Determining events associated with a value

• US 10,579,648 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2017
• Issued: 03/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Original Assignee: Splunk Inc.
• Inventors: Carasso, R. David, Delfino, Micah James, Hwang, Johnvey
• Primary Examiner(s): Ellis, Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US15/582,668
• Publication Number:
  US 20170255601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,039 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

Embodiments are directed towards real time display of event records and extracted values based on at least one extraction rule, such as a regular expression. A user interface may be employed to enable a user to have an extraction rule automatically generate and/or to manually enter an extraction rule. The user may be enabled to manually edit a previously provided extraction rule, which may result in real time display of updated extracted values. The extraction rule may be utilized to extract values from each of a plurality of records, including event records of unstructured machine data. Statistics may be determined for each unique extracted value, and may be displayed to the user in real time. The user interface may also enable the user to select at least one unique extracted value to display those event records that include an extracted value that matches the selected value.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing a set of events in a field-searchable data store that acts as a persistent repository for the events that each include a portion of raw machine data in textual form being produced by a component within an information technology environment and reflecting activity within the information technology environment, wherein the field-searchable data store of events is field-searchable such that a plurality of search queries each containing at least one criterion for a field is executable against the events in the field-searchable data store to cause comparison between the at least one criterion and values extracted from the events by an extraction rule defining the field;

applying an extraction rule, which specifies how to extract a subportion of text from a larger portion of text, to the portion of raw machine data in textual form in each event in the accessed set of events to extract a set of values;

for a first unique extracted value and a second unique extracted value in the extracted set of values, determining a first count of a first unique extracted value in a field defined by the extraction rule and a second count of a second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule;

causing display of a first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count of the first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule and the second count of the second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

causing display of a second display area that presents at least a portion of the events, wherein the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value are visually emphasized in the displayed events, wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the field-searchable data store is searchable to reveal a performance or security of the information technology environment based on the activity reflected by the raw machine data in the data store.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted set of values produced by applying extraction rule to the accessed set of events are semantically related.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the extraction rule at least in part defines the field that can be referenced in a search query by a name for the field.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing display of an indication of a relative rate of occurrence in events of different values from the extracted set of values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of the first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count and the second count further comprises causing display of the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value in a sorted order based on the associated counts.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the extraction rule is a regular expression.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the extraction rule is a regular expression that has been automatically generated to correspond to a user-selected portion of raw machine data in a particular event.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input corresponding to a selection of the first unique extracted value that has been displayed with its associated count;

based on receiving the selection, determining a subset of the set of events such that each event in the subset includes the selected first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

modifying the second display area to include only events in the determined subset and to hide any events not in the determined subset.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a second extraction rule to the portion of raw machine data in textual form in each event in the accessed set of events to extract a second set of values;

for a third extracted value in the extracted second set of values, determining a third count of the third extracted value in a second field defined by the second extraction rule; and

causing display of the first extracted value, the second extracted value, and the third extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count, second count, and third count.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the second display area is presented concurrently with the first display area.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions that, when executed on a processor, implement a method comprising:

accessing a set of events in a field-searchable data store that acts as a persistent repository for the events that each include a portion of raw machine data in textual form being produced by a component within an information technology environment and reflecting activity within the information technology environment, wherein the field-searchable data store of events is field-searchable such that a plurality of search queries each containing at least one criterion for a field is executable against the events in the field-searchable data store to cause comparison between the at least one criterion and values extracted from the events by an extraction rule defining the field;

applying an extraction rule, which specifies how to extract a subportion of text from a larger portion of text, to the portion of raw machine data in textual form in each event in the accessed set of events to extract a set of values;

for a first unique extracted value and a second unique extracted value in the extracted set of values, determining a first count of a first unique extracted value in a field defined by the extraction rule and a second count of a second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule;

causing display of a first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count of the first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule and the second count of the second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

causing display of a second display area that presents at least a portion of the events, wherein the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value are visually emphasized in the displayed events, wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the field-searchable data store is searchable to reveal a performance or security of the information technology environment based on the activity reflected by the raw machine data in the data store.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein causing display of the first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count and the second count further comprises causing display of the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value in a sorted order based on the associated counts.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the extraction rule is a regular expression that has been automatically generated to correspond to a user-selected portion of raw machine data in a particular event.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, implementing the method further comprising:

receiving input corresponding to a selection of the first unique extracted value that has been displayed with its associated count;

based on receiving the selection, determining a subset of the set of events such that each event in the subset includes the selected first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

modifying the second display area to include only events in the determined subset and to hide any events not in the determined subset.

15. A system including one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions that, when executed on the processors, implement actions comprising:

accessing a set of events in a field-searchable data store that acts as a persistent repository for the events that each include a portion of raw machine data in textual form being produced by a component within an information technology environment and reflecting activity within the information technology environment, wherein the field-searchable data store of events is field-searchable such that a plurality of search queries each containing at least one criterion for a field is executable against the events in the field-searchable data store to cause comparison between the at least one criterion and values extracted from the events by an extraction rule defining the field;

applying an extraction rule, which specifies how to extract a subportion of text from a larger portion of text, to the portion of raw machine data in textual form in each event in the accessed set of events to extract a set of values;

for a first unique extracted value and a second unique extracted value in the extracted set of values, determining a first count of a first unique extracted value in a field defined by the extraction rule and a second count of a second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule;

causing display of a first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count of the first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule and the second count of the second unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

causing display of a second display area that presents at least a portion of the events, wherein the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value are visually emphasized in the displayed events, wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the field-searchable data store is searchable to reveal a performance or security of the information technology environment based on the activity reflected by the raw machine data in the data store.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein causing display of the first display area that presents the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value concurrently with the corresponding first count and the second count further comprises causing display of the first unique extracted value and the second unique extracted value in a sorted order based on the associated counts.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the extraction rule is a regular expression that has been automatically generated to correspond to a user-selected portion of raw machine data in a particular event.

19. The system of claim 15, further implementing actions comprising:

receiving input corresponding to a selection of a first unique extracted value that has been displayed with its associated count;

based on receiving the selection, determining a subset of the set of events such that each event in the subset includes the selected first unique extracted value in the field defined by the extraction rule; and

modifying the second display area to include only events in the determined subset and to hide any events not in the determined subset.