Systems and methods for determining parent states of parent components in a virtual-machine environment based on performance states of related child components and component state criteria during a user-selected time period

• US 9,733,974 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2016
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Inventors: Bingham, Brian, Fletcher, Tristan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, James J
• Application Number:
  US15/139,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20160239336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

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 lower 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:

causing display of a representation of a subset of a virtual machine environment, wherein components of the virtual machine environment include at least one host cluster, at least one host and a plurality of virtual machines, wherein the representation depicts the hierarchical relationships between user-selectable components corresponding to at least a subset of the components in the virtual machine environment;

upon receiving a selection of a component determined to be a parent component having at least one child component in the virtual-machine environment;

determining a performance metric for each child component of the parent component, wherein the performance metric for the child component indicates a performance of the child component;

determining a performance state for each child component of the parent component based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion associates each of a plurality of performance states with separate range of values of the performance metric for the child component;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on performance states of the associated child components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion associates the parent state with a particular performance state based on a threshold percentage or number of the associated child components that have the particular performance state; and

causing display of an indication of the state of the parent component, wherein if the display does not include a representation of the associated child components, causing display of the associated child components, indications of their performance states, and their hierarchical relationship to the selected parent component, wherein the virtual machine environment is modified using the display of the representation of the subset of the virtual machine environment by moving, adding or removing the user-selectable components corresponding to the components.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance metric for a child component characterizes one or more of the following:

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;

an occurrence of memory ballooning;

an occurrence of an error;

a task migration variable;

a processing-power allocation; and

a memory allocation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the display of the representation of the subset of the virtual-machine environment includes an indication of a performance state for each child component.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a user selects the parent component through a user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the child-component state criterion includes thresholds separating ranges of values for performance states.

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

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

8. 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;

causing display of a representation of a subset of a virtual machine environment, wherein components of the virtual machine environment include at least one host cluster, at least one host and a plurality of virtual machines, wherein the representation depicts the hierarchical relationships between user-selectable components corresponding to at least a subset of the components in the virtual machine environment;

upon receiving a selection of a component determined to be a parent component having at least one child component in the virtual-machine environment;

determining a performance metric for each child component of the parent component, wherein the performance metric for the child component indicates a performance of the child component;

determining a performance state for each child component of the parent component based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion associates each of a plurality of performance states with separate range of values of the performance metric for the child component;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on performance states of the associated child components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion associates the parent state with a particular performance state based on a threshold percentage or number of the associated child components that have the particular performance state; and

causing display of an indication of the state of the parent component, wherein if the display does not include a representation of the associated child components, causing display of the associated child components, indications of their performance states, and their hierarchical relationship to the selected parent component, wherein the virtual machine environment is modified using the display of the representation of the subset of the virtual machine environment by moving, adding or removing the user-selectable components corresponding to the components.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the performance metric for a child component characterizes one or more of the following:

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;

an occurrence of memory ballooning;

an occurrence of an error;

a task migration variable;

a processing-power allocation; and

a memory allocation.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the display of the representation of the subset of the virtual-machine environment includes an indication of a performance state for each child component.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a user selects the parent component through a user interface.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the child-component state criterion includes thresholds separating ranges of values for performance states.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the actions further include generating the parent-component state criterion based on user input.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the actions further include generating the child component state criterion based on user input.

15. 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:

causing display of a representation of a subset of a virtual machine environment, wherein components of the virtual machine environment include at least one host cluster, at least one host and a plurality of virtual machines, wherein the representation depicts the hierarchical relationships between user-selectable components corresponding to at least a subset of the components in the virtual machine environment;

upon receiving a selection of a component determined to be a parent component having at least one child component in the virtual-machine environment;

determining a performance metric for each child component of the parent component, wherein the performance metric for the child component indicates a performance of the child component;

determining a performance state for each child component of the parent component based on the performance metric for the child component and a child-component state criterion, wherein the child-component state criterion associates each of a plurality of performance states with separate range of values of the performance metric for the child component;

determining a parent state for the parent component based on performance states of the associated child components and a parent-component state criterion, wherein the parent-component state criterion associates the parent state with a particular performance state based on a threshold percentage or number of the associated child components that have the particular performance state; and

causing display of an indication of the state of the parent component, wherein if the display does not include a representation of the associated child components, causing display of the associated child components, indications of their performance states, and their hierarchical relationship to the selected parent component, wherein the virtual machine environment is modified using the display of the representation of the subset of the virtual machine environment by moving, adding or removing the user-selectable components corresponding to the components.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the performance metric for a child component characterizes one or more of the following:

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;

an occurrence of memory ballooning;

an occurrence of an error;

a task migration variable;

a processing-power allocation; and

a memory allocation.

17. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the actions further include causing display of an indication of a performance state for a child component.

18. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein a user selects the parent component through a user interface.

19. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the child-component state criterion includes thresholds separating ranges of values for performance states.

20. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the actions further include generating the parent-component state criterion based on user input.