Centralized configuration and monitoring of a distributed computing cluster

• US 9,172,608 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2012
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cloudera Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cloudera Incorporated
• Inventors: Zeyliger, Philip, Langdale, Philip L., Hunt, Patrick D.
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US13/566,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Systems and methods for centralized configuration and monitoring of a distributed computing cluster are disclosed. One embodiment of the disclose technology enables deployment and central operation a complete Hadoop stack. The application automates the installation process and reduces deployment time from weeks to minutes. One embodiment further provides a cluster-wide, real time view of the services running and the status of the host machines in a cluster via a single, central place to enact configuration changes across the computing cluster which further incorporates reporting and diagnostic tools to optimize cluster performance and utilization.

Claims

1. A system to manage and configure a computing cluster including a catalog of hosts, the system comprising:

a plurality of agents deployed to the catalog of hosts,

wherein the agents are configured to start an in-memory process on each of the catalog of hosts to aggregate statistics associated with each of the catalog of hosts,

wherein, to aggregate the statistics, the agents are configured to perform a plurality of tests suitable for one or more of;

(1) a distributed file storage system jointly operated among the catalog of hosts, (2) a distributed data processing system jointly operated among the catalog of hosts, or (3) a distributed database management system jointly operated among the catalog of hosts,

wherein the plurality of tests, including a canary test, are configured with one or more configurable thresholds, and

wherein the agents are further configured to transmit the aggregated statistics and a plurality of heartbeat signals to a server; and

the server, having a memory and a processor, coupled over a network to the computing cluster, wherein the server, when in operation,

tracks or updates a data model associated with the catalog of hosts in the computing cluster, wherein the data model specifies one or more of;

services assigned to each of the hosts, configurations assigned to each of the hosts, or configurations regarding the deployed agents;

provides a user interface for inputting configuration settings that are to be deployed among the catalog of hosts in the computing cluster;

configures the agents deployed to the hosts in the computing cluster based on the configuration settings, wherein the configuration settings include the one or more configurable thresholds;

tracks the aggregated statistics received from the agents deployed to the hosts over time; and

depicts on the user interface results from said tracking, wherein the user interface includes a chart that illustrates how the aggregated statistics for a select host changes over time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, the server further maintains a history of the health and the performance metrics.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein, the server deploys the agents to each of the hosts and communicates with the agents to send the configuration settings to configure each of the hosts in the computing cluster.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the agents are further configured to start and stop in-memory processes on each of the hosts to run services that provide distributed storage and distributed processing functionalities which together form the computing cluster.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein, the agents create directories, processes, and files on hosts in a user-specific manner.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein, the server performs health calculations of the hosts based on the statistics collected by the agents.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein, the services include Hadoop services.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein, the data model is stored in a repository coupled to the server, wherein the data model further specifies roles assigned to each of the hosts.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the data model further specifies monitoring information regarding the in-memory process on each of the hosts.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein

the configuration settings include configurations for Hadoop services to be run in the computing cluster.

11. The system of claim 3, wherein, the configurations for the Hadoop services are specified via the user interface accessible via a web browser.

12. The system of claim 3, wherein the user interface includes a time selector feature allowing selection of a time range within which to view services, activities, logs, or events, that are recorded in the aggregated statistics with respect to the catalog of hosts.

13. The system of claim 3, wherein the server further provides, via the user interface, enablement of a selection of a service during installation to be run on the catalog of hosts in the computing cluster.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the server further provides recommended configuration settings of the Hadoop service or the hosts in the computing cluster to run the service;

wherein, the recommended configuration settings include suggested ranges for parameters and invalid values for the parameters.

15. The system of claim 3, wherein, the aggregated statistics, after being collected, are transmitted to the server in real time or near real time.

16. The system of claim 3, wherein the aggregated statistics include historical information regarding the computing cluster.

17. The system of claim 3, wherein the server further:

generates an alert responsive to detecting an event in the computing cluster meeting a criteria.