Distributed data gathering and aggregation agent

• US 7,640,258 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2004
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zizys, Giedrius, Thomas, Michael W., Sutton, Alexander M., Sprague, Roger W., Garcea, Federico, Murstein, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TIMBLIN, ROBERT M
• Application Number:
  US10/924,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20050021546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,954 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/207, 709/224, 709/229, 709/318, 702/182, 702/186, 714/47, 707/3, 707/10, 707/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and method is provided for gathering and aggregating operational metrics (e.g., performance metrics, process events, health monitor state, server state) for a plurality of members as a single entity and for a plurality of entities as a singular entity. The system and method provides for operational metrics of members and entities to be aggregated and retrieved as a single result set, such that entity wide operational metrics can be acquired, monitored and displayed as a single entity.

Claims

1. A system for gathering and aggregating operational metrics of a plurality of servers configured as an entity, comprising:

a plurality of member servers configured to form an array of servers;

at least one of the plurality of member servers comprising a gathering and aggregation system configured to gather operational event metric data from each of the member servers and coalesce the operational event metric data into a unified result set, wherein the operational event metric data is indicative of one or more states of the plurality of member servers, and wherein the unified result set is indicative of system-wide state of the array of servers;

wherein the gathering and aggregation system receives a request from an interface for event metrics corresponding to the plurality of member servers over a particular time period and, in response to the request, queries each of a plurality of the member servers for specific time period event data corresponding to the particular time period for which the gathering and aggregation system has received the request for event metrics and that is relevant to each correspondingly queried member server;

wherein at least two of the plurality of queried member servers provides the specific time period event data that is correspondingly relevant to the at least two queried member servers and corresponding to the particular time period;

wherein the specific time period event data is tracked and logged by each corresponding member server in a corresponding data store for each member server according to event type and wherein data from at least two member servers is combined into a table according to the event type along with a corresponding timestamp and unique identification number specific to each logged event, as well as a member identifier that identifies at which member each logged event occurred;

wherein the gathering and aggregation system thereafter, further in response to the request, coalesces the specific time period event data from the table into a single event result set and provides the single result set to the interface along with at least a first and a last unique identifier associated with first and last logged events corresponding to the specific time period and that exist in the table and thereby facilitating a response to an additional request about the single result set by referencing at least one of the first and last unique identifier and corresponding data from the table in response to the additional request; and

wherein the interface provides at least a portion of the unified result set, thereby facilitating representation of the array of servers such that the array of servers is perceived as a singular server, to a requestor, and wherein the interface is also configured to submit the additional request in response to user input.

2. The system of claim 1, employing at least one of the first and last unique identifier to provide one of a previous or a subsequent portion of the unified result set back to the requestor upon request by the requestor.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising event filters for filtering out events not to be returned to the requestor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of member servers have a gathering and aggregation system such that the unified result set can be gathered and coalesced by any of the plurality of member servers.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the specific time period event data comprises operational event metric data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein operational event metric data is aggregated into the unified result set by evaluating a single data value for data points of similar time periods by taking one of an average, a minimum, a maximum, or a weighted average.

7. The system of claim 5, at least one of the plurality of member servers being configurable to receive a configuration setting defining the operational event metric data to be gathered and coalesced and replicating the configuration setting to one or more of the plurality of member servers.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein any of the plurality of member servers are configurable to receive the configuration setting defining the operational event metric data to be gathered and coalesced.

9. The system of claim 1, the requestor being one of an external process, an internal process, an external consumer, a user interface or another entity.

10. The system of claim 1, the gathering and aggregation system being operable to compensate for invalid operational event metric data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the metric aggregation system includes a paging component configured to maintain a record of the first and the last event.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the metric aggregation system includes an event filter component configured to limit event types to be retrieved.

13. A method implemented by a computing system comprising a processor and a gathering and aggregation system configured to gather operational event metric data from each of a plurality of member servers and to coalesce the operational event metric data into a unified result set, wherein the operational event metric data is indicative of one or more states of the plurality of member servers, and the unified result set is indicative of system-wide state of the plurality of member servers, the method comprising:

the gathering and aggregation system receiving a request from an interface for event metrics corresponding to the plurality of member servers over a particular time period and, in response to the request, querying each of a plurality of the member servers for specific time period event data corresponding to the particular time period for which the gathering and aggregation system has received the request for event metrics and that is relevant to each correspondingly queried member server;

wherein at least two of the plurality of queried member servers provides the specific time period event data that is correspondingly relevant to the at least two queried member servers and corresponding to the particular time period;

wherein the specific time period event data is tracked and logged by each corresponding member server in a corresponding data store for each member server according to event type and wherein data from at least two member servers is combined into a table according to the event type along with a corresponding timestamp and unique identification number specific to each logged event, as well as a member identifier that identifies at which member each logged event occurred;

the gathering and aggregation system coalescing the specific time period event data from the table into a single event result set, in response to the request, and providing the single result set to the interface along with at least a first and a last unique identifier associated with first and last logged events corresponding to the specific time period and that exist in the table and thereby facilitating a response to an additional request about the single result set by referencing at least one of the first and last unique identifier and corresponding data from the table in response to the additional request; and

wherein the interface provides at least a portion of the unified result set, thereby facilitating representation of the array of servers such that the array of servers is perceived as a singular server, to a requestor, and wherein the interface is also configured to submit the additional request in response to user input.