VMware, Inc.
AUTOMATED METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS IN A DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SYSTEM

Abstract:

Methods and systems described herein automate various aspects of troubleshooting a problem in a distributed computing system for various forms of object information regarding objects of the distributed computing system. In one aspect, the object information includes metrics, log messages, properties, network flows, events, and application traces. Methods and systems learn interesting patterns contained in the object information. The interesting patterns include change points in metrics and network flows, changes in the types of log messages, broken correlations between events, anomalous event transactions, atypical histogram distributions of metrics, and atypical histogram distributions of span durations in application traces. The interesting patterns are displayed in a graphical user interface ("GUI") that enables a user to assign a label identifying a problem associated with the interesting patterns.