Intent-Based Telemetry Service for Virtualized Infrastructure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Configuring devices in a virtualized data center to collect telemetry data is challenging due to the large number of devices, varying types of devices, and different telemetry collection protocols, making it difficult for administrators to manage and troubleshoot issues effectively.
Innovation Solution
A scalable, microservice-based telemetry service that allows administrators to express telemetry collection requirements in natural language, which are then translated into abstract configuration parameters, determining the appropriate devices and protocols for data collection, and allocating devices to telemetry collectors in a distributed manner.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional telemetry collection methods are used in virtualized data centers, then devices can provide telemetry data, but the complexity of configuring and managing telemetry increases due to the large number of devices, different types of devices, and different tenants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a telemetry service as an intermediary component that sits between the telemetry consumers and the numerous devices. This service abstracts away the complexity of device-specific protocols and configurations, providing a unified interface for collecting telemetry data from diverse devices across multiple tenants without requiring administrators to directly manage each device's telemetry configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The telemetry service implements a universal approach by supporting multiple telemetry protocols (SNMP, gRPC, Syslog, JTI) within a single service framework. This allows the system to collect telemetry from various device types using their native protocols while presenting a consistent abstraction layer, thereby reducing the operational burden on administrators
2Reliability
If a telemetry service is designed to be scalable and fault-tolerant using microservices, then reliability improves, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements the telemetry service as a collection of independent microservices, each responsible for specific functions such as protocol handling, data collection, or consumer notification. This segmentation enables individual services to be deployed, scaled, and fault-isolated independently, improving overall system reliability while allowing modular management of complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The telemetry service employs dynamic scaling capabilities where microservice instances can be automatically created or terminated based on demand. The system can spawn new collector instances when telemetry collection demand increases and terminate excess instances when demand decreases, maintaining optimal resource utilization and fault tolerance without static over-provisioning
3Ease of operation
If the telemetry service translates high-level intent into abstract configuration parameters, then ease of use improves for administrators, but the processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intent compiler as an intermediary component that translates high-level natural language intent statements into concrete, device-specific configuration commands. This mediator handles the complexity of protocol translation and configuration generation, allowing administrators to express telemetry requirements in simple terms while the system manages the underlying complexity of mapping these intents to specific device configurations
Data Source
AI summary
A telemetry service can receive telemetry collection requirements that are expressed as an “intent” that defines how telemetry is to be collected. A telemetry intent compiler can receive the telemetry intent and translate the high level intent into abstract telemetry configuration parameters that provide a generic description of desired telemetry data. The telemetry service can determine, from the telemetry intent, a set of devices from which to collect telemetry data. For each device, the telemetry service can determine capabilities of the device with respect to telemetry data collection. The capabilities may include a telemetry protocol supported by the device. The telemetry service can create a protocol specific device configuration based on the abstract telemetry configuration parameters and the telemetry protocol supported by the device. Devices in a network system that support a particular telemetry protocol can be allocated to instances of a telemetry collector that supports the telemetry protocol.