Declarative Cloud Service Visualization with Hierarchical Drill-Down
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tools for managing and visualizing cloud services are inflexible, unable to effectively handle large-scale systems, and lack the ability to aggregate data in a way that reflects the organization and relationships between components, making it difficult for operators to identify anomalies and problems across distributed systems.
Innovation Solution
A system that generates a user interface for visualizing cloud services based on topology, status, and performance data, using a declarative configuration file to instantiate objects and link them to user interface elements, allowing for flexible visualization of hardware and software components and their logical groupings, and enabling aggregation of data from diverse sources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If current tools use lengthy lists or tree-views of individual components, then they can display detailed information about each component, but they become impractical for visualizing cloud services that involve thousands of components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cloud service visualization into multiple hierarchical levels (service level, cluster level, individual component level). Each level displays appropriate information density, allowing operators to navigate from high-level service views down to detailed component views without overwhelming the interface with all thousands of components simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds hierarchical depth as an additional dimension to the visualization. Instead of displaying all components in a single flat list or tree view, the system organizes components across multiple hierarchical levels, allowing operators to drill down through layers of abstraction to access detailed information when needed while maintaining an overview at higher levels.
2Ease of operation
If tools provide a high level view of a service, then they can overview the entire system, but they do not provide views into individual machines/servers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic, interactive visualization where the display can transition between high-level service views and detailed individual component views. Operators can dynamically adjust the level of detail and drill down into specific areas of interest, allowing the same tool to provide both overview capability and individual component visibility as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs nested hierarchical structures where high-level service views contain nested cluster views, which in turn contain nested individual component views. This nested organization allows operators to see the entire system at the outermost level while being able to access detailed views of individual machines and servers by drilling down through the nested layers.
3Shape
If tools navigate a hierarchy, then they can show organizational structure, but they do not aggregate data in a way that reflects the system's organization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the display of organizational structure with aggregated data representation. The hierarchical visualization not only shows the structural arrangement of services, clusters, and components but also aggregates and displays performance metrics and operational data at each hierarchical level, reflecting both the shape of the system and its operational state.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal visualization framework that simultaneously performs multiple functions: displaying organizational hierarchy, aggregating data across hierarchical levels, and providing drill-down capability to individual components. This multi-functional tool addresses both structural visualization and data aggregation needs in a single system.
4Measurement precision
If operators monitor individual components separately, then they can see detailed status, but they cannot quickly identify anomalies and trends across distributed systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments monitoring into hierarchical levels where aggregate views at higher levels provide quick anomaly identification across distributed systems, while detailed views at lower levels maintain measurement precision for individual components. This segmentation allows operators to efficiently spot trends and anomalies at the service or cluster level without examining each component individually.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where aggregate data from multiple components is continuously monitored and analyzed to identify anomalies and trends. When anomalies are detected at the aggregate level, the system can provide feedback to highlight specific affected components, enabling rapid identification of issues across distributed systems while maintaining detailed monitoring capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for generating a user interface for visualizing a cloud service based on status and performance data of the cloud service obtained from data stores. A configuration file including declarative code may declare particular queries to status/performance data sources. The configuration file may also declare particular queries to topology data sources to obtain topology information. In accordance with the obtained information, objects representing the cloud service may be displayed. The objects correspond to particular hardware and software components, or logical grouping thereof, that are identified by the topology information.