Systems and methods for analyzing performance of virtual environments

• US 8,175,863 B1
• Filed: 02/12/2009
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Ostermeyer, John Andrew, Hofer, James Michael, Childers, Mark Steven, Condy, Michael Hugh
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): GEBRESILASSIE, KIBROM K
• Application Number:
  US12/370,399
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 703/6, 703/13, 703/22, 715/249, 715/734, 715/736, 715/763, 726/6, 718/1, 709/223
• US Class Current: 703/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• 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 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Intelligent monitoring systems and methods for virtual environments are disclosed that understand various components of a virtual infrastructure and how the components interact to provide improved performance analysis to users. In certain examples, a monitoring system assesses the performance of virtual machine(s) in the context of the overall performance of the physical server(s) and the environment in which the virtual machine(s) are running. For instance, the monitoring system can track performance metrics over a determined period of time to view changes to the allocation of resources to virtual machines and their location(s) on physical platforms. Moreover, monitoring systems can utilize past performance information from separate virtual environments to project a performance impact resulting from the migration of a virtual machine from one physical platform to another.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring data in a virtual computing environment, the system comprising:

computer hardware including at least one computer processor and a computer display; and

a plurality of modules stored in computer-readable storage and comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the computer hardware to perform operations defined by the computer-executable instructions, the modules including;

a topology module configured to receive object data indicative of a plurality of objects in a virtual computing environment, the topology module being further configured to;

transform the object data into a topology model comprising a plurality of interconnected topology objects, the topology model being representative of existing relationships between the plurality of objects in the virtual computing environment, wherein the plurality of objects comprises at least a source physical platform, a virtual machine that operates on the source physical platform, and a target physical platform, wherein the source physical platform is physically distinct from the target physical platform,

receive metric data indicative of measured performance values associated with the plurality of objects, and

associate the metric data with the plurality of interconnected topology objects of the topology model, thereby mapping performance values within the metric data to objects within the topology model;

a correlation module configured to correlate the associated metric data accumulated over a period of time;

a migration modeler module configured to;

receive input regarding an anticipated migration of the virtual machine from the source physical platform to the target physical platform;

select a worst-case utilization of one or more measured performance values within the metric data; and

use at least the correlated metric data to generate impact data indicative of a projected future impact on resources of at least the target physical platform that is expected to occur upon the anticipated migration of the virtual machine to the target physical platform;

and

a user interface module configured to receive the impact data and to cause, prior to the migration of the virtual machine, the projected impact on the resources of at least the target physical platform to be displayed on the computer display, such that a user can know the projected impact on the resources of at least the target physical platform before the virtual machine is migrated to the target physical platform.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the projected impact is indicative of an effect on at least one other virtual machine executing on the target physical platform.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the correlation module is configured to examine a history of the received metric data associated with the source physical platform to generate the correlated metric data.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database configured to store at least the object data and the metric data.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an alarm module configured to generate an alert when the projected impact on at least one of the resources of the target physical platform exceeds a predetermined threshold.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical display comprises a comparison of (i) the projected impact on the resources and (ii) projected metric data associated with the resources excluding the migration of the virtual machine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the source and target physical platforms comprise VMWARE ESX servers.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one remote agent configured to provide the object data to the topology module.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one remote agent resides on the target physical platform.

10. A method for modeling performance of a virtual computing environment, the method comprising:

receiving metric data indicative of performance values associated with a plurality of objects in a virtual infrastructure, the plurality of objects comprising at least a first host server and a second host server, wherein the first host server and the second host server are physically distinct;

associating the metric data with a topology model comprising a plurality of interconnected topology objects, the topology model being representative of relationships between the plurality of objects in the virtual infrastructure, thereby mapping performance values within the metric data with objects within the topology model;

receiving input indicative of a migration of a virtual machine from the first host server to the second host server;

generating, based at least on the associated metric data and the topology model, impact data indicative of a projected future impact on resources of at least the second host server that is expected to occur in response to the migration of the virtual machine to the second host server; and

displaying, based on said impact data, on-screen graphics indicative of the projected future impact on the resources of at least the second host server such that a user can know the projected impact on the resources of at least the second host server before the virtual machine is migrated to the second host server.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of objects comprises both physical devices and virtual components.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the migration is a projected migration of the virtual machine from the first host server to the second host server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said displaying is performed prior to the migration of the virtual machine to the second host server.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said receiving comprises obtaining the metric data from a management server in communication with the first and second host servers.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the resources comprise at least one of CPU utilization, memory utilization and network utilization of the second host server.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising displaying on-screen graphics indicative of the projected impact on resources of a plurality of host servers including the second host server.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising automatically selecting another host server of the plurality of host servers to receive the migration of the virtual machine, wherein a second projected impact of the migration to the another host server is less than the projected impact of the migration to the second host server.

18. The method of claim 10, additionally comprising correlating the associated metric data acquired over a predetermined period of time prior to said migration.