Negative Numbering for Cloud Service Update Logging
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems lack a comprehensive logging mechanism to track failed update attempts and retries across various stages in cloud-based services, making it difficult for administrators to audit and improve the update process.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a logging system that uses negative vectoring or negative numbering to record payload versions in a log, allowing for the tracking of restarts and retries without complicating the log table structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a comprehensive logging mechanism is implemented to track failed update attempts and retries, then the completeness of deployment records is improved, but the complexity of the logging system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the payload version number parameter to negative values when deploying to subsets that experienced failures. This parameter change enables the logging system to distinguish between successful and failed deployment attempts without adding new columns or complex data structures, thereby maintaining log table simplicity while improving record completeness
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using additional fields or flags to mark failed deployments, the patent inverts the approach by using negative payload version numbers. This inversion allows failed attempts to be represented in the existing log structure without requiring extra complexity, as the negative sign simply inverts the normal positive version number convention
2Reliability
If negative vectoring is used to mark failed payload versions, then the ability to track restarts and retries is improved, but the complexity of data processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses parameter changes by setting payload version numbers to negative values to indicate failed deployments. This simple parameter modification enables reliable tracking of restarts and retries through existing log queries without requiring complex data processing logic, as the negative sign provides an immediate visual indicator of failure status
Data Source
AI summary
A logging system for an orchestration system that implements a rollout service to deploy updates to a cloud service includes: an orchestrator service host computer hosting the rollout service; a service bus connecting the orchestrator service host computer with a network on which the cloud service is provided; and a database to which the rollout service records a log of a deployment of an update, the log comprising an entry for each of a number of subsets of network components supporting the cloud service. Each record in the log refers to a payload version deployed to a corresponding subset of the network components supporting the cloud service. In response to detection of an issue with the deployment of the update in a particular subset of the network components, the rollout service retains a record in the log of each payload version deployed by changing a payload version number to be negative in each record of the log prior to a restart of the deployment back to an earlier subset of the network components with a new payload version to avoid the issue.