Automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage

Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes obtaining an alert from at least one software-defined storage device; determining one or more items of additional information pertaining to one or more of the alert and the at least one software-defined storage device; augmenting the alert based at least in part on the one or more determined items of additional information; generating a modified version of the augmented alert by incorporating, into the augmented alert, dependency information pertaining to the at least one software-defined storage device and one or more additional software-defined storage devices; and performing one or more automated actions based at least in part on the modified version of the augmented alert.

FIELD

The field relates generally to information processing systems, and more particularly to storage in such systems.

BACKGROUND

Commonly, software-defined storage stacks can be deployed in a layered and/or dependent manner, raising the possibility for issues when such stacks provide alerts in response to problems. Consider, for instance, a deployment of software-defined file share technology performed in such a way that the deployment is configured against an underlying software-defined storage block. In a layered deployment, capabilities such as monitoring and alerting provided by each software-defined storage stack may not provide sufficient context to properly diagnose and/or resolve issues. By way merely of example, assume a scenario wherein the underlying software-defined block storage is unaware of the file share technology that is dependent thereon, and the underlying storage-defined block storage accordingly does not provide context in an alert related to the dependency. Additional problems can arise in situations, for example, wherein such alerts contain a key referring to an affected internal resource, wherein the key is known only by the specific software-defined storage stack in question.

Faced with such problems and challenges, conventional storage management approaches are forced to carry out additional analysis in an attempt to obtain concrete and/or supplementary information about the issue(s) and/or resources impacted before solutions can be determined and/or executed.

SUMMARY

Illustrative embodiments of the disclosure provide techniques for automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage. An exemplary computer-implemented method includes obtaining an alert from at least one software-defined storage device, determining one or more items of additional information pertaining to one or more of the alert and the at least one software-defined storage device, and augmenting the alert based at least in part on the one or more determined items of additional information. The method also includes generating a modified version of the augmented alert by incorporating, into the augmented alert, dependency information pertaining to the at least one software-defined storage device and one or more additional software-defined storage devices, and performing one or more automated actions based at least in part on the modified version of the augmented alert.

Illustrative embodiments can provide significant advantages relative to conventional storage management approaches. For example, problems associated with uncertainty arising from insufficient context provided in connection with alerts are overcome in one or more embodiments through automatically modifying software-defined storage stack alerts using dependency information and additional storage-related data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Illustrative embodiments will be described herein with reference to exemplary computer networks and associated computers, servers, network devices or other types of processing devices. It is to be appreciated, however, that these and other embodiments are not restricted to use with the particular illustrative network and device configurations shown. Accordingly, the term “computer network” as used herein is intended to be broadly construed, so as to encompass, for example, any system comprising multiple networked processing devices.

FIG. 1shows a computer network (also referred to herein as an information processing system)100configured in accordance with an illustrative embodiment. The computer network100comprises a plurality of storage devices102-1,102-2, . . .102-M, collectively referred to herein as storage devices102. The storage devices102are coupled to a network104, where the network104in this embodiment is assumed to represent a sub-network or other related portion of the larger computer network100. Accordingly, elements100and104are both referred to herein as examples of “networks,” but the latter is assumed to be a component of the former in the context of theFIG. 1embodiment. Also coupled to network104is unified software-defined storage platform management (USDSPM) system105and one or more web applications110(e.g., software-defined storage monitoring and/or management applications).

The storage devices102may comprise, for example, software-defined storage stacks. As used herein, a software-defined storage stack refers to software that abstracts data storage resources from an underlying physical storage hardware. In one or more embodiments, the storage devices102can also comprise mobile telephones, laptop computers, tablet computers, desktop computers or other types of computing devices. Such devices are examples of what are more generally referred to herein as “processing devices.” Some of these processing devices are also generally referred to herein as “computers.”

Additionally, the USDSPM system105can have an associated database106configured to store data pertaining to software-defined storage stacks and/or alerts related thereto, which comprise, for example, stack attributes, dependency information, alert attributes, etc.

The database106in the present embodiment is implemented using one or more storage systems associated with the USDSPM system105. Such storage systems can comprise any of a variety of different types of storage including network-attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SANs), direct-attached storage (DAS) and distributed DAS, as well as combinations of these and other storage types, including software-defined storage.

Also associated with the USDSPM system105can be one or more input-output devices, which illustratively comprise keyboards, displays or other types of input-output devices in any combination. Such input-output devices can be used, for example, to support one or more user interfaces to the USDSPM system105, as well as to support communication between the USDSPM system105and other related systems and devices not explicitly shown.

Also, the USDSPM system105in theFIG. 1embodiment is assumed to be implemented using at least one processing device. Each such processing device generally comprises at least one processor and an associated memory, and implements one or more functional modules for controlling certain features of the USDSPM system105.

More particularly, the USDSPM system105in this embodiment can comprise a processor coupled to a memory and a network interface.

The network interface allows the USDSPM system105to communicate over the network104with the storage devices102, and illustratively comprises one or more conventional transceivers.

Also, in one or more embodiments, the USDSPM system105can include at least one communication interface that can be called to obtain details about the storage devices under management to assist in augmenting alert data, as further detailed herein.

The USDSPM system105further comprises a storage stack alert processing module112, a storage stack alert augmenter114, and an alert-based action module116.

It is to be appreciated that this particular arrangement of modules112,114and116illustrated in the USDSPM system105of theFIG. 1embodiment is presented by way of example only, and alternative arrangements can be used in other embodiments. For example, the functionality associated with modules112,114and116in other embodiments can be combined into a single module, or separated across a larger number of modules. As another example, multiple distinct processors can be used to implement different ones of modules112,114and116or portions thereof.

At least portions of modules112,114and116may be implemented at least in part in the form of software that is stored in memory and executed by a processor.

It is to be understood that the particular set of elements shown inFIG. 1for automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage involving storage devices102of computer network100is presented by way of illustrative example only, and in other embodiments additional or alternative elements may be used. Thus, another embodiment includes additional or alternative systems, devices and other network entities, as well as different arrangements of modules and other components.

An exemplary process utilizing modules112,114and116of an example USDSPM system105in computer network100will be described in more detail with reference to the flow diagram ofFIG. 9.

Accordingly, at least one embodiment includes automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage. For example, as further detailed herein, such an embodiment includes defining a mechanism to automatically augment and modify alerts with concrete and/or contextual information pertaining to impacted resources and/or resource dependencies across layered and/or dependent software-defined storage deployments.

As noted herein, software-defined storage stacks commonly provide alerts when problems arise. One or more embodiments include automatically augmenting such alerts with additional information such that administrators and/or resolution systems can better ascertain affected resources and impacts to other resources (e.g., specific volumes, storage pools, other dependent software-defined storage stacks, etc.) related to the issue(s) in question. Using such augmented alerts, administrators and/or resolution systems can better determine remediation actions to be carried out to resolve the issue(s).

FIG. 2shows an information processing system configured for automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 2depicts USDSPM system205, storage stack A202-1, and storage stack B202-2. The USDSPM system205, as illustrated in this example embodiment, includes a communication and/or event bus207, one or more internal services209, storage stack A alert consumer222-1, storage stack B alert consumer222-2, and augmented stack alert consumer223.FIG. 2also depicts steps1through7, as detailed below.

In step1, layered software-defined storage stacks (i.e., storage stack A202-1and storage stack B202-2) are deployed. In step2, storage stack B202-2raises an alert which is consumed by the appropriate stack alert consumer222-2. In step3, storage stack B alert consumer222-2calls out to storage stack B202-2to obtain information about the affected resource(s) tied to the alert. In step4, storage stack B alert consumer222-2augments the alert with the additional information obtained from storage stack B202-2, and storage stack B alert consumer222-2publishes the augmented alert using communication and/or event bus207. In step5, the augmented stack alert consumer223consumes the augmented storage stack alert, and in step6, the augmented stack alert consumer223obtains storage stack dependency information from the USDSPM system205(e.g., using one or more internal services209). Further, in step7, the augmented stack alert consumer223transforms the augmented storage stack alert into a modified (also referred to herein as generic) platform manager alert containing storage stack dependency information, and subsequently publishes the modified platform manager alert using communication and/or event bus207.

As further detailed below,FIG. 3throughFIG. 8illustrate an example alert augmentation step sequence utilizing one or more of USDSPM system305(which includes database (DB)306), storage stack A302-1, and storage stack B302-2.

FIG. 3shows an example layered software-defined storage assessment in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 3depicts USDSPM system305deploying storage stack A302-1and storage stack B302-2, wherein USDSPM system305is able to communicate with each stack, and wherein storage stack details are persisted in database306.

As described herein, in one or more embodiments, a USDSPM system is used to deploy and manage two or more software-defined storage stacks that have at least one dependency on one another. The USDSPM system understands the layering dependencies between such storage stacks and is aware of one or more of the following storage-related aspects: what software-defined storage stacks have been deployed, what dependencies exists between the deployed software-defined storage stacks, how to communicate with the software-defined storage stacks and what credentials to use in such communications.

FIG. 4shows storage stack alert consumption in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 4depicts an alert published by storage stack B302-2and consumed by storage stack B alert consumer322(which is embodied within USDSPM system305). In at least one embodiment, an alert consumer is required for each software-defined storage stack that is under management by the USDSPM system. Monitoring and alerting can be implemented differently across storage stacks, and as such, in one or more embodiments, each storage stack will have a one-to-one mapping with a storage stack alert consumer. Each such storage stack consumer will implement the specific logic required to capture and receive alerts from the corresponding software-defined storage stack. Also, in at least one embodiment, an example software-defined storage stack alert can include one or more of the following fields: alert type (i.e., a type identifier extracted from the alert from the storage stack (e.g., DEVICE_ERROR)); severity (i.e., a severity level associated with the alert); affected object (i.e., the affected object(s) from the storage stack that is/are directly associated with the source alert); start time (i.e., the time of the alert originating from the storage stack); universally unique identifier (UUID); and links (i.e., information that links back to the software-defined storage stack where the alert originated).

FIG. 5shows an example alert augmentation in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 5depicts storage stack B alert consumer322communicating with storage stack B302-2to obtain additional information related to the alert. For example, as detailed herein, when an alert is captured, one or more embodiments include augmenting the alert with additional information related to one or more affected resources. In such an embodiment, if the storage stack alert contains minimal and/or abstract information regarding one or more affected resources, the storage stack alert consumer will communicate with the storage stack to obtain additional information (e.g., more specific and/or concrete information). For example, consider a use case wherein the alert consumer consumes a disk error alert, wherein the alert only contains a key linking back to an internal disk object known only by the storage stack. In such an example embodiment, the alert consumer will query the storage stack to obtain one or more additional details about the disk and/or other impacted resources such as, for instance, the disk path, the disk media type, one or more software-defined storage nodes (e.g., servers) associated with the disk, the storage pool associated with the disk, volumes associated with the impacted storage pool, etc.

Using such additional information, at least one embodiment includes augmenting the alert to generate and/or provide a more complete view of the affected resource(s) and/or one or more dependent resources.

Additionally, in one or more embodiments, after the storage stack augmentation is completed, the alert can be transformed into an augmented storage stack alert (e.g., by storage stack B alert consumer322) that can be consumed by one or more interested parties within the USDSPM system. In at least one embodiment, this action can represent an intermediate step that produces a generic, fully augmented source storage stack alert. In such an embodiment, this augmented alert contains no information pertaining to dependencies between software-defined storage stacks (as further detailed herein). Accordingly, in at least one embodiment, an example augmented software-defined storage stack alert can include one or more of the following fields: alert type (i.e., a type identifier extracted from the alert from the storage stack (e.g., DEVICE_ERROR)); storage stack (i.e., the USDSPM's internal identifier linking the alert to a software-defined storage stack (e.g., the stack from which the alert originated)); severity (i.e., a severity level associated with the alert); affected object (i.e., the affected object(s) from the storage stack that is/are directly associated with the source alert); impacted resources (i.e., identification of other impacted resources within the storage stack (e.g., servers, storage pools, volumes, etc.)); timestamp (i.e., the date and time of the alert originating from the storage stack); and metadata (i.e., additional information that links back to the software-defined storage stack where the alert originated).

Once the augmented alert is constructed, at least one embodiment includes publishing and/or sending the augmented alert to one or more interested parties within the USDSPM system. Examples of interested parties can include information technology (IT) administrators, IT operations managers, etc.

FIG. 6shows augmented storage stack alert consumption in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 6depicts augmented stack alert consumer323consuming the augmented software-defined storage stack alert (generated and/or published by storage stack B alert consumer322) for the subsequent incorporation of storage stack dependency information (such as detailed, for example, in connection withFIG. 7). Accordingly, as further detailed below, the resulting alert can contain a context of impacted resources and the dependent software-defined storage stacks.

FIG. 7shows obtaining storage stack dependency information in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 7depicts the augmented stack alert consumer323obtaining storage stack dependency information from the USDSPM system305(e.g., from database306). As such, during deployment, the USDSPM system can persist determined and/or identified interdependencies between any layered software-defined storage deployments. Therefore, at least one embodiment includes communicating with the appropriate interface(s) in the USDSPM system to query for dependent software-defined storage stacks. When the additional dependency information has been obtained, the corresponding augmented alert is transformed into a generic USDSPM alert (such as detailed, for example, in connection withFIG. 8) and can be published for one or more interested parties to consume. Potential consumers of the generic USDSPM alerts can provide notifications to administrators and/or facilitate automatic remediation of one or more issues related to the alerts.

As noted above,FIG. 8shows creating a generic alert with stack dependencies in an illustrative embodiment. By way of illustration,FIG. 8depicts the augmented stack alert consumer323creating a generic alert that is common and/or compatible across the USDSPM system305, wherein the generic alert is augmented with storage stack dependency information (e.g., such as obtained in the example embodiment detailed inFIG. 7). As also depicted inFIG. 8, the augmented stack alert consumer323publishes the created generic alert to at least storage stack A302-1and storage stack B302-2, such that other consumers can perform actions based thereon (e.g., actions such as notifications and remediation operations). In at least one embodiment, an example generic software-defined storage stack alert can include one or more of the following fields: alert type (e.g., DEVICE_ERROR); storage stack (e.g., the stack from which the alert originated, such as Storage Stack B); severity (i.e., a severity level associated with the alert); affected object (i.e., the affected object(s) from the storage stack that is directly associated with the source alert); impacted resources (e.g., servers, storage pools, volumes, etc.); dependent storage stack (e.g., Storage Stack A); native alert ID; timestamp (i.e., the date and time of the alert originating from the storage stack); and metadata (i.e., additional information that links back to the software-defined storage stack where the alert originated).

FIG. 9is a flow diagram of a process for automated alert augmentation for deployments of software-defined storage in an illustrative embodiment. It is to be understood that this particular process is only an example, and additional or alternative processes can be carried out in other embodiments.

In this embodiment, the process includes steps900through908. These steps are assumed to be performed by the USDSPM system105utilizing its modules112,114and116.

Step900includes obtaining an alert from at least one software-defined storage device. In at least one embodiment, the at least one software-defined storage device includes at least one software-defined storage stack.

Step902includes determining one or more items of additional information pertaining to one or more of the alert and the at least one software-defined storage device. In at least one embodiment, determining the one or more items of additional information includes identifying one or more affected resources related to the alert, wherein the one or more affected resources comprise at least one of disk path, disk media type, one or more servers, one or more storage pools, and one or more volumes. Step904includes augmenting the alert based at least in part on the one or more determined items of additional information.

Step906includes generating a modified version of the augmented alert by incorporating, into the augmented alert, dependency information pertaining to the at least one software-defined storage device and one or more additional software-defined storage devices. In one or more embodiments, generating the modified version of the augmented alert includes configuring the augmented alert with one or more of the following fields: alert type, software-defined storage stack from which the alert originated, severity associated with the alert, one or more affected resources of a software-defined storage stack associated with the alert, one or more impacted resources, one or more dependent software-defined storage stacks, alert identifier, date and time of the alert, and one or more items of metadata.

Step908includes performing one or more automated actions based at least in part on the modified version of the augmented alert. In at least one embodiment, performing the one or more automated actions includes generating and outputting one or more notifications related to the modified version of the augmented alert. Additionally or alternatively, performing the one or more automated actions can include executing at least one remediation action in response to the modified version of the augmented alert.

The techniques depicted inFIG. 9can also include publishing the modified version of the augmented alert to one or more storage-related entities and/or publishing the augmented alert to one or more storage-related entities.

The above-described illustrative embodiments provide significant advantages relative to conventional approaches. For example, some embodiments are configured to automatically generate modified software-defined storage stack alerts using dependency information and additional storage-related data. These and other embodiments can effectively overcome problems associated with uncertainty arising from insufficient context provided in conventional storage-related alerts.

Illustrative embodiments of processing platforms will now be described in greater detail with reference toFIGS. 10 and 11. Although described in the context of system100, these platforms may also be used to implement at least portions of other information processing systems in other embodiments.

FIG. 10shows an example processing platform comprising cloud infrastructure1000. The cloud infrastructure1000comprises a combination of physical and virtual processing resources that are utilized to implement at least a portion of the information processing system100. The cloud infrastructure1000comprises multiple virtual machines (VMs) and/or container sets1002-1,1002-2, . . .1002-L implemented using virtualization infrastructure1004. The virtualization infrastructure1004runs on physical infrastructure1005, and illustratively comprises one or more hypervisors and/or operating system level virtualization infrastructure. The operating system level virtualization infrastructure illustratively comprises kernel control groups of a Linux operating system or other type of operating system.

The cloud infrastructure1000further comprises sets of applications1010-1,1010-2, . . .1010-L running on respective ones of the VMs/container sets1002-1,1002-2, . . .1002-L under the control of the virtualization infrastructure1004. The VMs/container sets1002comprise respective VMs, respective sets of one or more containers, or respective sets of one or more containers running in VMs. In some implementations of theFIG. 10embodiment, the VMs/container sets1002comprise respective VMs implemented using virtualization infrastructure1004that comprises at least one hypervisor.

A hypervisor platform may be used to implement a hypervisor within the virtualization infrastructure1004, wherein the hypervisor platform has an associated virtual infrastructure management system. The underlying physical machines comprise one or more distributed processing platforms that include one or more storage systems.

In other implementations of theFIG. 10embodiment, the VMs/container sets1002comprise respective containers implemented using virtualization infrastructure1004that provides operating system level virtualization functionality, such as support for Docker containers running on bare metal hosts, or Docker containers running on VMs. The containers are illustratively implemented using respective kernel control groups of the operating system.

As is apparent from the above, one or more of the processing modules or other components of system100may each run on a computer, server, storage device or other processing platform element. A given such element is viewed as an example of what is more generally referred to herein as a “processing device.” The cloud infrastructure1000shown inFIG. 10may represent at least a portion of one processing platform. Another example of such a processing platform is processing platform1100shown inFIG. 11.

The processing platform1100in this embodiment comprises a portion of system100and includes a plurality of processing devices, denoted1102-1,1102-2,1102-3, . . .1102-K, which communicate with one another over a network1104.

The processing device1102-1in the processing platform1100comprises a processor1110coupled to a memory1112.

The memory1112comprises random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM) or other types of memory, in any combination. The memory1112and other memories disclosed herein should be viewed as illustrative examples of what are more generally referred to as “processor-readable storage media” storing executable program code of one or more software programs.

Also included in the processing device1102-1is network interface circuitry1114, which is used to interface the processing device with the network1104and other system components, and may comprise conventional transceivers.

The other processing devices1102of the processing platform1100are assumed to be configured in a manner similar to that shown for processing device1102-1in the figure.

For example, particular types of storage products that can be used in implementing a given storage system of a distributed processing system in an illustrative embodiment include all-flash and hybrid flash storage arrays, scale-out all-flash storage arrays, scale-out NAS clusters, or other types of storage arrays. Combinations of multiple ones of these and other storage products can also be used in implementing a given storage system in an illustrative embodiment.