Administration of a member of a network

• US 9,736,254 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Vijayaraghavan, Celebi, Emre, Spracklen, Lawrence
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mohammadi, Kamran
• Application Number:
  US13/926,878
• Time in Patent Office: 1,512 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a member of a network, performance of a member of a network is monitored by an agent, wherein members of the network are provided with access to a shared message stream such that the members of the network are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the network posted to the shared message stream. Responsive to the agent identifying a specific operational condition of the member, the shared message stream is monitored for a message related to the specific operational condition. Provided the shared message stream comprises a message related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent, an association of the message with an indication that the member identifies with the specific operational condition is established, wherein the agent is configured to establish the association.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a member of a network, the method comprising:

mapping members of the network to a social network, wherein the mapping is based at least in part on respective indications that particular computing members of the network are following other particular computing members of the network, wherein the network comprises a virtualization infrastructure mapped to the social network of the members;

monitoring performance of a computing member of the network by an agent installed on the computing member, wherein computing members of the network are provided with access to a shared message stream such that the computing members of the network are able to monitor messages generated by other computing members of the network posted to the shared message stream, wherein the social network supports the shared message stream;

responsive to the agent identifying a specific operational condition of the computing member, monitoring the shared message stream for a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition by the agent; and

provided the shared message stream comprises a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the computing member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the message is updated according to the indication, and wherein the agent is configured to establish the association.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

provided the shared message stream does not comprise a message related to the specific operational condition, the agent posting a message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the agent posting the message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream comprises:

appending at least one hash tag to the message, wherein the at least one hash tag is related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring the shared message stream for a message related to the specific operational condition comprises:

determining a relevance of an indicated operational condition of a specific message to the computing member by the agent, the relevance being based on compatibility of the indicated operational condition to the specific operational condition; and

in response to determining that there is compatibility of the indicated operational condition to the specific operational condition, the agent determining that the specific message is related to the specific operational condition.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring performance of the computing member of the network by the agent comprises:

checking system metrics of the computing member; and

determining whether the system metrics are within a desired performance range.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the system metrics comprise:

processor usage;

disk usage; and

memory usage.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the monitoring performance of the computing member of the network by the agent further comprises:

storing a history of the system metrics of the computing member.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising:

appending a chart of at least a portion of the system metrics related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent to the message of the shared message stream related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the members of the network comprise:

a system administrator,

a virtualization management server,

a plurality of hosts; and

a plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the members are arranged in a hierarchy such that the system administrator follows the virtualization management server, and the virtualization management server follows at least one of the hosts.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer-readable program code stored thereon for causing a computer system to perform a method for facilitating management of a member of a virtualization infrastructure, the method comprising:

mapping members of the virtualization infrastructure to a social network, wherein the mapping is based at least in part on respective indications that particular computing members of the network are following other particular computing members of the network;

monitoring performance of a computing member of the virtualization infrastructure by an agent installed on the computing member, wherein computing members of the virtualization infrastructure are provided with access to a shared message stream of the social network such that the computing members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other computing members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein the social network supports the shared message stream;

responsive to the agent identifying a specific operational condition of the computing member, monitoring the shared message stream for a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition by the agent;

provided the shared message stream comprises a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the computing member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the message is updated according to the indication, and wherein the agent is configured to establish the association; and

provided the shared message stream does not comprise a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent, the agent posting a message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the agent posting the message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream comprises:

appending at least one hash tag to the message, wherein the at least one hash tag is related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the monitoring the shared message stream for a message related to the specific operational condition comprises:

determining a relevance of an indicated operational condition of a specific message to the computing member by the agent, the relevance being based on compatibility of the indicated operational condition to the specific operational condition; and

in response to determining that there is compatibility of the indicated operational condition to the specific operational condition, the agent determining that the specific message is related to the specific operational condition.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the monitoring performance of the computing member of the virtualization infrastructure by the agent comprises:

checking system metrics of the computing member; and

determining whether the system metrics are within a desired performance range.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the system metrics comprise:

processor usage;

disk usage; and

memory usage.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the monitoring performance of the computing member of the virtualization infrastructure by the agent further comprises:

storing a history of the system metrics of the computing member.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

appending a chart of at least a portion of the system metrics related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent to the message of the shared message stream related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage of claim 10, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure comprise:

a system administrator,

a virtualization management server,

a plurality of hosts; and

a plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the members are arranged in a hierarchy such that the system administrator follows the virtualization management server, and the virtualization management server follows at least one of the hosts.

18. A computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a member of a network, the method comprising:

mapping members of the network to a social network, wherein the mapping is based at least in part on respective indications that particular computing members of the network are following other particular computing members of the network, wherein the network comprises a virtualization infrastructure mapped to the social network of the members;

monitoring performance of a computing member of the network by an agent installed on the computing member, wherein computing members of the network are provided with access to a shared message stream such that the computing members of the network are able to monitor messages generated by other computing members of the network posted to the shared message stream, wherein the monitoring performance of the computing member of the network by the agent comprises checking system metrics of the computing member, wherein the social network supports the shared message stream;

responsive to the agent identifying a specific operational condition of the computing member based at least in part on the system metrics, monitoring the shared message stream for a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition by the agent;

provided the shared message stream comprises a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the computing member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the shared message stream is updated according to the indication, and wherein the agent is configured to establish the association;

provided the shared message stream does not comprise a message posted by another agent installed on another computing member of the network and related to the specific operational condition, the agent posting a message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream, the agent posting the message related to the specific operational condition of the computing member to the shared message stream comprising appending at least one hash tag to the message, wherein the at least one hash tag is related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent; and

appending a chart of at least a portion of the system metrics related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent to the message of the shared message stream related to the specific operational condition identified by the agent.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein the members of the network comprise:

a system administrator,

a virtualization management server,

a plurality of hosts; and

a plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the members are arranged in a hierarchy such that the system administrator follows the virtualization management server, and the virtualization management server follows at least one of the hosts.