Methods and apparatus for remote gateway monitoring and diagnostics

• US 8,639,989 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Issued: 01/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sorenson, James Christopher III, Lin, Yun, Alapati, Nishanth, Maison, Ardis G.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOHN, JOSHUA A
• Application Number:
  US13/174,156
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47.1, 714/47.2, 709/224
• US Class Current: 714/47.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2082 Data synchronisation
• 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 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• 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 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• 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 2201/855 Details of asynchronous mirroring using a journal to transfer not-yet-mirrored changes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and computer-accessible storage media for remotely monitoring and diagnosing storage gateways. Status information may be collected locally on the gateways and uploaded to a service provider via gateway-initiated connections. The uploaded information may be stored to status data store(s). Status proxy(s) on the provider network may analyze the information in the status data store(s) for one or more gateways to detect error conditions on individual gateways or patterns or error conditions on multiple gateways. Upon detecting an error condition on a gateway, the proxy may alert another process, for example an administrator process on the local network that includes the respective gateway. The other process may then message the gateway to address the condition. Information for particular gateways may be provided to clients on request. Information collected from multiple gateways may be viewed and analyzed by the service provider to detect patterns related to gateway design.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a gateway control component of a service provider network, status information from a storage gateway process executing on a client network, wherein the storage gateway process provides an interface between one or more client processes on the client network and a storage service provided by the service provider network for accessing client data maintained on a remote data store by the storage service, and wherein the status information indicates values for one or more operational metrics of the storage gateway process;

storing the received status information to a status data store on the service provider network;

analyzing, by a status proxy process on the service provider network, at least one operational metric of the storage gateway process in at least a portion of the status information in the status data store to determine if a threshold condition has occurred for the storage gateway process; and

upon determining that a threshold condition has occurred for the storage gateway process, initiating, by the status proxy process, one or more actions to address the threshold condition.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein, to determine if a threshold condition has occurred for the storage gateway process, the status proxy process compares values of the at least one operational metric to at least one specified threshold value for the at least one operational metric.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising iteratively performing said receiving, said storing, and said analyzing.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information is received from the storage gateway process via a secure connection initiated by storage the gateway process.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

the gateway control component receiving respective status information from two or more storage gateway processes executing on one or more client networks and storing the respective status information to at least one status data store on the service provider network; and

the status proxy process collectively analyzing the stored status information received from the two or more storage gateway processes to determine if a threshold condition has occurred for an individual storage gateway process or to determine operational characteristics of the two or more storage gateway processes.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising storing the received status information to two or more status data stores on the service provider network.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising storing at least one operational metric of the storage gateway process in the received status information to one of the two or more data stores and storing at least one different operational metric of the storage gateway process in the received status information to a different one of the two or more data stores.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said storing the received status information to a status data store on the service provider network comprises forwarding at least a portion of the received status information to a service that maintains the status data store.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said initiating, by the status proxy process, one or more actions to address the threshold condition comprises messaging a client network administrator process on the client network that the threshold condition has been detected.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the one or more actions to address the threshold condition comprise:

receiving, at the service provider network, one or more configuration or operation requests for the storage gateway process from the client network administrator process; and

forwarding, by the service provider network, the one or more configuration or operation requests to the storage gateway process via a secure connection initiated by the storage gateway process.

11. A device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by the at least one processor to implement a status proxy process on a service provider network operable to;

access a status data store comprising status information received from a gateway process on a client network, wherein the gateway process provides an interface between one or more client processes on the client network and a service provided by the service provider network, and wherein the status information indicates values for one or more operational metrics of the gateway process;

analyze at least one operational metric of the gateway process in at least a portion of the status information in the status data store to determine if an error condition has occurred for the gateway process; and

upon determining that an error condition has occurred for the gateway process, initiate one or more actions to address the error condition.

12. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein, to determine if an error condition has occurred for the gateway process, the status proxy process compares values of the at least one operational metric to at least one specified threshold value for the at least one operational metric.

13. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the status information is received from the gateway process via a secure connection initiated by the gateway process.

14. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the status information is received by a gateway control process of the service provider network, wherein the gateway control process stores the status information to one or more status data stores.

15. The device as recited in claim 14, wherein, to store the status information to the one or more status data stores, the gateway control process forwards at least a portion of the received status information to at least one service that maintains at least one of the one or more status data stores.

16. The device as recited in claim 14, wherein the gateway control process stores at least one operational metric of the storage gateway process in the received status information to one of the one or more status data stores and stores at least one different operational metric of the storage gateway process in the received status information to a different one of the one or more status data stores.

17. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the status data store includes respective status information received from two or more gateway processes executing on one or more client networks.

18. The device as recited in claim 17, wherein the status proxy process is further operable to collectively analyze the status information received from the two or more gateway processes to determine if an error condition has occurred for an individual gateway process or to determine operational characteristics of the two or more gateway processes.

19. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the gateway process is a storage gateway process, and wherein the service is a remote storage service.

20. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein, to initiate one or more actions to address the error condition, the status proxy process is operable to alert a client network administrator process on the client network that the threshold condition has been detected.

21. The device as recited in claim 11, wherein the status proxy process is further operable to:

receive, from another process on the client network or on the service provider network, a request for a specified portion of the status data store; and

provide, to the requesting process, the specified portion of the status data store.

22. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions computer-executable to implement a gateway status proxy process on a service provider network operable to:

access at least one status data store comprising status information received from a plurality of gateway processes on one or more client networks, wherein each client network includes one or more of the plurality of gateway processes, wherein each gateway process provides an interface between one or more client processes on the respective client network and one of one or more services provided by the service provider network, and wherein the status information indicates values for one or more operational metrics of the respective gateway process;

analyze the status information in the at least one status data store to determine if an error condition has occurred for a particular one of the plurality of gateway processes; and

upon determining that an error condition has occurred for the particular gateway process, initiate one or more actions to address the error condition on the particular gateway process.

23. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein, to determine if an error condition has occurred for the particular gateway process, the gateway status proxy process compares values of at least one operational metric to at least one threshold value for the at least one operational metric.

24. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the status information is received from the plurality of gateway processes via secure connections to the service provider network initiated by the gateway processes.

25. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the status information is received by one or more gateway control processes of the service provider network, wherein the one or more gateway control processes provide the status information to one or more status data stores.

26. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein, to provide the status information to the one or more status data stores, the one or more gateway control processes forward at least a portion of the received status information to at least one service that maintains at least one of the one or more status data stores.

27. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein the one or more gateway control processes store at least one operational metric of the storage gateway processes to one of the one or more status data stores and store at least one different operational metric of the storage gateway processes to a different one of the one or more status data stores.

28. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the status proxy process is further operable to collectively analyze the status information received from the plurality of gateway processes to determine operational characteristics of or error conditions on the plurality of gateway processes.

29. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein at least one of the plurality of gateway processes is a storage gateway process, and wherein at least one of the one or more services is a storage service.

30. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein, to initiate one or more actions to address the error condition on the particular gateway process, the status proxy process is operable to alert another process on the respective client network or on the service provider network, said alert indicating that the particular error condition has been detected.

31. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the status proxy process is further operable to:

receive, from another process on one of the one or more client networks or on the service provider network, a request for a specified portion of the status data store; and

provide, to the requesting process, the specified portion of the status data store.

32. A device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by the at least one processor to implement a storage gateway process operable to provide an interface to one or more client processes on a local network for accessing client data maintained on a remote data store by a service provider network;

wherein the program instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to implement a gateway monitoring agent operable to;

periodically or aperiodically collect one or more operational metrics of the storage gateway process; and

periodically or aperiodically upload at least a portion of the collected one or more operational metrics as gateway status information to the service provider network via a secure connection established by the storage gateway process;

wherein the storage gateway process is further operable to;

receive, from the service provider network via the secure connection, instructions to perform one or more actions to address an operational condition of the storage gateway process, wherein the operational condition is detected by an analysis of the uploaded gateway status information performed by a process on the service provider network; and

perform the indicated one or more actions.

33. The device as recited in claim 32, wherein the one or more operational metrics of the storage gateway process include storage utilization metrics and gateway error conditions.

34. The device as recited in claim 33, wherein the storage utilization metrics include storage utilization metrics for a write log to which the storage gateway process appends write data, wherein the write data in the write log is periodically or aperiodically uploaded to the remote data store.

35. The device as recited in claim 33, wherein the gateway error conditions include error conditions on a secure connection to the service provider network established by the storage gateway process for accessing the client data on the remote data store.