System and method of network diagnosis

• US 8,644,185 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CF DB EZ LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: KIP CR P1 LP (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Inventors: Sims, Robert C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liu, Ben H
• Application Number:
  US13/091,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20110194451A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 370252-253
• US Class Current: 370/253
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0471 applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding

Abstract

Embodiments provide systems and methods for diagnosing a network and identifying problems in a network which reduce the data transfer rate of data through the network. One embodiment of a method for network diagnosis may include infusing data into a network upstream and downstream of a portion of the network relative to a library drive, querying the drive at intervals over time for drive data to determine the data transfer rate at the drive and comparing the data transfer rate of the data infused upstream of the device or network portion with the data transfer rate of the data infused downstream of the device or network portion to determine throughput. By comparing the data transfer rate of data infused upstream and downstream of a network device or network portion, problem devices in a network may be identified.

Claims

1. A system for network diagnosis, comprising:

a library comprising a drive coupled to a network;

an infusion device coupled to the network, wherein there is a portion of the network between the infusion device and the drive, the infusion device configured to infuse control data into the network at an infused data transfer rate, wherein infusing control data into the network comprises sending commands to the drive to write corresponding data to the drive; and

a monitoring appliance coupled to the network and configured to send SCSI commands, including a first SCSI command and a second SCSI command subsequent to the first SCSI command, to the drive over the network when the control data is being transferred at the drive, wherein the monitoring appliance is further configured to calculate, for the infused control data, the data transfer rate of the infused control data at the drive based on comparing drive data returned in response to at least the first SCSI command and the second SCSI command to determine a measure of a network throughput for the portion of the network between the infusion device and the drive;

wherein the first SCSI command comprises one of a Log Sense Command or an Inquiry Command and the second SCSI command comprises one of a Log Sense Command or an Inquiry Command.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the infusion device is configured to receive commands over the network and wherein the monitoring appliance is configured to send commands to the infusion device over the network.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitoring appliance is configured to cause the infusion device to infuse control data into the network by sending commands over the network to the infusion device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitoring appliance is configured to select the control data by sending commands over the network to the infusion device.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the control data is a known sequence of data.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the control data has a specific compressibility.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring appliance is further configured to store device data returned in response to one or more commands in a repository.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the network is a fibre channel network.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the drive is virtualized.

8. A method for network diagnosis, comprising:

infusing control data at a first known location into a network coupled to a drive upstream of a portion of the network relative to the drive;

infusing control data at a second known location into the network downstream of the portion of the network after infusing data at the first known location has stopped;

querying the drive at intervals over time for drive data by sending one or more Log Sense (LS) commands or Inquiry commands to the drive, including a first set of LS commands or Inquiry commands when control data infused at the first known location is being transferred at the drive and a second set of LS commands or Inquiry commands when control data infused at the second known location is being transferred at the drive;

determining a first data transfer rate based on returned drive data returned in response to the first set of LS commands or Inquiry commands;

determining a second data transfer rate based on returned drive data returned in response to the second set of LS commands or Inquiry commands;

comparing the first data transfer rate to the second data transfer rate to determine a throughput of the portion of the network between the first known location and second known location.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the control data is a known sequence of data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the control data has a specific compressibility.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the control data is selected by a monitoring appliance.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing returned drive data in a repository.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying the first data transfer rate or the second data transfer rate to a user utilizing a user interface.

21. The method of claim 8, wherein the network is a fibre channel network.

23. The method of claim 8, wherein the drive is a virtual tape drive.

14. A computer program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable media embodying computer executable instructions implementing a method for network diagnosis comprising:

sending a first command at a first time to a first infusion device at a first network location, the command selected to cause the first infusion device to send SCSI commands and known data to a tape drive;

;

sending a second command at a second time to a second infusion device at second network location downstream of the first network location, the command selected to cause the second infusion device to send SCSI write commands and the known data to the tape drive;

querying the tape drive at intervals over time for drive data by sending a first set of Log Sense (LS) commands or Inquiry commands to the tape drive when the known data infused by the first infusion device is being transferred at the tape drive and a second set of LS or Inquiry commands to the tape drive when the known data infused by the second infusion device is being transferred at the drive and the known data infused by the first infusion device is no longer being transferred at the drive;

determining a first data transfer rate based on returned drive data returned in response to the first set of LS or Inquiry commands;

determining a second data transfer rate based on returned drive data returned in response to the second set of LS or Inquiry commands;

comparing the first data transfer rate to the second data transfer rate to determine a throughput of a portion of the network between the first infusion device and the second infusion device.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the known data is a known sequence of data.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the known data has a specific compressibility.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises sending a third command to the first infusion device to select the known data.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, the method further comprising storing returned drive data in a repository.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, the method further comprising displaying the first data transfer rate or the second data transfer rate to a user utilizing a user interface.

24. A method for network diagnosis, comprising:

at an infusion device coupled to a network, infusing control data into the network at an infused data transfer rate, wherein infusing control data into the network comprises sending commands to a drive to write corresponding data to the drive, wherein there is a portion of the network between the infusion device and the drive; and

at a monitoring appliance coupled to the network, sending SCSI commands to the drive over the network, including sending a first SCSI command and a second SCSI command subsequent to the first SCSI command, when the control data is being transferred at the drive; and

determining for the infused control data, the data transfer rate of the infused control data at the drive based on comparing drive data returned in response to at least the first SCSI command and the second SCSI command to determine a measure of a network throughput for the portion of the network between the infusion device and the drive;

wherein the first SCSI command comprises one of a Log Sense Command or an Inquiry Command and the second SCSI command comprises one of a Log Sense Command or an Inquiry Command.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the monitoring appliance and infusion device are physically separate and the method further comprises sending a third command from the monitoring appliance to the infusion device to cause the infusion device to infuse the control data.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the monitoring appliance selects the control data.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the control data has a known sequence of data.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the control data has a specific compressibility.