Service Stack Mapping for Microservice Root Cause Tracing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The complexity of microservice-based applications' service stacks poses a barrier to troubleshooting issues, with resource contention and limited observability across distributed systems, making it difficult to trace the root cause of performance problems.
Innovation Solution
A GUI-based service stack map generated by an IT operations management platform that visualizes interlayer dependencies, allowing users to trace issues through the application's service stack and identify root causes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If microservice-based applications are deployed on distributed systems to improve agility and control, then application flexibility and service quality are improved, but system complexity and difficulty of troubleshooting increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mapping service as an intermediary component that generates service stack maps. This mapping service acts as a mediator between the complex distributed microservice system and the user, translating complex interlayer dependencies into visual representations that are easier to understand and troubleshoot.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates visual copies (service stack maps) of the actual service stack structure. These graphical representations copy the essential relationships and dependencies of the distributed system in a simplified visual format, allowing users to analyze system structure without directly interacting with the complex underlying infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If microservices are distributed across multiple layers and systems to improve scalability, then system elasticity is improved, but observability and root cause analysis become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The mapping service serves as an intermediary that collects data about interlayer dependencies from the distributed system and transforms this information into visual service stack maps. This mediator bridges the gap between the distributed microservices and the user's ability to observe and analyze system behavior.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the complex multi-layered distributed system into a two-dimensional visual representation. By mapping the service stack across different layers (infrastructure, virtualization, container, microservice) into a graphical format, users can observe relationships and dependencies that would be difficult to detect in the distributed system's native complexity.
3Ease of repair
If detailed tracking of interlayer dependencies is implemented to improve troubleshooting capability, then root cause identification is improved, but data collection complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The mapping service extracts only the essential dependency information from the complex distributed system. Rather than collecting and processing all possible data about microservice interactions, the system extracts specifically the interlayer dependency relationships that are necessary for generating service stack maps and identifying root causes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data collection and processing into distinct layers corresponding to the service stack layers (infrastructure, virtualization, container, microservice). Each layer's dependencies are tracked and mapped separately, then integrated into a comprehensive service stack map. This segmentation reduces the complexity of data collection by organizing it in a structured, layer-by-layer manner.
Data Source
AI summary
A map generation engine receives data from collector agents located in a container environment layer, a virtualized infrastructure and a physical infrastructure of a service stack of a microservice-based application. The microservices of the application may be deployed on a distributed system. The map generation engine, based on the interdependencies, generates data representing a map of the service stack. The map represents the interdependencies, which allows an issue associated with the application services, the virtualized infrastructure or the physical infrastructure to be traced via the map to identify a root cause of the issue.