Classifying situations for system management

• US 8,725,869 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Reiner, David Stephen, Graham, Stephen G., Todd, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Michael A
• Application Number:
  US13/250,310
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 711/154, 709/224, 340/4.6
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

An information processing system comprises a system management tool, a managed system and a classifier. The system management tool receives a result of a situation classification operation from the classifier, and automatically takes a management action relating to the managed system based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation. The situation classification result may be determined by monitoring operation of the managed system in a situational state space having dimensions that characterize operating conditions of the system, and identifying a current state of the system in the situational state space. The management action automatically taken by the system management tool may comprise, for example, setting at least one policy for the managed system by selecting and deploying a particular one of a plurality of policy sets responsive to the result of the situation classification operation.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving a result of a situation classification operation from a classifier; and

automatically taking a management action in a system management tool for a managed system based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation;

wherein the system management tool has a first scope of vision of the system and the classifier has a second scope of vision of the system different than the first scope of vision, the first and second scopes of vision comprising respective abilities to measure metrics associated with or otherwise impacting operating conditions of the system;

wherein the situation classification operation comprises monitoring operation of the system in a situational state space having dimensions that characterize one or more operating conditions of the system to identify a current state of the system in the situational state space;

wherein at least one of the operating conditions of the system is within the second scope of vision and outside the first scope of vision; and

wherein the steps are performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing the situation classification operation; and

providing the result of the situation classification operation to the system management tool;

wherein the result of the situation classification operation is provided to the system management tool via an application programming interface.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the management action is taken in the system management tool based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation and additional information available to the system management tool, said additional information comprising at least one of local information available internally to the system management tool and a combination of information obtained from a plurality of information sources external to the system management tool.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of automatically taking a management action in the system management tool comprises setting at least one policy in the system management tool by selecting and deploying a particular one of a plurality of policy sets responsive to the result of the situation classification operation.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the situation classification operation is performed at least one of periodically and responsive to occurrence of a designated event.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the situation classification operation is performed in a situational analysis framework of a first processing device and the system management tool is implemented on a second processing device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the system management tool comprises at least one of a quality of service manager, a data migration manager, a resource manager, a load balancer, a workflow manager and an event handler.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the system management tool comprises a quality of service manager implemented in a cloud service environment, the quality of service manager being configured to adjust virtual resource scheduling in the cloud service environment in order to meet one or more service level agreements, based on the result of the situation classification operation in combination with information characterizing individual tenants and their associated virtual resources.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the information characterizing individual tenants and their associated virtual resources is processed by a mash-up application before being combined with the result of the situation classification operation.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the management action taken by the system management tool comprises delivering the situation classification result to separate situational analysis frameworks associated with respective ones of a subset of the tenants as identified by the system management tool based on the result of the situation classification operation in combination with the information characterizing individual tenants and their associated virtual resources.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the system management tool comprises a data migration manager implemented in a tiered storage environment, the data migration manager being configured to control migration of data among tiers of the tiered storage environment based on the result of the situation classification operation and information relating to one or more searches previously performed in the tiered storage environment.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein system management tool comprises a situational analysis framework configured to determine the management action based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the second scope of vision is broader than and fully encompasses the first scope of vision or partially overlaps with the first scope of vision.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having encoded therein executable code of one or more software programs, wherein the one or more software programs when executed by the processor of the processing device implement the steps of:

receiving a result of a situation classification operation from a classifier; and

automatically taking a management action in a system management tool for a managed system based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation;

wherein the system management tool has a first scope of vision of the system and the classifier has a second scope of vision of the system different than the first scope of vision, the first and second scopes of vision comprising respective abilities to measure metrics associated with or otherwise impacting operating conditions of the system;

wherein the situation classification operation comprises monitoring operation of the system in a situational state space having dimensions that characterize one or more operating conditions of the system to identify a current state of the system in the situational state space;

wherein at least one of the operating conditions of the system is within the second scope of vision and outside the first scope of vision.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a system management tool implemented on at least one processing device;

wherein the system management tool is configured to receive a result of a situation classification operation from a classifier, and to automatically take a management action relating to a managed system based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation;

wherein the system management tool has a first scope of vision of the system and the classifier has a second scope of vision of the system different than the first scope of vision, the first and second scopes of vision comprising respective abilities to measure metrics associated with or otherwise impacting operating conditions of the system;

wherein the situation classification operation comprises monitoring operation of the system in a situational state space having dimensions that characterize one or more operating conditions of the system to identify a current state of the system in the situational state space;

wherein at least one of the operating conditions of the system is within the second scope of vision and outside the first scope of vision.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the system management tool comprises at least one of a quality of service manager, a data migration manager, a resource manager, a load balancer, a workflow manager and an event handler.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the situation classification operation is performed in a situational analysis framework external to the system management tool.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the management action is taken in the system management tool based at least in part on the result of the situation classification operation and additional information available to the system management tool, said additional information comprising at least one of local information available internally to the system management tool and a combination of information obtained from a plurality of information sources external to the system management tool.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the system management tool is configured to select and deploy a particular one of a plurality of policy sets responsive to the result of the situation classification operation.

19. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the management action relates to a controllable parameter of an information processing system comprising at least one of a cloud service environment and a tiered storage environment.