Creating a group of members based on monitoring a social network

• US 9,923,859 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Vijayaraghavan, Spracklen, Lawrence, Celebi, Emre
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US13/926,819
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, operational conditions of members of the virtualization infrastructure are monitored, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to a social network such that at least a portion of the members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network. A group of members of the virtualization infrastructure is created within the social network based at least in part on the operational conditions.

Claims

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

providing members of the virtualization infrastructure with access to a shared message stream of a social network such that the members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular other members which generated the messages, 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, and wherein the members of the social network 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;

responsive to a first non-human member of the virtualization infrastructure identifying a specific operational condition of the first non-human member, monitoring the shared message stream 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 first non-human member, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the first non-human member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the first non-human member is configured to establish the association;

monitoring the operational conditions of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, the operational conditions comprising the specific operational condition identified by the first non-human member, the non-human members comprising the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network such that at least a portion of the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network; and

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the operational conditions.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the messages comprise hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the creating a group of members comprises:

creating a group of members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network in response to monitoring a pre-determined number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

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

prioritizing the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure based on a number of the hash tags identifying the operational conditions.

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

increasing visibility of the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure based on popularity of the hash tags for particular operational conditions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the operational conditions comprises:

monitoring operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the creating a group of members comprises:

creating a group of members of the virtualization infrastructure of the social network having similar operational conditions.

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

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, the method comprising:

providing members of the virtualization infrastructure with access to a shared message stream of a social network such that the members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular other members which generated the messages, 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, and wherein the members of the social network 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;

responsive to a first non-human member of the virtualization infrastructure identifying a specific operational condition of the first non-human member, monitoring the shared message stream 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 first non-human member, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the first non-human member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the first non-human member is configured to establish the association;

monitoring messages posted to the shared message stream of the social network by non-human members of the social network associated with the virtualized infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, the operational conditions comprising the specific operational condition identified by the first non-human member, the non-human members comprising the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network such that at least a portion of the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network; and

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the monitored messages.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the messages comprises hash tags identifying operational conditions of the members of the virtualization infrastructure.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the creating a group of members comprises:

creating a group of members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network in response to monitoring a pre-determined number of the hash tags identifying operational conditions.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising:

prioritizing the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure based on a number of the hash tags identifying operational conditions.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

increasing a visibility of the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure based on popularity of hash tags for particular operational conditions.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the creating a group of members comprises:

creating a group of members of the virtualization infrastructure of the social network having similar operational conditions.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

monitoring operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.

17. A computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing members of the virtualization infrastructure with access to a shared message stream of a social network such that the members of the virtualization infrastructure are able to monitor messages generated by other members of the virtualization infrastructure posted to the shared message stream, wherein at least some of the messages are indicative of operational conditions of particular other members which generated the messages, 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, and wherein the members of the social network 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;

responsive to a first non-human member of the virtualization infrastructure identifying a specific operational condition of the first non-human member, monitoring the shared message stream 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 first non-human member, establishing an association of the message with an indication that the first non-human member identifies with the specific operational condition, wherein the first non-human member is configured to establish the association;

monitoring messages posted to the shared message stream of the social network by non-human members of the social network associated with the virtualization infrastructure by a social network monitoring agent, the operational conditions comprising the specific operational condition identified by the first non-human member, the non-human members comprising the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the posted messages comprise hash tags identifying operational conditions of the members of the virtualization infrastructure, wherein the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network such that at least a portion of the non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network;

automatically creating a group of non-human members of the virtualization infrastructure within the social network by the social network monitoring agent based at least in part on the operational conditions; and

sending a private message to a system administrator indicating creation of the group of members of the virtualization infrastructure.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising:

monitoring operational conditions in a log file provided by one of the members of the social network.