Middlebox reliability

• US 9,262,253 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Jain, Navendu, Potharaju, Rahul
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US13/536,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26, 714/47.1, 714/47.3, 714/48
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/065 involving logical or physical relationship, e.g. grouping and hierarchies

Abstract

The discussion relates to middlebox reliability. One example can apply event filters to a dataset of middlebox error reports to separate redundant middlebox error reports from a remainder of the middlebox error reports of the dataset. The example can categorize the remainder of the middlebox error reports of the dataset by middlebox device type. The example can also generate a graphical user interface that conveys past reliability and predicted future reliability for an individual model of an individual middlebox device type.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts, the acts comprising:

obtaining a set of middlebox error reports relating to a set of middlebox devices having multiple different middlebox device types;

separating spurious and duplicate middlebox error reports from a filtered sub-set of the middlebox error reports;

correlating the filtered sub-set of the middlebox error reports with other middlebox-related data to produce correlated data; and

,

performing inference analysis on the correlated data to estimate middlebox reliability for multiple middlebox models within an individual middlebox device type or to evaluate effectiveness of middlebox redundancy.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the middlebox reliability is estimated for the individual middlebox device type and for the multiple middlebox models within the individual middlebox device type.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the separating comprises applying a pipeline of event filters to the set of middlebox error reports to generate the filtered sub-set of the middlebox error reports, and wherein the pipeline of event filters includes an individual event filter relating to time or another individual event filter relating to chatty events.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the other middlebox-related data is obtained from sources other than the set of middlebox error reports, and wherein the other middlebox-related data comprises one or more of:

traffic data, configuration data, maintenance data, prior failure history data, or device meta-data.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the spurious and duplicate middlebox error reports are generated by the set of middlebox devices.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the correlating is performed across multiple dimensions comprising:

time of occurrence, duration of occurrence, physical location, type, property, configuration setup, or functional role of involved middleboxes.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the performing inference analysis on the correlated data further comprises applying spatial panoramas or trend analysis to identify other middlebox device types that are relatively highly failure prone and other middlebox models that are relatively highly failure prone.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the middlebox redundancy is evaluated for a redundancy group of the set of middlebox devices that has at least two individual instances of the individual middlebox device type.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

applying event filters to a dataset of middlebox error reports to separate redundant middlebox error reports from a remainder of the middlebox error reports of the dataset;

categorizing the remainder of the middlebox error reports of the dataset by middlebox device type; and

,

generating a graphical user interface that conveys past reliability and predicted future reliability for an individual model of an individual middlebox device type.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising correlating the remainder of the middlebox error reports with other middlebox-related data and performing the categorizing and the generating on data produced by the correlating.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising determining a recommended replacement date for the individual model of the individual middlebox device type.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the determining includes both site-up and cost-down considerations.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising determining a recommended number of spares to maintain for the individual model of the individual middlebox device type.

14. A system, comprising:

an event analysis component configured to evaluate datacenter middlebox error reports that relate to multiple types of middlebox devices and multiple models within an individual middlebox device type, and wherein the event analysis component is further configured to evaluate the middlebox device types and models from both a datacenter site-up perspective and a datacenter cost-down perspective.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the event analysis component further comprises a middlebox error report filter module that is configured to create a filter pipeline from a set of available event filters that relate to time, redundancy, impact, and planned maintenance.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the event analysis component further comprises a middlebox error report correlation module that is configured to correlate individual error reports with other middlebox-related data that is not obtained from the datacenter middlebox error reports.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the event analysis component further comprises a middlebox recommendation module that is configured to predict future reliability of individual middlebox device models.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the event analysis component further comprises a middlebox recommendation module that is configured to recommend a replacement date for individual middlebox device models.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the system is manifest on a single computer.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the datacenter middlebox error reports relate to a single datacenter and the system comprises the single datacenter, or wherein the datacenter middlebox error reports relate to multiple datacenters and the system comprises the multiple datacenters, or wherein the datacenter middlebox error reports relate to the single datacenter and the system does not include the single datacenter, or wherein the datacenter middlebox error reports relate to multiple datacenters and the system does not include the multiple datacenters.

21. The system of claim 14, further comprising at least one hardware processor configured to execute computer-readable instructions of the event analysis component.