Generating And Displaying Topology Map Time-Lapses Of Cloud Computing Resources

• US 20170085446A1
• Filed: 01/13/2016
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Inventors: Zhong, Qianjie, QIN, Geng, Zhang, Min, Young, D. Randall, Shao, Feng
• Granted Patent: US 10,536,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

Techniques and mechanisms are disclosed that enable collection of various types of data from cloud computing services and the generation of various dashboards and visualizations to view information about collections of cloud computing resources. A user can configure collection of data from one or more cloud computing services and view visualizations using an application platform referred to herein as a cloud computing management application. A cloud computing management application further may be configured to generate and cause display of interactive topology map representations of cloud computing resources based on the collected data, where an interactive topology map enables users to view an intuitive visualization of a collection of computing resources, efficiently cause performance of actions with respect to various resources displayed in the topology map, and analyze the collection of resources in ways that are not possible using conventional cloud computing service management consoles.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

retrieving state data related to a state of a plurality of cloud computing resources at each of a plurality of points in time, the state data including information related to one or more of;

relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources, and performance information related to one or more cloud computing resources of the plurality of cloud computing resources;

generating, for each of the plurality of points in time, topology map data based on the state data for the point in time, the topology map data providing instructions for displaying the one or more cloud computing resources as a topology map;

causing display of an animated topology map on a graphical user interface, the animated topology map displaying a series of topology maps generated based on the topology map data for each of the plurality of points in time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing display of one or more performance metrics related to one or more of the plurality of cloud computing resources for each of the plurality of points in time;

wherein causing display of the performance metrics includes synchronizing the display of the performance metrics with the display of the animated topology map.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources, and one or more edges representing relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the state data includes both performance data related to performance of a plurality of cloud computing resources managed by one or more cloud computing services, and relationship data related to relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources managed by the one or more cloud computing services.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the state data includes both performance data related to performance of a plurality of cloud computing resources managed by one or more cloud computing services, and relationship data related to relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources managed by the one or more cloud computing services;

and wherein at least a portion of the performance data is received from the one or more cloud computing services.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the state data includes both performance data related to performance of a plurality of cloud computing resources managed by one or more cloud computing services, and relationship data related to relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources managed by the one or more cloud computing services;

and wherein at least a portion of the relationship data is received from the one or more cloud computing services.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one cloud computing resource of the plurality of cloud computing resources is one of:

a virtual private cloud, a server instance, a subnet, a storage volume, a network interface, an access control list (ACL), a route table, and an internet gateway.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one relationship between a first computing resource and a second computing resource is one of:

the first computing resource is a member of a subnet represented by the second computing resource, the first computing resource is a member of a virtual private cloud represented by the second computing resource, the first computing resource is a storage volume associated with the second computing resource, and the first computing resource is a member of a security group represented by the second computing resource.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources, and one or more edges representing relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources;

wherein at least one node of the plurality of nodes is displayed using a particular graphical element based on performance data associated with the computing resource represented by the at least one node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources, and one or more edges representing relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources;

wherein at least one edge of the one or more edges is displayed using a particular graphical element based on performance data associated with a network connection between the cloud computing resources represented by the nodes connected by the at least one edge.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources, and one or more edges representing relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources;

wherein at least one edge of the one or more edges is displayed using a particular graphical element based on relationship data associated with the computing resources represented by the nodes connected by the at least one edge.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and indicating an action to perform, the action related to one or more computing resources represented by the selected one or more nodes.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and indicating an action to perform, the action related to one or more cloud computing resources represented by the selected one or more nodes;

sending a request to at least one of the one or more cloud computing services to perform the action related to the selected one or more nodes.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and indicating an action to perform, the action related to one or more cloud computing resources represented by the selected one or more nodes;

sending a request to at least one of the one or more cloud computing services to perform the action related to the one or more cloud computing resources;

wherein the action is one or more of;

creating a new computing resource, modifying an existing computing resource, deleting an existing computing resource, creating a trigger, and creating a time-based job.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting a first node and a second node of the plurality of nodes and indicating a relationship to create between a first computing resource represented by the selected first node and a second computing resource represented by the selected second node;

sending a request to the cloud computing service to create the indicated relationship between the first computing resource and the second computing resource.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting at least two nodes of the plurality of nodes;

causing display of a menu including one or more selectable actions, each of the one or more selectable actions relevant to the selected at least two nodes.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input indicating dragging a first node of the plurality of nodes from a first location on the graphical user interface to a second location on the graphical user interface, the second location associated with one or more second nodes;

in response to receiving the input, creating a new relationship between the first node and the one or more second nodes.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cloud computing resources are managed by at least two cloud computing services, wherein each cloud computing service of the at least two cloud computing services is offered by a separate cloud computing service provider.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cloud computing resources includes at least one first cloud computing resource associated with a first region specified by a particular cloud computing service and at least one second cloud computing resource associated with a second region specified by the particular cloud computing service.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cloud computing resources includes at least one first computing resource associated with a first user account of a particular cloud computing service and at least one second computing resource associated with a second user account of the particular cloud computing service.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input specifying a first point in time and a second point in time, the first point in time associated with a first topology map and the second point in time associated with a second topology map;

displaying a comparison topology map, the comparison topology map including a graphical display indicating one or more differences between the first topology map and the second topology map.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the performance data in a data intake and query system as a plurality of events.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes;

in response to receiving the input, causing display of one or more stored events associated with one or more cloud computing resources represented by the selected one or more nodes.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing display of a second graphical user interface displaying a plurality of events, at least one of the events related to one or more cloud computing resources of the plurality of computing resources;

receiving input selecting the one or more computing resource;

in response to receiving the input, causing display of a graphical user interface including a topology map, the topology map including one or more nodes representing the selected one or more cloud computing resources.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes;

in response to receiving the input, causing display of performance data associated with one or more cloud computing resources represented by the selected one or more nodes.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources;

receiving input selecting at least two nodes of the plurality of nodes;

in response to receiving the input, causing display of aggregate information associated with at least two cloud computing resources represented by the selected at least two nodes.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the animated topology map includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of cloud computing resources, and one or more edges representing relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources;

and

wherein at least one node of the plurality of nodes is displayed using a particular graphical element based on cost data associated with the at least one node.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the series of topology maps are displayed in a chronological order.

29. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media, storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of:

retrieving state data related to a state of a plurality of cloud computing resources at each of a plurality of points in time, the state data including information related to one or more of;

relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources, and performance information related to one or more cloud computing resources of the plurality of cloud computing resources;

generating, for each of the plurality of points in time, topology map data based on the state data for the point in time, the topology map data providing instructions for displaying the one or more cloud computing resources as a topology map;

causing display of an animated topology map on a graphical user interface, the animated topology map displaying a series of topology maps generated based on the topology map data for each of the plurality of points in time.

30. An apparatus, comprising:

a data collection subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that retrieves state data related to a state of a plurality of cloud computing resources at each of a plurality of points in time, the state data including information related to one or more of;

relationships among the plurality of cloud computing resources, and performance information related to one or more cloud computing resources of the plurality of cloud computing resources;

a topology map generation subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that generates, for each of the plurality of points in time, topology map data based on the state data for the point in time, the topology map data providing instructions for displaying the one or more cloud computing resources as a topology map;

a display subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that causes display of an animated topology map on a graphical user interface, the animated topology map displaying a series of topology maps generated based on the topology map data for each of the plurality of points in time.