System comprising probe runner, monitor, and responder with associated databases for multi-level monitoring of a cloud service

• US 8,661,125 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2011
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Avner, Jon, Li, Wilson, Jasapara, Nirav, Bublichenko, Oleksandr, Usher, Sean, Chung, Charlie, Jalobeanu, Mihai, Padmanabhan, Prasanna Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Barry, Lance L
• Application Number:
  US13/249,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20130086203A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems

Abstract

A multi-level monitoring system is provided for monitoring multiple performance aspects of a cloud service concurrently in order to generate a full and reliable performance analysis of the cloud service. The multi-level monitoring system may include a set of components for carrying out the performance analysis of the cloud service which may be deployed together to operate externally, internally, or concurrently with the cloud service. The component framework of the multi-level monitoring system may include a main component, a plug-in associated with the main component, a definition database, a log database, and an output database. The main components of an example multi-level monitoring framework may include a probe runner component for probing the cloud service, a monitor component for generating alerts based on probe results, and a responder component for processing the alerts and taking appropriate actions to improve the cloud service performance.

Claims

1. A method at least partially executed on a computing device for providing a multi-level monitoring system for monitoring performance of a cloud service, the method comprising:

deploying a set of components including a probe runner component, a monitor component, and a responder component;

associating the probe runner component with a probe definition database, the monitor component with a rule definition database, and the responder component with a response definition database;

configuring each component from the set by retrieving input configuration data from the associated definition database, wherein the input configuration data from the probe definition database includes a description of one or more actions for the probe runner component to perform in executing a performance analysis of the cloud service and the input configuration data from the rule definition database includes a description of one or more alerts for the monitor component to generate in response to the performance analysis of the cloud service by the probe runner component;

downloading a plug-in associated with each component;

executing the plug-ins associated with each component; and

providing an output stream of results of the plug-in execution to an output database associated with each component.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising one or more of:

associating the probe runner component with a probe plug-in;

associating the monitor component with a rule plug-in; and

associating the responder component with a response plug-in.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

configuring the probe runner component to retrieve the input configuration data from the probe definition database;

enabling the probe runner component to execute the probe plug-in for executing a performance analysis of the cloud service according to the input configuration data from the probe definition database;

enabling the probe runner component to report results of the performance analysis of the cloud service to a probe results database; and

writing the results to a log database associated with the probe runner component.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

configuring the monitor component to retrieve the results of the performance analysis by the probe plug-in from the probe results database;

enabling the monitor component to execute the rule plug-in to determine if an alert is to be generated based on the results of the performance analysis by the probe plug-in;

enabling the monitor component to generate the alert based on the results of the performance analysis by the probe plug-in;

enabling the monitor component to report the generated alert to an alerts database; and

recording the generated alert in a log database associated with the monitor component.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

enabling the monitor component to generate statistics and report the statistics to a statistics database associated with the monitor component for aggregating information about the results of the performance analysis by the probe plug-in.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the responder component to detect when the alert is added to the alerts database; and

enabling the responder component to execute the response plug-in to generate a response workflow based on the detected alert from the alerts database.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the response workflow includes one or more of:

an escalation, a throttle, a suppression, and a recovery action.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

upon completion of the response workflow by the response plug-in, marking the alert as resolved; and

recording the resolved alert in a log database associated with the monitor component.

9. A computing device for providing a multi-level monitoring system for monitoring performance of a cloud service, the computing device comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an application for generating a performance analysis of the cloud service, wherein the application is configured to;

deploy a set of components including a probe runner component, a monitor component, and a responder component;

associate the probe runner component with a probe definition database, the monitor component with a rule definition database, and the responder component with a response definition database;

configure each component of the set of components to retrieve input configuration data from respective definition databases;

download a plug-in associated with each component of the set of components;

execute the plug-in associated with each component of the set of components; and

provide an output stream of plug-in execution results to an output database associated with each component of the set of components.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein each plug-in includes managed code to be executed by each associated component for performing component functionality.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the probe definition database, the rule definition database, and the response definition database are one of:

a relational database, a comma separated values (CSV) file, and an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the application is further configured to:

enable the probe runner component to execute the probe plug-in for executing the performance analysis of the cloud service according to input configuration data from the probe definition database and to report results of the performance analysis of the cloud service to a probe results database;

enable the monitor component to retrieve the results of the performance analysis from the probe results database, to generate an alert based on the results of the performance analysis, and to report the generated alert to an alerts database; and

enable the responder component to execute the response plug-in to generate a response workflow based on a detected alert from the alerts database.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the application is further configured to:

enable the probe runner component to report a failure result of the performance analysis of the cloud service to a probe results database when one of;

the probe plug-in does not complete, the probe plug-in crashes, and the probe plug-in hangs.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

execute two or more multi-level monitoring systems for monitoring the performance of the cloud service concurrently from two or more distinct datacenters.

15. A method executed at least in part in a computing device for providing a multi-level monitoring system for monitoring a performance of a cloud service, the method comprising:

deploying a set of components including a probe runner component, a monitor component, and a responder component;

associating the probe runner component with a probe definition database, the monitor component with a rule definition database, and the responder component with a response definition database;

configuring each component of the set of components to retrieve input configuration data from respective definition databases;

downloading a probe plug-in associated with the probe runner component, a rule plug-in associated with the monitor component, and a response plug-in associated with the responder component;

executing the plug-in associated with each component;

providing an output stream of plug-in execution results to an output database associated with each component of the set of components; and

recording the results of each executed plug-in to a logs database associated with each component.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises one of:

operating the multi-level monitoring system as an independent system that runs external to the cloud service on a separate server;

operating the multi-level monitoring system as an independent module on a separate server within the cloud service; and

operating the multi-level monitoring system concurrently on a cloud-based server of the cloud service.