Interaction with a virtual network

• US 8,806,482 B1
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nagargadde, Aparna, Deb, Bashuman
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kamran, Mehran
• Application Number:
  US12/985,984
• Time in Patent Office: 1,314 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers

Abstract

Systems and method for the management of virtual machine instances are provided. A network data transmission analysis system can host virtual machine networks. A component of a hosted virtual machine network is configured in a manner to receive commands directed towards a simulated network device. The component may then execute a process or processes on the hosted virtual machine network which correspond to the received command.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring activity on a virtual network, comprising:

receiving a client command from a client computing system, the received command eliciting a defined set of processes on a specified logical component of the virtual network, wherein the defined set of processes cause retrieval of information corresponding to a specified activity of the specified logical component of the virtual network during a specified period of time, and wherein functionality of the specified logical component is implemented by one or more components of a substrate network without instantiating the specified logical component on the virtual network;

identifying one or more components of the substrate network which cause implementation of functionality attributable to the specified activity during the specified period of time, wherein the defined set of processes are not executable by the identified one or more components to retrieve the information corresponding to the specified activity;

determining a set of executable processes to be executed by the identified one or more components in order to retrieve the information corresponding to the specified activity, wherein the set of executable processes are directed towards receiving activity information from each of the identified one or more components during at least a portion of the specified period of time;

causing the set of executable processes to be executed by the identified one or more components;

receiving from the identified one or more components a set of process results responsive to the execution of the set of executable processes, the set of process results related to the specified activity of the specified logical component during the specified period of time;

creating, based at least in part on the set of process results, a client result formatted in accordance with a potential output of the specified logical component in response to the received client command; and

transmitting to the client computing system the client result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified logical component corresponds to a hardware device whose functionality is implemented by the substrate network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client result includes copies of all or a portion of data transmitted by the specified logical component during the specified time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client result includes statistical information corresponding to the activity information of each of the identified one or more components.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the statistical information relates to qualitative measures of the specified logical component.

6. The method claim 1, wherein creating a client result further comprises modifying the client result based on a specified set of rules.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of rules are specified in a client configuration.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of rules are specified by the received client command.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the client result based on a specified set of rules includes restricting the client results to activity occurring during periods of a specified activity level.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the client result based on a specified set of rules includes restricting the client results to activity corresponding to a set of protocols.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the client result based on a specified set of rules includes restricting the client results to activity corresponding to a set of component addresses.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a client configuration and modifying the client result based on the client configuration.

13. A system for monitoring activity on a virtual network implemented by a substrate network including at least one networking component and one or more computing devices, each of the one or more computing devices hosting at least one virtual machine instance, wherein the system comprises:

a storage node containing mapping information for mapping a client command directed towards a specified logical component of a virtual network into one or more executable processes to be executed by one or more components of the substrate network, wherein functionality of the specified logical component is implemented by the one or more components of the substrate network without instantiating the specified logical component on the virtual network; and

an interface component operable to;

receive the client command from a client computing system, the received command eliciting a defined set of processes on the specified logical component, wherein the defined set of processes cause retrieval of information corresponding to a specified activity of the specified logical component of the virtual network during a specified period of time;

identify one or more components of the substrate network which cause implementation of functionality attributable to the specified activity during the specified period of time, wherein the defined set of processes are not executable by the identified one or more components to retrieve the information corresponding to the specified activity;

determine a set of executable processes to be executed by the identified set of one or more components in order to retrieve the information corresponding to the specified activity, wherein the set of executable processes are directed towards receiving information from each of the identified set of one or more components during at least a portion of the specified period of time;

cause the set of executable processes to be executed by the identified set of one or more components;

receive from the identified set of one or more components a set of process results, each of the set of process results responsive to the execution of the set of executable processes, the set of process results related to the specified activity of the specified logical component during corresponding to implementation of at least at least a portion of the specified period of time;

generate, based on the set of process results, a client result formatted in accordance with a potential output of the specified logical component in response the received client command; and

transmit to the client computing system the client result.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the specified logical component corresponds to a hardware device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the client result includes all or a portion of data transmitted by the identified one or more components over the specified period of time.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the client result includes statistical information corresponding to activity of the identified one or more components over the specified period of time.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the statistical information relates to qualitative measures of activity of the specified logical component.

18. The system claim 13, wherein the interface component is further operable to modify the client result based on a specified set of rules.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of rules are specified in a client configuration.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of rules are specified by the received client command.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of rules limits the client result to activity corresponding to a set of protocols.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of rules limits the client result to activity during periods of a specified activity level.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of rules limits the client result to activity corresponding to a set of component addresses.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the interface component is further operable to receive a client configuration and modify the client result based on the client configuration.