Compact service status processing

• US 9,571,353 B1
• Filed: 06/12/2014
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chheda, Mahendra Manshi, Mamacos, Daine Mimico Neale, Pillay, Suvenderan, Haselbach, Christian Arne
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian P
• Application Number:
  US14/303,406
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time

Abstract

Hosts for virtual computing nodes may communicate health and status information through a low-bandwidth interface. Event descriptions evolving over time may be communicated through a fixed-length bit field whose format also evolves over time. Information describing the evolving data format may be communicated through an out-of-band communications channel. Event descriptions transmitted using the evolving data format may be processed once the format is accessible to the recipient of the event descriptions.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first one or more computing nodes, the first one or more computing nodes configured to process event information, the first one or more computing nodes communicatively coupled, by a controller, to one or more computing devices configured as a host for one or more virtual computing nodes;

one or more memories having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, upon execution by the first one or more computing nodes, cause the system at least to;

receive, at the first one or more computing nodes, a first data of a fixed length, the first data indicative of a first event of a first plurality of events occurring during a first period of time on at least one of the first one or more virtual computing nodes;

receive, at the first one or more computing nodes, information indicative of a first data format for the first data, the first data format for the first data based at least in part on a frequency of the first event in the first plurality of events;

initiate a response to the first event based at least in part on the first data and the first data format;

receive, at the first one or more computing nodes, a second data of the fixed length, the second data indicative of a second event of a second plurality of events occurring during a second period of time on at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes, the second period of time at least partially subsequent to the first period of time;

receive, at the first one or more computing nodes, information indicative of a second data format for the second data, the second data format determined based at least in part on a frequency of the second event in the second plurality of events, the frequency of the second event in the second plurality of events being greater than the frequency of the first event in the first plurality of events; and

initiate a response to the second event based at least in part on the second data and the second data format.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first data format comprises a first bit region corresponding to a service definition and a second bit region corresponding to an error condition.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second event corresponds to a service operating on the one or more virtual computing nodes during the second period of time but in less than all of the first period of time.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more memories having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, upon execution by the first one or more computing nodes, cause the system at least to:

determine the response to the second event based at least in part on a subset of the second data, the subset of the second data located based at least in part on the second data format.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more memories having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, upon execution by the first one or more computing nodes, cause the system at least to:

identify at least one service or device that became operable on at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes after the first period of time;

determine a frequency of events associated with the service or device; and

determine the second data format based at least in part on encoding a value to represent the at least one service or device.

6. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more computing devices, a first format for transmitting data indicative of a plurality of events occurring on one or more virtual computing nodes, the first format having a first length, wherein determining the first format comprises determining a first representation of a first event of the plurality of events, the first representation having a length less than or equal to the first length;

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, data indicative of the first event of the plurality of events using the first format and the first representation;

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, data indicative of the first format;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, to transmit data indicative of a second event of the plurality of events using a second format instead of the first format, the determining based at least in part on relative frequencies of the first event and the second event in the plurality of events, the second format having the first length, the second format comprising a second representation of the second event, the second representation having a length less than or equal to the first length;

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, the data indicative of the second event using the second format; and

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, data indicative of the second format.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first format comprises a first bit region corresponding to a service definition and a second bit region corresponding to an error condition.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first event corresponds to a service operating on the one or more virtual computing nodes.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the second event corresponds to a service that began operating on the one or more virtual computing nodes after determination of the first format.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a response to the second event based at least in part on the second format and based at least in part on the second representation.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the response to the second event is determined to be indicative of preserving a state associated with at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, at least one service that became operable on at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes after determination of the first format;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a frequency of events associated with the service; and

determining, by the one or more computing devices, the second format based at least in part on encoding a value to represent the at least one service.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a computing node added to the one or more virtual computing nodes after determination of the first format; and

determining, by the one or more computing devices, the second format based at least in part on encoding a value to represent the computing node that was added.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device at least to:

process a first data of a fixed length, the first data indicative of a first event that has occurred on one of one or more virtual computing nodes, wherein processing the first data is based at least in part on a first format for the first data, the first format based at least in part on a first frequency of events occurring on the one or more virtual computing nodes during a first period of time; and

process a second data of the fixed length, the second data indicative of a second event that has occurred on at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes, wherein processing the second data is based at least in part on a second format for the first data, the second format determined based at least in part on a second frequency of events occurring on the one or more virtual computing nodes during a second period of time, the second period of time at least partially subsequent to the first period of time.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the first format comprises a bit region corresponding to a service definition and a bit region corresponding to an error condition.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the second event corresponds to a service operating on the one or more virtual computing nodes during the second period of time.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, upon execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to at least:

determine a response to the second event based at least in part on a subset of the second data, the subset of the second data located based at least in part on the second format.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, upon execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to at least:

identify at least one service or device that became operable on at least one of the one or more virtual computing nodes subsequent to the first period of time;

determine a frequency of events associated with the service or device; and

determine the second format based at least in part on encoding a value to represent the at least one service or device.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, upon execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to at least:

store the second data in response to determining that the second format is not accessible for processing the second data, store the second data prior to processing; and

processing the second data in response to the second format becoming accessible.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, upon execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to at least:

determine the second format based at least in part on excluding, from the second format, events whose frequency in the second period of time is below a threshold amount.