Troubleshooting network paths in a distributed computing environment

• US 9,893,968 B1
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nagargadde, Aparna, Stalzer, Mark Edward, Sukumaran, Anish
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Houlihan, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US14/037,299
• Time in Patent Office: 1,602 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

Remote computing resource service providers allow customers to reduce overhead by using computing resources shared with other customers. Customers communicate with the computing resources over a network, such as the Internet, these networks enable the use of remote computing resources but do experience errors. To ensure access to resources by the customer, a network troubleshooting service allows the customer to determine connectivity between computing resources and provides operations to the customer that when performed establish connectivity between computing resources. Furthermore, monitoring of connectivity once a connection is established ensures that the resources maintain connectivity.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for troubleshooting network connectivity in a networked computing resource environment, the networked computing resource environment operated by a computing resource service provider, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving, by the one or more computer systems and from a customer device, a first application programming interface call that encodes an identifier for a first resource, an identifier for a second resource, and a request to determine connectivity between the first resource and the second resource; and

in response to the first application programming interface call, at least;

generating, by the one or more computer systems;

a second application programming interface call to a first service of the computing resource service provider hosting the first resource, the second application programming interface call requesting information regarding the first resource;

a third application programming interface call to a second service of the computing resource service provider hosting the second resource, the third application programming interface call requesting information regarding the second resource; and

a fourth application programming interface call to a third service requesting information regarding at least one of the first resource or the second resource, the fourth application programming interface call identifying the at least one of the first resource or the second resource and requesting additional information regarding the first and second resource, wherein the third service communicates with one or more other services outside a network path determined, based at least in part on a network graph, to exist between the first resource and second resource to obtain the additional information regarding either the first or second resource;

in response to the one or more computer systems receiving the additional information from the third service, processing, by the one or more computer systems, at least information received by the one or more computer systems in response to the second and third application programming interface call regarding the first resource and the second resource and the additional information received by the one or more computer systems in response to the fourth application programming interface call so as to generate, by the one or more computer systems, a determination of one or more connectivity states between the first resource and the second resource; and

providing, by the one or more computer systems to the customer device, information indicating the determination of the one or more connectivity states between the first and the second resource.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the request to determine connectivity between the first resource and the second resource includes a request to monitor the connectivity between the first resource and the second resource; and

further comprising, in response to the request to monitor the connectivity between the first resource and the second resource, monitoring, by the one or more computer systems, the connectivity between the first resource and the second resource by at least;

performing, by the one or more computer systems, one or more connection tests between the first resource and the second resource to generate data corresponding to the one or more connection tests;

processing the data to generate a determination of connectivity between the first resource and the second resource; and

providing, in response to the request, the determination of connectivity.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing, in response to the request, information indicating the determination of the one or more connectivity states between the first and the second resource includes indicating operations to establish connectivity between the first resource and the second resource.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request to determine connectivity between the first and the second resources specifies an application executing on a resource of the computing resource service provider for which connectivity between the first and second resource is to be determined.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the information indicating the determination of the one or more connectivity states between the first resource and the second resource includes applying one or more operations to establish connectivity between the first and second resources without a synchronous customer request to apply the operations to establish connectivity between the first resource and the second resource.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein processing the information regarding the first resource and the second resource so as to generate the determination of the one or more connectivity states between the first resource and the second resource exists includes, as a result of determining that the first resource and the second resource have a connecting path:

determining connectivity of the first resource and the second resource at a first level in a protocol stack; and

in response to determining connectivity exists between the first resource and the second resource at the first level in the protocol stack, determining connectivity of the first resource and the second resource at a second level of the protocol stack.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the protocol stack is in accordance with an OSI model; and

the customer device is a separate resource from both the first resource and the second resource.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the determination of the one or more connectivity states between the first resource and the second resource exists includes determining if a firewall is preventing access between the first resource and the second resource.

9. A system, comprising:

a data processing subsystem comprising a collection of computing resources configured to implement one or more services, wherein the one or more services are collectively configured to;

in response to receiving a request for connectivity data, the request specifying a first resource and a second resource, at least;

querying, by the one or more services, a first service that hosts the first resource in order to obtain information about the first resource;

querying, by the one or more services, a second service to obtain additional information about the first resource, wherein the second service communicates with one or more other services, outside a network path usable by the first service to obtain the additional information;

in response to the one or more services receiving additional information from the second service, processing, by the data processing subsystem, at least the information and the additional information to generate a determination whether connectivity between the first resource and the second resource exists; and

providing, by the one or more services, the connectivity data indicating at least the determination.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein querying the first service that hosts the first resource in order to obtain information about the first resource further includes querying at least one additional service in order to obtain information about at least one of the first or the second resource.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein:

the request that specifies the first resource and the second resource includes a request to monitor a connection between the first resource and the second resource; and

the one or more services are further configured to at least monitor the connection between the first resource and the second resource by at least;

causing information to be transmitted between the first resource and the second resources;

collecting data corresponding to the information transmitted between the first and the second resources; and

determining connectivity between the first and the second resource.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein generating the determination whether connectivity between the first resource and the second resource exists includes:

checking connectivity between the first resource and the second resource on a network path at a first level of a protocol stack; and

in response to determining connectivity exists between the first resource and the second resource on the network path at the first level of the protocol stack, determining connectivity of the first resource and the second resource at a second level of the protocol stack.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein querying the first service that hosts the first resource in order to obtain information about the first resource includes querying the first service that hosts the second resource in order to obtain information about the second resource.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein generating the determination whether connectivity between the first resource and the second resource exists includes processing one or more policies accessible to the one or more services to determine whether the one or more policies prevent access to the first resource by the second resource.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein querying the first service that hosts the first resource in order to obtain information about the first resource includes generating, by the one or more services, an application programming interface request to the first service.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein generating the determination whether connectivity between the first resource and the second resource exists includes determining a configuration of a networking interface of at least the first resource.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein generating the determination includes-performing one or more operations to establish connectivity between the first resources and the second resources without a synchronous customer request to apply the operations to establish connectivity between the first resource and the second resource.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

determine connectivity between at least two resources specified in a request for connectivity data, by at least;

querying a first service that hosts a first resource of the at least two resources to obtain information about the first resource;

querying a second service to obtain additional information about the first resource, wherein the second service communicates with one or more other services, outside a network path usable by the first service to obtain the additional information;

in response to receiving additional information from the second service, processing at least the information and the additional information to generate a determination whether connectivity between the first resource and a second resource of the at least two resources exists; and

providing the connectivity data indicating at least the determination.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein generating the determination includes monitoring, for a predetermined period of time, the at least two resources to determine if connectivity has been lost.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the request for connectivity data includes, as a parameter to the request information corresponding to an application or networking protocol operating in connection with at least one of the at least two resources.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein:

generating the determination includes determining a network path between at least two of the at least two resources at a first layer of a protocol stack; and

for each layer of the protocol stack above the first layer of the protocol stack, checking connectivity between the two resources.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein:

the first layer of the protocol stack is layer two of an OSI model; and

each layer of the protocol stack above the first layer is layer three or higher of the OSI model.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein generating the determination is based at least in part on an access policy of a resource of the at least two resources.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein generating the information about the at least two resources further includes transmitting an application program interface call to an additional service.