Virtual Network Management System Visualization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The complexity of managing large-scale computing system networks, particularly in understanding, monitoring, and debugging applications due to the interdependency between physical and software layers, results in a high volume of information that is difficult for operators to inspect manually.
Innovation Solution
A network management system with a graphical user interface that allows users to select and highlight virtual machines, containers, and domains, querying instrumentation data to display relevant information and enabling configuration changes, thereby simplifying the visualization and management of virtual networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If detailed logs and instrumentation data are collected from all layers (physical and software), then visibility and information availability improve, but the volume of information becomes too large for manual inspection
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and displays only the selected and associated entities from the complete instrumentation data set. When a user selects a specific entity (e.g., a virtual machine), the system extracts only the relevant information about that entity and its associations, filtering out the vast amount of unrelated data that would otherwise be overwhelming.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface provides different levels of information detail based on the user's selection and context. Rather than presenting uniform detailed information for all entities simultaneously, the system adapts the information presentation to focus on locally relevant data for the currently selected entity, making the information manageable and actionable.
2Reliability
If complete instrumentation data from all system layers is collected, then problem detection capability improves, but the complexity of monitoring and debugging increases
Solution Approach 1:
The graphical user interface acts as an intermediary between the complete instrumentation data and the user. It translates the raw, complex data from multiple layers into a visual representation that shows relationships and associations between entities, making the data interpretable without losing the comprehensive problem detection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the monitoring task into discrete steps: users select a specific entity of interest, and the system then displays only the associated entities and relevant information. This segmentation transforms the overwhelming task of monitoring everything simultaneously into a manageable sequence of focused investigations.
3Loss of information
If all entities and their relationships are displayed in detail, then system visibility improves, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The interface extracts and displays only the selected entity and its direct associations when a user makes a selection. This extraction approach maintains system visibility by showing relevant relationships while avoiding information overload by excluding unrelated entities from the current view.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface dynamically adapts its content based on user selections. Rather than presenting a static comprehensive view that overwhelms users, the system dynamically filters and reorganizes the displayed information to match the user's current focus, making operation easier while preserving access to complete system information when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A network management system manages a virtual network includes an interface system communicatively coupled to one or more servers, a director engine, and a configuration engine. The one or more servers implement a virtual network including one or more virtual machines and one or more containers organized into one or more virtual domains. The interface system generates a graphical user interface displaying graphical representations of the one or more virtual machines and the one or more containers and of the one or more servers; and information associated with the virtual network. The director engine receives a user selection of at least one server, virtual machine, container, or virtual domain, accesses information associated with the user selection, and identifies one or more of servers, virtual machines, containers, and virtual domains associated with the user selection.