Interactive, top-down presentation of the architecture and performance of a hypervisor environment

• US 9,495,187 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bingham, Brian, Fletcher, Tristan
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lu, Kevin X
• Application Number:
  US13/874,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20130247044A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,295 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]

Abstract

Techniques promote monitoring of hypervisor systems by presenting dynamic representations of hypervisor architectures that include performance indicators. A reviewer can interact with the representation to progressively view select lower-level performance indicators. Higher level performance indicators can be determined based on tower level state assessments. A reviewer can also view historical performance metrics and indicators, which can aid in understanding which configuration changes or system usages may have led to sub-optimal performance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying, on a computing device, a parent component in a virtual-machine environment, wherein the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, a host, or a set of two or more virtual machines;

identifying a set of two or more child components having at least one of the following relationships to the parent component;

when the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a host in the host cluster,

when the parent component includes a host, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host, and

when the parent component includes a set of two or more virtual machines, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine in the set of two or more virtual machines;

determining, on a computing device, a performance metric for each child component in the set of two or more child components, wherein the performance metric characterizes a task-processing time, a count or percentage of task completions, an intake number, a resource power state, a processor usage, a processor speed, a memory usage, a network usage, an occurrence of memory swapping or memory ballooning, an occurrence of an error, a task migration variable, a processing-power allocation, or a memory allocation;

determining a child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion maps a first range of values for a performance metric to a first child component performance state and a second range of values for the performance metric to a second child-component performance state;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion includes a threshold percentage or number of child components that have a specified state;

displaying a visual representation of the virtual-machine environment as a hierarchical tree, wherein the visual representation includes a representation of the parent component and an indication of the parent state of the parent component, but does not include a representation of the two or more child components;

when a user selects the parent component through a user interface, displaying a representation of the set of two or more child components, and an indication of the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components; and

when the user selects one of the two or more child components through the user interface, displaying a representation of a set of two or more lower-level child components of the selected child component, and an indication of a performance state for each displayed lower-level child component of the selected child component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the child-component state criterion includes a threshold separating the first range of values from the second range of values.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components using the child-performance state criterion includes mapping the performance metric for the child component to the child-component performance state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, and each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a host in the host cluster.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent component includes a host, and each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent component includes a set of two or more virtual machines, and each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine in the set of two or more virtual machines.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the parent-component state criterion based on user input.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components includes:

determining a performance-metric statistic based on a set of performance metrics for the child component, wherein the set of performance metrics includes the performance metric; and

comparing the performance-metric statistic to a threshold for the performance metric.

9. A system, comprising:

one or more data processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform actions including;

identifying, on a computing device, a parent component in a virtual-machine environment, wherein the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, a host, or a set of two or more virtual machines;

identifying a set of two or more child components having at least one of the following relationships to the parent component;

when the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a host in the host cluster,

when the parent component includes a host, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host, and

when the parent component includes a set of two or more virtual machines, each child compo the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine in the set of two or more virtual machines;

determining, on a computing device, a performance metric for each child component in the set of two or more child components, wherein the performance metric characterizes a task-processing time, a count or percentage of task completions, an intake number, a resource power state, a processor usage, a processor speed, a memory usage, a network usage, an occurrence of memory swapping or memory ballooning, an occurrence of an error, a task-migration variable, a processing-power allocation, or a memory allocation;

determining a child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion maps a first range of values for a performance metric to a first child-component performance state and a second range of values for the performance metric to a second child-component performance state;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on the child-component performance state for components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion includes a threshold percentage or number of child components that have a specified state;

displaying a visual representation of the virtual-machine environment as a hierarchical tree, wherein the visual representation includes a representation of the parent component and an indication of the parent state of the parent component, but does not include a representation of the two or more child components;

when a user selects the parent component through a user interface, displaying a representation of the set of two or more child components, and an indication of the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components; and

when the user selects one of the two or more child components through the user interface, displaying a representation of a set of two or more lower-level child components of the selected child component, and an indication of a performance state for each displayed lower-level child component of the selected child component.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the parent component includes a host, and each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the actions further include:

generating the parent-component state criterion based on user input.

12. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform actions including:

identifying, on a computing device, a parent component in a virtual machine environment, wherein the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, a host, or a set of two or more virtual machines;

identifying a set of two or more child components having at least one of the following relationships to the parent component;

when the parent component includes a host cluster of two or more hosts, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a host in the host cluster,

when the parent component includes a host, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host, and

when the parent component includes a set of two or more virtual machines, each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine in the set of two or more virtual machines;

determining, on a computing device, a performance metric for each child component in the set of two or more child components, wherein the performance metric characterizes a task-processing time, a count or percentage of task completions, an intake number, a resource power state, a processor usage, a processor speed, a memory usage, a network usage, an occurrence of memory swapping or memory ballooning, an occurrence of an error, a task migration variable, a processing-power allocation, or a memory allocation;

determining a child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion maps a first range of values for a performance metric to a first child-component performance state and a second range of values for the performance metric to a second child component performance state;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion includes a threshold percentage or number of child components that have a specified state;

displaying a visual representation of the virtual-machine environment as a hierarchical tree, wherein the visual representation includes a representation of the parent component and an indication of the parent state of the parent component, but does not include a representation of the two or more child components;

when a user selects the parent component through a user interface, displaying a representation of the set of two or more child components, and an indication of the child-component performance state for each child component in the set of two or more child components; and

when the user selects one of the two or more child components through the user interface, displaying a representation of a set of two or more lower-level child components of the selected child component, and an indication of a performance state for each displayed lower-level child component of the selected child component.

13. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the parent component includes a host, and each child component in the set of two or more child components includes a virtual machine running on the host.

14. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the actions further include:

generating the parent-component state criterion based on user input.