Patent Document ID: 8208381
Application ID: 11829875
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An improved root-cause approach to problem diagnosis in data networks having one or more physical machines and one or more virtual machines, in the form of a method comprising: an agent program looped for repeatedly discovering and updating of information on a plurality of interdependencies and interconnections existing amongst the following: between a physical machine and a virtual machine, between a virtual machine and another virtual machine, between two applications running on the one or more physical machines or the one or more virtual machines, between an application and a virtual machine, between two network devices, and between one or more applications and one or more network devices, wherein said discovering and updating of information results in “discovered information” and wherein said physical machine, virtual machine, application, and network device are hereinafter individually or collectively referred to as “one or more components”; wherein the discovered information is used for establishing a first relational map of the data network and a dataflow graph of the data network, and upon the repeating of resulting discovered information, generating a second relational map and dataflow graph; comparing the first relational map and dataflow graph to the second relational map and dataflow graph; if the second relational map and dataflow is the same as the first relational map and dataflow graph, then repeating the discovering and updating after a predetermined time period passes; and if the second relational map and dataflow graph is not the same as the first relational map and dataflow graph, then replacing the first relational map and dataflow graph; resulting in a dynamic and continuously updated discovery process; associating each metric in at least one set of metrics with at least one component; obtaining values for each such metric from a monitoring system; determining whether each such metric is indicative of a problem within the data network by determining the component from which the metric value has been obtained and comparing the value of the metric to a specific set value or range of values; and ranking and correlating indicative problems to determine whether a problem may be symptomatic of another problem based on the discovered information of an interconnection or an interdependency between the physical machine and the virtual machine, an interconnection or an interdependency between the virtual machine and the another virtual machine, an interdependency between the two applications, an interdependency between the application and the one or more virtual machines, an interdependency between the application and the one or more network devices, and an interconnection between the two network devices.