Datacenter entity information system

• US 9,886,445 B1
• Filed: 01/08/2015
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Mukul, Sharma, Abhijit
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Charles
• Application Number:
  US14/592,893
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1744 using compression, e.g. sparse files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A computerized datacenter entity information method includes obtaining datacenter entity information at an initial time, compressing and storing the datacenter entity information as a datacenter entity frame of reference, obtaining datacenter entity information changes, and compressing and storing the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference. In another implementation, the computerized datacenter entity information method includes obtaining datacenter entity information at an initial time, compressing and storing the datacenter entity information as a datacenter entity frame of reference, obtaining datacenter entity information changes, and compressing and storing the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining datacenter entity information associated with a datacenter at an initial time, wherein the datacenter entity information includes physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter, and hierarchal relationships of virtual entities of the datacenter;

compressing and storing the datacenter entity information as a datacenter entity frame of reference;

obtaining datacenter entity information changes associated with the datacenter at times other than the initial time, wherein the datacenter entity information changes includes changes to the physical connections and the hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter or changes to the hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter;

compressing and storing the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference;

receiving a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of the datacenter;

identifying a portion of the datacenter entity information or the datacenter entity information changes relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying an intent of the natural language based search query based on the identified physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities and the identified hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities;

performing a natural language based search of data pertaining to operation of the data center based on the intent of the natural language based search query; and

generating results of the search other than results from a keyword based search.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein compressing the datacenter entity information includes compressing the datacenter entity information with a lossless data compression format.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting subsequent datacenter entity information changes associated with the datacenter at times other than the initial time;

compressing and storing the subsequent datacenter entity information changes as a subsequent datacenter entity frame of reference; and

compressing and storing the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the subsequent datacenter entity frame of reference.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein compressing the datacenter entity information changes includes delta coding of the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a time period associated with the natural language based search query; and

identifying the portion of the datacenter entity information or the datacenter entity information changes relevant to the identified time period.

6. The method of claim 1, providing a datacenter dictionary containing keywords, sentence structures, and grammar associated with the datacenter, wherein the grammar associates an abbreviation with a part of speech including a noun or a verb,

wherein the datacenter entity information includes the datacenter dictionary, and

wherein the datacenter entity information changes includes changes to the datacenter dictionary.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a network configured in the datacenter; and

visualizing a topology for the network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein visualizing the topology includes displaying a series of layers representing at least one of the physical entities and the virtual entities associated with the network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the results of the search include a state of a network, and

wherein the method further comprises:

storing the state of the network in a collaboration database; and

enabling access and manipulation of the state of the network by different users.

10. A method, comprising:

obtaining first datacenter entity information associated with a datacenter at a first time, wherein the datacenter entity information includes physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter, and hierarchal relationships of virtual entities of the datacenter;

obtaining second datacenter entity information at a second time subsequent to the first time, wherein the second datacenter entity information includes changes to the physical connections and the hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter or changes to the hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter;

compressing and storing the second datacenter entity information as a datacenter entity frame of reference;

identifying differences in the second datacenter entity information relative to the first datacenter entity information;

compressing and storing the differences;

receiving a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of the datacenter;

identifying a portion of the first datacenter entity information or the second datacenter entity information relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying an intent of the natural language based search query based on the identified physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities and the identified hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities;

performing a natural language based search of data pertaining to operation of the data center based on the intent of the natural language based search query; and

generating results of the search other than results from a keyword based search.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein compressing the second datacenter entity information includes compressing the second datacenter entity information with a lossless data compression format.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein compressing the differences includes delta coding of the differences with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a time period associated with the natural language based search query; and

identifying the portion of the first datacenter entity information or the second datacenter entity information relevant to the identified time period.

14. The method of claim 10, providing a datacenter dictionary containing keywords, sentence structures, and grammar associated with the datacenter, wherein the grammar associates an abbreviation with a part of speech including a noun or a verb,

wherein the first datacenter entity information includes the datacenter dictionary, and

wherein the second datacenter entity information includes changes to the datacenter dictionary.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a network configured in the datacenter; and

visualizing a topology for the network.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a computing system to:

obtain datacenter entity information associated with a datacenter at an initial time, wherein the datacenter entity information includes physical connections and hierarchal relationships of physical entities of the datacenter, and hierarchal relationships of virtual entities of the datacenter;

compress and store the datacenter entity information as a datacenter entity frame of reference;

obtain a datacenter entity information changes associated with the datacenter at times other than the initial time, wherein the datacenter entity information changes includes changes to the physical connections and the hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter or changes to the hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter;

compress and store the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference;

receive a natural language based search query including a phrase or an abbreviation for information associated with managing operation of the datacenter;

identify a portion of the datacenter entity information or the datacenter entity information changes relevant to the natural language based search query;

identify physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identify hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities of the datacenter relevant to the natural language based search query;

identifying an intent of the natural language based search query based on the identified physical connections and hierarchal relationships of the physical entities and the identified hierarchal relationships of the virtual entities;

perform a natural language based search of data pertaining to operation of the data center based on the intent of the natural language based search query; and

generate results of the search other than results from a keyword based search.

17. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to compress the datacenter entity information with a lossless data compression format.

18. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

detect subsequent datacenter entity information changes associated with the datacenter at times other than the initial time;

compress and store the subsequent datacenter entity information changes as a subsequent datacenter entity frame of reference; and

compress and store the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the subsequent datacenter entity frame of reference.

19. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to delta code the datacenter entity information changes with respect to the datacenter entity frame of reference.

20. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

identify a time period associated with the natural language based search query; and

identify the portion of the datacenter entity information or the datacenter entity information changes relevant to the identified time period.