Unified Storage Manager Event Correlation Engine
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional storage system solutions rely on manual evaluations to determine the root cause of faults in underlying storage entities and their impact on other components, which is a complex and error-prone process.
Innovation Solution
A unified storage manager (USM) with a monitoring and event engine that processes, correlates, and propagates events without user interaction, using a rule set to detect and isolate faults, and generate notifications, enabling automated event correlation and cascading notifications across storage entities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual evaluation is used to determine root cause of faults, then system administrators can identify storage failures, but the process becomes complex and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an event correlation engine as an intermediary component that automatically correlates events from multiple storage providers and determines root causes. This engine acts as a mediator between raw storage events and administrator analysis, eliminating the need for manual evaluation while providing structured, automated root cause determination through event correlation rules and dependency graphs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service by enabling automated event correlation and root cause analysis without requiring administrator intervention. The event correlation engine autonomously processes storage events, applies correlation rules, and generates notifications, allowing the system to self-diagnose and self-report issues rather than relying on manual administrative evaluation.
2Loss of information
If manual evaluation is used to assess fault impact on other components, then administrators can understand system-wide effects, but the process is time-consuming and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-establishing event correlation rules and dependency relationships between storage components before faults occur. The system maintains a structured model of component dependencies and pre-configures correlation logic, enabling immediate automated impact assessment when faults occur, rather than requiring time-consuming manual analysis of system relationships.
Solution Approach 2:
The event correlation engine serves as an intermediary that automatically assesses and propagates fault impact information across the storage system. It processes events through predefined correlation rules to determine cascading effects on dependent components, providing complete impact information automatically without requiring administrator time and effort for manual assessment.
3Productivity
If automated event correlation is implemented, then fault detection and notification is streamlined, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the monitoring system into distinct modular components: event collectors from multiple storage providers, an event correlation engine, rule-based correlation logic, and notification systems. This modular architecture enables automated fault detection efficiency while managing complexity through clear separation of concerns, allowing each component to be independently configured and maintained.
Solution Approach 2:
The event correlation engine implements universality by providing a single multi-functional platform that handles event collection, correlation, root cause determination, and notification generation. This universal engine replaces multiple separate monitoring tools and manual processes, improving productivity through consolidation while managing overall system complexity through a unified architecture rather than multiple independent systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of implementations includes receiving, by a processing device executing a unified storage manager (USM), notification of an event from a storage entity of a storage service managed by the USM, referencing a rule set maintained by the USM with information corresponding to the event, identifying, in view of the referencing, a rule from the rule set, executing a handler function and an action from the identified rule, the handler function to cause the event to be resolved by the storage service, determining a cascading rule from the action, executing the cascading rule to cause the event to be resolved at other storage entities associated with the storage entity corresponding to the event, and notifying, according to the action, a user of the event.