Control device, information processing device, monitoring and control method, and program

Abstract

To efficiently monitor information processing equipment that comprises both physical and virtualized components. [Solution] A control device for monitoring and controlling an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, comprising: a communication unit that collects first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualized portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion; and a determination unit that identifies a fault location based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for fault recovery in an information processing apparatus.

Background Art

[0002] In recent years, the demand for edge computing has been increasing in order to operate applications that require low latency and to reduce security risks by storing data on the cloud. In edge computing, a method of constructing a virtualization infrastructure on an edge server and operating an application on a virtual machine on the virtualization infrastructure is mainstream.

[0003] As a method for managing edge servers and virtual machines, there is a method using an edge controller, and the edge controller can perform functions such as monitoring the life and death and obtaining backups. In the management of edge servers, it is common to use a unique controller developed by each hardware vendor.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] In the prior art, the monitoring methods for the physical part and the part above the virtualization infrastructure (virtualization part) are different, and the respective monitoring data cannot be collected in one place. Therefore, in the prior art, it is necessary to manually identify the cause location when a failure occurs. That is, the prior art has a problem that it is impossible to efficiently monitor an information processing apparatus including a physical part and a virtualization part.

[0006] This invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to provide a technology that enables efficient monitoring of an information processing device comprising a physical part and a virtualization part. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] According to the disclosed technology, a control device for monitoring and controlling an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, A communication unit that collects first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion, A determination unit that identifies the location of a fault based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information. A control device is provided that includes the following. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to the disclosed technology, it becomes possible to efficiently monitor information processing equipment that comprises both physical and virtualized components. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0009] [Figure 1] This is a diagram showing the configuration of the communication system in the first embodiment. [Figure 2] This is a flowchart of the first embodiment. [Figure 3] This diagram shows the decision logic for determining the action in the first embodiment. [Figure 4] This is a diagram showing the configuration of the communication system in the second embodiment. [Figure 5] This is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the communication system in the third embodiment. [Figure 6] This is a diagram showing the configuration of the communication system in the fourth embodiment. [Figure 7] This diagram shows the decision logic for determining the action in the fourth embodiment. [Figure 8] This figure shows an example of the device's hardware configuration. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0010] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention (this embodiment) will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below are merely examples, and the embodiments to which the present invention is applied are not limited to the embodiments described below.

[0011] In this embodiment, the technology according to the present invention is assumed to be applied to edge computing, but the scope of application of the technology according to the present invention is not limited to edge computing. The technology according to the present invention can be applied to various fields.

[0012] (Summary of the embodiment) In this embodiment, the physical monitoring function of the server and the monitoring function of the virtualization infrastructure are integrated, making it possible to incorporate the monitoring results of each into a unified logic. Furthermore, the network interface is shared between the physical monitoring function and the virtualization infrastructure monitoring function, achieving redundancy in the communication path between the edge server and the edge controller.

[0013] The system configuration and operation in this embodiment will be described in detail below using the first to third embodiments.

[0014] (First Embodiment) First, the first embodiment will be described. Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of the communication system in the first embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, this communication system has a physical server 100 and a controller 200. The physical server 100 has a compute node 110 and a management node 120. Note that the "physical server" may also be called an information processing device. Also, the "controller" may be called a control device. Communication is possible between the physical server 100 and the controller 200 via a communication network.

[0015] Compute node 110 has a software part 130 and a physical part 140. The software part 130 has a virtualization infrastructure 131, a software monitoring part 132, a communication part 133, and a VM 134. The physical part 140 has a processor 141, a storage 142, and a memory 143. Note that using a VM is just an example. Containers may be used instead of VMs. VMs and containers may be collectively referred to as applications. Also, "virtualization infrastructure 131 and VM 134" may be called the virtualized part. The physical part 140 may be called the physical part.

[0016] Management node 120 has a physical monitoring part 121, a storage part 122, and a communication part 123. Controller 200 has a communication part 210 and a determination part 220. Note that the "storage part" may be called "storage".

[0017] The operation example of the communication system in the first embodiment will be described according to the procedure of the flowchart in FIG. 2. First, the overall flow of the operation will be described below, and then each step will be described in detail. Note that the outline of the step numbers used in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is also shown in the configuration diagram of FIG. 1.

[0018] <S1 (Step 1)> In S1, management node 120 performs backups of virtualization infrastructure 131 and VM 134.

[0019] <s2> In S2, the software monitoring unit 132 and the physical monitoring unit 121 perform monitoring and transmit monitoring information to the controller 200.

[0020] <s3> In S3, controller 200 performs a review of the monitoring information. The next step to take is determined by the review result. The review logic will be described later.

[0021] <s4-1> In S4-1, based on instructions from the controller 200, the management node 120 restores the virtualization infrastructure 131 using a backup. After S4-1, the process proceeds to S4-2.

[0022] <s4-2> In S4-2, based on instructions from controller 200, management node 120 performs VM recovery using snapshots.

[0023] <s4-3> In S4-3, the controller 200 contacts the maintainer.

[0024] Each process will be described in more detail below.

[0025] <Details of S1: Backup of the virtualization infrastructure 131 and the VM 134> In S1, the management node 120 stores the "host OS including the virtualization infrastructure 131" and the "snapshot of the VM 134" as backups in the storage unit 122 on the management node 120.

[0026] Assume the following two patterns for the backup method of the virtualization infrastructure 131: (1) and (2).

[0027] (1) Pattern of backing up the entire virtualization infrastructure 131 (2) Pattern of extracting only the configuration file as a backup In the pattern of extracting only the configuration file as a backup, at the time of recovery, after installing a new virtualization infrastructure, copy the following information from the storage unit 122 to the new virtualization infrastructure.

[0028] · Configuration files such as user information and host name of the OS · Network information for connecting to the controller 200 · Network information for LAN connection · Configuration file of the virtualization infrastructure <Details of S2: Monitoring and transmission of monitoring information> In S2, the software monitoring unit 132 in the software unit 130 monitors the virtualization infrastructure 131 and the VM 134 respectively. The software monitoring unit 132 uses the communication unit 133 to transmit the monitoring information to the controller 200.

[0029] The physical monitoring unit 121 in the management node 120 monitors the physical unit 140 of the compute node 110. The physical monitoring unit 121 uses the communication unit 123 to transmit the monitoring information to the controller 200.

[0030] <Details of S3: Determination of Monitoring Information> In S3, the controller 200 receives monitoring information from each of the software monitoring unit 132 and the physical monitoring unit 121 via the communication unit 210. The communication unit 210 passes the received monitoring information to the determination unit 220.

[0031] The determination unit 220 identifies the failure location based on the monitoring information, determines an action (the next step to proceed) corresponding to the identified failure location according to the logic shown in FIG. 3, and performs the recovery of the failure location.

[0032] For example, if the physical unit 140 is normal and the virtualization infrastructure 131 and VM134 are normal, the determination unit 220 determines not to perform an action. Other cases are as shown in FIG. 3. It is assumed that when the virtualization infrastructure 131 fails, the failure information of VM134 cannot be obtained either.

[0033] <Details of S4-1: Recovery of Virtualization Infrastructure Using Backup> In S3, when the physical unit 140 is normal and the virtualization infrastructure 131 fails, proceed to S4-1. Also, proceed to S4-1 even after the physical unit 140 fails and recovers.

[0034] In S4-1, the controller 200 (or the management node 120) restarts the virtualization infrastructure 131 (host OS) several times. If the situation still remains unchanged, the management node 120 restores the virtualization infrastructure 131 using the backup stored in the storage unit 122 based on an instruction from the controller 200. The recovery method is, as described above, reinstallation of the virtualization infrastructure, or application of configuration files, etc.

[0035] <Details of S4-2: Recovery of VM Using Snapshot> In S4-2 that proceeds next to S4-1, the controller 200 (or the management node 120) repeatedly restarts the guest OS in the VM134. If the situation still remains unchanged, the management node 120 reconstructs the VM134 using the snapshot stored in the storage unit 122 based on an instruction from the controller 200. That is, the VM134 is started from the snapshot stored in the storage unit 122.

[0036] <Details of S4-3: Notification to the maintainer> In S4-3 that proceeds when the physical unit 140 fails, for example, the controller 200 notifies the maintainer. Thereafter, the maintainer performs a failure recovery operation. When the controller 200 acquires the recovery information from the physical monitoring unit 121, it recovers the virtualization infrastructure 131 and the VM134 as described in S4-1 and S4-2.

[0037] (Second Embodiment) Next, the second embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the communication system in the second embodiment.

[0038] As shown in FIG. 4, the communication system of the second embodiment is different from the communication system in the first embodiment in that it includes a storage server 400 (external storage). Except for this point, the configuration and operation of the first embodiment and the configuration and operation of the second embodiment are basically the same. Note that the storage server may be referred to as a storage unit.

[0039] In FIG. 4, the physical server 1 (100) and the physical server 2 (300) are shown to indicate that the storage server 400 can store information of a plurality of physical servers as a common storage. Also, in FIG. 4, although it is assumed that the management node 120 does not include the storage unit 122, the management node 120 may include the storage unit 122 in the second embodiment.

[0040] In the second embodiment, instead of using the storage unit 122 within the management node 120 in steps S1 (backup step) and S4 (recovery step) as in the first embodiment, an external storage server 400 is used. As shown in the example in Figure 4, in an environment with multiple physical servers, the storage server 400 becomes the common storage.

[0041] (Third embodiment) Next, a third embodiment will be described. Figure 5 shows an example of the configuration of the communication system in the third embodiment. The configuration and operation of the third embodiment are basically the same as those of the first embodiment, but the third embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the communication unit can be switched. Specifically, it is as follows.

[0042] In S2 (monitoring and transmission of monitoring information) in Figure 2, if the software monitoring unit 132 is unable to send information to the controller 200 using the communication unit 133 of the software unit 130 (for example, if it fails after performing ping three times), the software monitoring unit 132 communicates with the controller 200 using the communication unit 123 of the management node 120.

[0043] Similarly, if the physical monitoring unit 121 is unable to send information to the controller 200 using the communication unit 123 on the management node 120, the physical monitoring unit 121 will communicate with the controller 200 using the communication unit 133 of the software unit 130. In this case, if information is successfully sent from the communication unit 123 of the management node 120, the management node 120 will recognize that the communication unit 133 in the software unit 130 is corrupted, based on instructions from the controller 200, and will reinstall the virtualization infrastructure.

[0044] (Fourth Embodiment) Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. Figure 6 shows an example of the configuration of the communication system in the fourth embodiment.

[0045] In the first embodiment, which has already been described, the compute node and the management node are run on the same physical server. In contrast, in the fourth embodiment, as shown in Figure 6, the compute node and the management node are run on different physical servers. Aside from this point, the configuration and operation of the fourth embodiment are basically the same as those of the first embodiment. Also, the fourth embodiment includes a storage server 400, similar to the second embodiment.

[0046] Specifically, as shown in Figure 6, the compute node 130 is provided on physical server 1 (110), and the management node 310 is provided on physical server 2 (300). In a configuration with multiple compute nodes, the management node 310 can be used in common for all of those compute nodes.

[0047] In the fourth embodiment, the decision on the action to take in the event of a failure at S4 in the flow of Figure 2 is as shown in Figure 7.

[0048] The main difference from the actions described in the first embodiment (Figure 3) is the addition of actions to be taken when the management node 310 fails. In the fourth embodiment, since the management node 310 is located on a different physical server 2 from the physical server 1 of the compute node 110, the actions shown in Figure 7 are required.

[0049] Specifically, when the controller 200 detects that "the management node 310 has failed, and the virtualization infrastructure 131 and VM 134 are functioning normally," it notifies the maintenance personnel.

[0050] When the controller 200 detects that "the management node 310 has failed, the virtualization infrastructure 131 is functioning normally, and VM 134 has failed," it notifies the maintenance personnel and rebuilds the VM using a snapshot stored on the storage server 400.

[0051] The controller 200 notifies the maintenance personnel when it detects that "the management node 310 has failed and the virtualization infrastructure 131 has failed." It is also assumed that if the virtualization infrastructure 131 has failed, failure information for VM 135 will not be obtainable.

[0052] (Example of device hardware configuration) Any of the devices described in this embodiment (information processing device, control device, controller, physical server, storage server, etc.) can be realized, for example, by having a computer execute a program. This computer may be a physical computer or a virtual machine on the cloud.

[0053] In other words, the device can be realized by using the hardware resources built into the computer, such as the CPU, GPU, and memory, to execute a program corresponding to the processing performed by the device. The program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium (such as portable memory), saved, and distributed. It can also be provided via a network, such as the internet or email.

[0054] Figure 8 shows an example of the hardware configuration of the computer described above. The computer in Figure 8 has a drive device 1000, an auxiliary storage device 1002, a memory device 1003, a CPU 1004, an interface device 1005, a display device 1006, an input device 1007, an output device 1008, etc., all of which are interconnected by a bus BS. The computer may also be equipped with a GPU.

[0055] The program that enables processing on the computer is provided, for example, on a recording medium 1001 such as a CD-ROM or memory card. When the recording medium 1001 containing the program is set in the drive device 1000, the program is installed from the recording medium 1001 to the auxiliary storage device 1002 via the drive device 1000. However, the program does not necessarily have to be installed from the recording medium 1001; it may also be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 1002 stores the installed program as well as necessary files and data.

[0056] The memory device 1003 reads and stores a program from the auxiliary storage device 1002 when a program startup command is received. The CPU 1004 implements the functions related to the memory device 1003 according to the program stored in the memory device 1003. The interface device 1005 is used as an interface for connecting to a network, etc. The display device 1006 displays a GUI (Graphical User Interface) etc. generated by a program. The input device 1007 consists of a keyboard and mouse, buttons, or a touch panel etc., and is used to input various operation commands. The output device 1008 outputs the calculation results.

[0057] (Effects of the embodiment, etc.) With conventional technologies, when a failure occurred on the virtualization infrastructure or virtual machines, recovery took time, necessitating the shutdown of systems running on edge servers. Furthermore, separate functions were required for physical monitoring and virtualization infrastructure monitoring, necessitating different network interfaces. In short, monitoring was inefficient, and automating recovery was difficult.

[0058] On the other hand, the technology according to this embodiment solves the above problems, enabling automated root cause identification and recovery in the event of a failure on the edge server, and minimizing the time from system failure to recovery. Furthermore, since communication between the edge server and the edge controller is redundant, the maintenance costs for the edge server can be significantly reduced compared to the present, improving the reliability and convenience of the system.

[0059] The following additional information is disclosed regarding the embodiments described above.

[0060] <Note> (Additional note 1) A control device for monitoring and controlling an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, A communication unit that collects first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion, A determination unit that identifies the location of a fault based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information. A control device equipped with the following features. (Additional note 2) The aforementioned virtualization portion includes a virtualization infrastructure and applications, If the determination unit determines that the physical components and the virtualization infrastructure are functioning normally, and that the application has failed, it decides to recover the application using a snapshot stored in storage. The control device described in Appendix 1. (Additional note 3) The aforementioned virtualization portion includes a virtualization infrastructure and applications, If the determination unit determines that the physical part is functioning correctly and the virtualization infrastructure is malfunctioning, it decides to restore the virtualization infrastructure using a backup stored in the storage, and further restore the application using a snapshot stored in the storage. The control device described in Appendix 1. (Additional note 4) An information processing device having a virtualized part and a physical part, A first communication unit transmits first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion to a control device, A second communication unit transmits second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical part to the control device, The system includes storage for saving backups of the virtualized portion, If a failure occurs in the virtualized portion, the virtualized portion is restored using the backup. Information processing device. (Additional note 5) If the first communication unit is unable to transmit the first monitoring information, the second communication unit transmits the first monitoring information to the control device. If the second communication unit is unable to transmit the second monitoring information, the first communication unit transmits the second monitoring information to the control device. The information processing device described in Appendix 4. (Additional note 6) The information processing device is provided with a management node for managing the information processing device inside, or a management node for managing the information processing device is provided outside the information processing device. The information processing device described in Appendix 4. (Additional note 7) An information processing device having a virtualized part and a physical part, A first communication unit transmits first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion to a control device, The system includes a second communication unit that transmits second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical part to the control device, A backup of the virtualized portion is stored on external storage, and if a failure occurs in the virtualized portion, the virtualized portion is restored using the backup. Information processing device. (Additional note 8) A monitoring and control method executed by a control device that monitors and controls an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, A step of collecting first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion, A step of identifying the location of the fault based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information. A monitoring and control method comprising the following: (Additional note 9) A non-temporary storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a component of a control device described in any one of the appendices 1 to 3. (Additional note 10) A non-temporary storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a component of an information processing device described in any one of the appendices 4 through 7.

[0061] Although this embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the invention as described in the claims. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0062] 100 physical servers 110 compute nodes 120 management nodes 121 Physical Monitoring Department 122 Storage Section 123 Communications Department 130 Software Department 131 Virtualization Infrastructure 132 Software Monitoring Department 133 Communications Department 134 VM 140 Physics Department 141 processors 142 storage 143 memory 200 controllers 210 Communications Department 220 Judgment section 300 physical servers 310 Management Nodes 311 Physical Monitoring Department 312 Communications Department 400 storage servers 1000 drive unit 1001 Recording media 1002 Auxiliary storage device 1003 Memory device 1004 CPU 1005 Interface device 1006 Display device 1007 Input device 1008 Output device

Claims

1. A control device for monitoring and controlling an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, A communication unit that collects first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion, A determination unit that identifies the location of a fault based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information. A control device equipped with the following features.

2. The aforementioned virtualization portion includes a virtualization infrastructure and applications, If the determination unit determines that the physical part and the virtualization infrastructure are functioning normally, and the application is malfunctioning, it decides to recover the application using a snapshot stored in storage. The control device according to claim 1.

3. The aforementioned virtualization portion includes a virtualization infrastructure and applications, If the determination unit determines that the physical part is functioning normally and the virtualization infrastructure is malfunctioning, it decides to restore the virtualization infrastructure using a backup stored in the storage, and further restore the application using a snapshot stored in the storage. The control device according to claim 1.

4. An information processing device having a virtualized part and a physical part, A first communication unit transmits first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion to a control device, A second communication unit transmits second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical part to the control device, The system includes storage for saving backups of the virtualized portion, If a failure occurs in the virtualized portion, the virtualized portion is restored using the backup. Information processing device.

5. If the first communication unit is unable to transmit the first monitoring information, the second communication unit transmits the first monitoring information to the control device. If the second communication unit is unable to transmit the second monitoring information, the first communication unit transmits the second monitoring information to the control device. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4.

6. The information processing device is provided with a management node for managing the information processing device inside, or a management node for managing the information processing device is provided outside the information processing device. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4.

7. An information processing device having a virtualized part and a physical part, A first communication unit transmits first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion to a control device, The system includes a second communication unit that transmits second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical part to the control device, A backup of the virtualized portion is stored on external storage, and if a failure occurs in the virtualized portion, the virtualized portion is restored using the backup. Information processing device.

8. A monitoring and control method executed by a control device that monitors and controls an information processing device having a virtualized portion and a physical portion, A step of collecting first monitoring information obtained by monitoring the virtualization portion and second monitoring information obtained by monitoring the physical portion, A step of identifying the location of the fault based on the first monitoring information and the second monitoring information. A monitoring and control method comprising the following:

9. A program for causing a computer to function as a component of the control device described in any one of claims 1 to 3.

10. A program for causing a computer to function as a component of the information processing device described in any one of claims 4 to 7.

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