Drift visualization

• US 8,145,752 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2009
• Issued: 03/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: DEE, Stephanie
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N.
• Application Number:
  US12/353,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20100185596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,168 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/220, 709/203, 715/736
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• 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 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A system for drift visualization of change data of a datacenter is disclosed. The datacenter includes a plurality of configuration items. The system includes a management server in communication with the data center. The management server includes an agent configured to collect the change data from one or more of the plurality of configuration items. A change data store that is in communication with the management server is provided to store the change data. A data extractor in communication with the change data store is provided to retrieve the change data and providing a filtered subset of the change data to a display. A policy data store in communication with the data extractor is provided to enable the data extractor to filter the change data based on data center policy violations. The visualization depicts multiple dimensions of change-related data for the items in the datacenter in a unique and concise manner.

Claims

1. A method for drift visualization of change data of a data center, the data center including a plurality of configuration items, the method comprising:

continuously monitoring one or more of the plurality of configuration items for changes in computing resource characteristics;

detecting changes in the computing resource characteristics, wherein the computing resource characteristics including hardware and software configurations and operations being performed on the one or more of the plurality of configuration items;

storing the changes in a data store; and

providing a graphical visualization of a subset of the changes, the subset being defined through a query that is formatted for retrieve the subset from the data store, wherein the graphical visualization shows the subset of the changes on a first date and the subset of the changes on a second date;

wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date that violate a data center policy, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items, wherein the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items whose changes on the particular date violate the data center policy are not within a predefined value range of the data center policy.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of configuration items include at least one of a virtual machine, a user, a network, a data store, a switch, and a logical unit number (LUN).

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation that shows a visual object whose size or color represents a particular number of changes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation of a period for which the changes that violate the data center policy remained in violation of the data center policy.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a numeric representation of changes on a particular date that violate the data center policy, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date, in the computing resource characteristics for a logical group of configuration items in the plurality of configuration items.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further including providing a drill down into the graphical visualization of the subset of the changes to show parameter values during a period of time.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the providing the drill down includes showing the parameter values that caused policy violations.

10. A non-transitory computer readable media having programming instructions for drift visualization of change data of a data center, the data center including a plurality of configuration items, the non-transitory computer readable media comprising:

programming instructions for continuously monitoring one or more of the plurality of configuration items for changes in computing resource characteristics;

programming instructions for detecting changes in the computing resource characteristics, wherein the computing resource characteristics including hardware and software configurations and operations being performed on the one or more of the plurality of configuration items;

programming instructions for storing the changes in a data store; and

programming instructions for providing a graphical visualization of a subset of the changes, the subset being defined through a query that is formatted for retrieve the subset from the data store, wherein the graphical visualization shows the subset of the changes on a first date and the subset of the changes on a second date;

wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date that violate a data center policy, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items, wherein the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items whose changes on the particular date violate the data center policy are not within a predefined value range of the data center policy.

11. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of configuration items include at least one of a virtual machine, a user, a network, a data store, a switch, and a logical unit number (LUN).

12. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items.

13. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a graphical representation that shows a visual object whose size or color represents a particular number of changes.

14. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a graphical representation of how long the changes on a particular date that violate the data center policy remained in violation of the data center policy.

15. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a numeric representation of changes on a particular date that violate the data center policy, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items.

16. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein programming instructions for providing the graphical visualization includes programming instructions for providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date, in the computing resource characteristics for a logical group of configuration items in the plurality of configuration items.

17. A system for drift visualization of change data of data center, the data center including a plurality of configuration items, the system comprising:

a management server in communication with the data center, the management server includes an agent configured to collect the change data from one or more of the plurality of configuration items;

a change data store in communication with the management server to store the change data;

a data extractor in communication with the change data store to retrieve the change data and providing a filtered subset of the change data to a display; and

a policy data store in communication with the data extractor to enable the data extractor to filter the change data based on data center policy violations;

wherein the system performs the steps of;

continuously monitoring the one or more of the plurality of configuration items for changes in computing resource characteristics;

detecting changes in the computing resource characteristics, wherein the computing resource characteristics including hardware and software configurations and operations being performed on the one or more of the plurality of configuration items;

storing the changes in the change data store; and

providing a graphical visualization of a subset of the changes, the subset being defined through a query that is formatted for retrieve the subset from the data store, wherein the graphical visualization shows the subset of the changes on a first date and the subset of the changes on a second date;

wherein the providing the graphical visualization includes providing a graphical representation of changes on a particular date that violate a data center policy, in the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items, wherein the computing resource characteristics for the one or more of the plurality of configuration items whose changes on the particular date violate the data center policy are not within a predefined value range of the data center policy.