, comprising;

a child-parent region pruner to remove any child region from the regions list when its parent region has a variance that substantially represents the child region; and

a neighbor region merger to process the regions list after the child-parent region pruner, wherein the neighbor region merger is to replace any two neighboring regions in the regions list with a merged region comprising the two neighboring regions when the merged region has a variance that substantially represents the two neighboring regions; and

a statistics subsystem to;

collect and provide the data points to the performance analyzer;

generating a chart of the data points;

receive the plurality of highest ranking regions in the regions list from the performance analyzer and visually indicate them in the chart; and

display the chart or transmit it over a computer network.

11. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, further comprising an events and alarms subsystems to record events and alarms for the virtual machine and provide recorded events and recorded alarms corresponding to one or more of the plurality of highest ranking regions in the regions list, wherein the statistics subsystem displays the recorded events and the recorded alarms or transmits them over the computer network.

12. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, wherein the region abstractor creates the regions by:

creating a first region with its mean and variance based on a data list and adding the first region to the regions list;

splitting the data list into left and right data lists;

when the left data list is not less than a first minimum time interval, creating a second region with its mean and variance based on the left data list and adding the second region to the regions list;

when the left data list is less than the first minimum time interval and the right data list is not less than a second minimum time interval, creating a third region with its mean and variance based on the right data list and adding the third region to the regions list; and

when the left data list is less than the first minimum time interval, the right data list is less than the second minimum time interval, but another right data list at a higher level is not less than the second minimum time interval, creating a fourth region with its mean and variance based on the other right data list and adding the fourth region to the regions list.

13. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, wherein the region sorter sorts the regions in the regions list first by their variance and then any regions with a same variance the region sorter sorts them by their means.

14. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, wherein the child-parent pruner is to:

when a variance of the child region is smaller than the parent region, remove the child region; and

when the variance of the parent region is smaller than the child region, remove the child region when a ratio between the variance of the parent region and the variance of the child region is greater than a threshold, or otherwise removing the parent region.

15. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, wherein the neighbor region merger is to:

determine a ratio of the variance of the merged region to a higher of two variance of the two neighboring regions;

when the ratio is greater than a threshold;

set the variance of the merged region equal to the higher variance;

remove one of the two neighboring regions having the higher variance; and

replace the other of the two neighboring regions with the merged region.

16. The virtual machine manager of claim 10, wherein the region pruner further comprises an intersection region merger to process the regions list after the neighbor region merger, the intersection region merger is to replace any two intersecting regions with a merged region comprising the two intersecting regions when the merged region has a variance that substantially represents the two intersecting regions.

17. The virtual machine manager of claim 16, wherein the intersection region merger is to:

determine a ratio of the variance of the merged region to a higher of two variance of the two intersecting regions;

when the ratio is greater than a threshold;

set the variance of the merged region equal to the higher variance;

remove one of the two intersecting regions having the higher variance; and

replace the other of the two intersecting regions with the merged region; and

when the ratio is not greater than a threshold, removing the other of the two interesting regions.

18. The virtual machine manager of claim 16, wherein the region pruner further comprises an intersection region pruner to process the regions list after the intersection region merger, the intersection region pruner is to remove any region that has a variance less than another region when the region is a child or parent of the other region or the region intersects the other region.

19. The virtual machine manager of claim 18, wherein the region pruner further comprises a region shrinker to process the regions list after the intersection region pruner, the region shrinker is to remove data points at ends of any region when a new slope fitted to remaining data points in the region without the removed data points is greater than or equal to an old slope fitted to original data points in the region including the removed points.

20. The virtual machine manager of claim 19, wherein the region pruner further comprises a region feeder to process the regions list after the region shrinker, the region feeder is to add one or more points to start or end of any region when a ratio of a new variance of the region with the added data points to an old variance of the region without the added points is greater than a threshold.