METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE A DURATION ESTIMATE AND RISK ESTIMATE OF PERFORMING A MAINTENANCE OPERATION IN A NETWORKED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20190319839A1
• Filed: 07/17/2018
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nozhchev, Marin, Gencheva, Denitsa
• Granted Patent: US 11,121,919 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• 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 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• 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

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed for determining a duration and/or risk estimate of performing a maintenance operation in a networked computing environment. An example apparatus includes a client data datastore to store telemetry data, associated with the maintenance operation, system configuration data, and a first secret, all received from a first virtual computing component operating in a virtual computing environment. The apparatus further includes a configuration comparator to identify configuration changes between a previous and current configuration of the virtual computing environment. A client data analyzer selects, based on the changes, an analysis model, and applies the model to generate results including the duration estimate or a risk of failure. The client data analyzer stores the results with the first secret and the configuration data, and a result interface retrieves and transmits the stored analysis results associated with the first secret matching a second secret included in a request.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a client data datastore to store telemetry data associated with performing a maintenance operation, system configuration data, and a first secret, the telemetry data, the system configuration data, and the first secret received from a first virtual computing component operating within a virtual computing environment, and the system configuration data identifying a current configuration of a portion of the virtual computing environment;

a configuration comparator to identify configuration changes between a previous configuration of the portion of the virtual computing environment and the current configuration of the at least the portion of the virtual computing environment;

a client data analyzer to;

select, based on the configuration changes, an analysis model;

apply the analysis model to the telemetry data to generate analysis results, the analysis results including at least one of a duration estimate for a maintenance operation to be performed at the virtual computing environment and a risk of failure of the maintenance operation to be performed at the virtual computing environment; and

store the analysis results in association with the first secret, and in association with the system configuration data; and

a result interface to, in response to a request for the analysis results including a second secret;

retrieve the stored analysis result associated with the first secret that matches the second secret; and

transmit the stored analysis result to a source of the request.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the telemetry data is first telemetry data, further including a batch analyzer to retrain the analysis model using the first telemetry data and second telemetry data from a second virtual computing environment having a same or similar system configuration and provide the retrained analysis model to the client data analyzer for use in analyzing incoming telemetry data.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 2, further including:

a client data datastore to store the first telemetry data, the first secret, and the second telemetry data,

a model datastore to store the analysis model, and

a results datastore to store the analysis results and the first secret.

4. The apparatus defined in claim 2, further including a maintenance recommender to generate a recommendation to perform the maintenance operation based on a schedule of maintenance operations to be performed.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 4, wherein the result interface is to:

receive a request to poll the analysis results and the second secret; and

retrieve the analysis results when the second secret matches the first secret stored with the analysis results.

6. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the result interface is to transmit a configuration file to the virtual computing environment, the configuration file to identify additional information to be collected by the virtual computing environment from the virtual computing component and transmitted with the telemetry data, the additional information related to performing the maintenance operation.

7. The apparatus defined in claim 1, further including a maintenance duration estimator to supplement the stored analysis results with at least one of a recommendation of whether to proceed with the maintenance operation, a recommendation to perform a software upgrade or a hardware replacement before performing the maintenance operation, or a recommendation to forego the maintenance operation.

8. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the first secret is at least one of a password, a certificate, or a pre-shared key.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

store telemetry data, and a first secret, the telemetry data and the first secret received from first a virtual computing component operating within a virtual computing environment;

select, based on a maintenance operation to be performed within the virtual computing environment, an analysis model;

apply the analysis model to the telemetry data to determine an analysis result; and

store the analysis results in association with the first secret; and

in response to a request for the analysis requests including a second secret;

retrieve the stored analysis results when the first secret matches the second secret; and

transmit the stored analysis results to a source of the request.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium defined in claim 9, wherein the instructions to cause the machine to select the analysis model further cause the machine to select the analyses model based on a system configuration of the at least the portion of the virtual computing environment.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium defined in claim 9, wherein the system configuration is a current system configuration of the at least the portion of the virtual computing environment virtual, and the instructions to cause the machine to select the analysis model further cause the machine to identify a set of configuration changes between the current system configuration and an earlier system configuration, and select the analysis model based on the configuration changes.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium defined in claim 9, wherein the telemetry data is first telemetry data, and the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to retrain the analysis model using the first telemetry data and the second telemetry data from a second virtual computing environment and provide the retrained analysis model for use in analyzing incoming telemetry data.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium defined in claim 9, wherein the analysis results identify at least one of an estimate of a duration of the maintenance operation and a risk of failure of the maintenance operation.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium defined in claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

store the first telemetry data, the first secret, and the second telemetry data;

store the analysis model; and

store the analysis results and the first secret.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the results analysis includes at least one of a recommendation regarding whether to perform the maintenance operation, a recommendation to perform a software upgrade before or after performing the maintenance operation, a recommendation to reconfigure the virtual computing environment before or after performing the maintenance operation.

16. A method to process telemetry data in networked computing environments, the method comprising:

storing, by executing an instruction with at least one processor, telemetry data and a first secret, the telemetry data and the first secret received from first a virtual computing component operating within a virtual computing environment;

selecting, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, based on the maintenance operation, an analysis model;

applying, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, an analysis model to the telemetry data to determine an analysis result, the analysis results including at least one of a duration estimate for the maintenance operation to be performed at the virtual computing environment and a risk of failure of the maintenance operation to be performed at the virtual computing environment;

storing, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, the analysis results in association with the first secret; and

in response to a request including a second secret;

retrieving, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, the stored analysis results associated with the first secret that matches the second secret; and

transmitting, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, the stored analysis results to a source of the request.

17. The method defined in claim 16, wherein the selecting of the analysis model further includes selecting the analysis model based on a system configuration of the virtual computing environment.

18. The method defined in claim 16, further including storing the first telemetry data, the secret, and the second telemetry data, storing the analysis model, and storing the analysis results and the first secret.

19. The method defined in claim 16, wherein the analysis results further include at least one of a recommendation of whether to proceed with the maintenance operation, a recommendation to perform a software upgrade or a hardware replacement before performing the maintenance operation, or a recommendation to forego the maintenance operation.

20. The method defined in claim 16, wherein the telemetry data is first telemetry data, the method further including retraining the analysis model using the first telemetry data and the second telemetry data from a second virtual computing environment and provide the retrained analysis model for use in analyzing third telemetry data.