Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jon Barry Avner

Soner Terek

Wilson Li

An Yan

Kevin Charles Chase

Paulo Janotti

John Bennetto

Yogesh Bansal

Mihai R Jalobeanu

Art Sadovsky

Greg Thiel

Shane Brady

Charlie Ricafort Chung

Andrey Lukyanov

Venkat Narayanan

Smita Ojha

Chen Wang

Selim Yazicioglu

Haruya Shida

Prasanna Kumar Padmanabhan

Maurizio Bruno Di Gianluca

Srisaipavan Valluri

Colin Nash

Paul John Bowden

Wing Man Yim

Timur Sadykov

Ayyappan Balasubramanian

Nicole Annette Allen

Weiguo Zhang

Paul J Bowden

Feng Tan

Brent Alinger

Chris Barrett

Nirav Jasapara

Oleksandr Bublichenko

Sean Usher

A method for providing automatic suppression of an alert includes receiving a first error associated with a first dataset, the first dataset being among a plurality of datasets in a computer data environment, accessing dependency data that describes a set of dependencies between the first dataset and other datasets, examining the dependency data to automatically identify a second dataset from among the other datasets, the second dataset being a dataset on which the first dataset depends, accessing alert data for the computer data environment to determine whether an active alert for the second dataset provides an indication that the first error is redundant to a second error associated with the second dataset, and upon determining that the first error is redundant, suppressing transmission of the alert and storing data about suppressing transmission in a data structure. In determining whether the first error is redundant to the second error, timing of data generation of the first and second dataset and timing of detection of the first error are considered.

System and method of data alert suppression

A failure analysis of a cloud based service is provided using synthetic measurements of the cloud based service. The synthetic measurements associated with a customer experience is executed on the cloud based service to determine a health of the cloud based service. The synthetic measurements simulate the customer experience which includes a use scenario of a customer of the cloud based service. Failures associated with the health of the cloud based service are aggregated, where the failures are detected from the synthetic measurements. A distribution is generated from the failures. The distribution is presented to a stakeholder.

Failure analysis in cloud based service using synthetic measurements

Systems, methods, and software are provided for dynamically escalating service conditions associated with data center failures. In one implementation, a monitoring system detects a service condition. The service condition may be indicative of a failure of at least one service element within a data center monitored by the monitoring system. The monitoring system determines whether or not the service condition qualifies for escalation based at least in part on an access condition associated with the data center. The access condition may be identified by at least another monitoring system that is located in a geographic region distinct from that of the first monitoring system. Upon determining that the service condition qualifies for escalation, the monitoring system escalates the service condition to an escalated condition and initiates an escalated response.

Dynamic escalation of service conditions

Alerts based on detected hardware and/or software problems in a complex distributed application environment are mapped to recovery actions for automatically resolving problems. Non-mapped alerts are escalated to designated individuals or teams through a cyclical escalation method that includes a confirmation hand-off notice from the designated individual or team. Information collected for each alert as well as solutions through the escalation process may be recorded for expanding the automated resolution knowledge base.

Automated recovery and escalation in complex distributed applications

A multi-level monitoring system is provided for monitoring multiple performance aspects of a cloud service concurrently in order to generate a full and reliable performance analysis of the cloud service. The multi-level monitoring system may include a set of components for carrying out the performance analysis of the cloud service which may be deployed together to operate externally, internally, or concurrently with the cloud service. The component framework of the multi-level monitoring system may include a main component, a plug-in associated with the main component, a definition database, a log database, and an output database. The main components of an example multi-level monitoring framework may include a probe runner component for probing the cloud service, a monitor component for generating alerts based on probe results, and a responder component for processing the alerts and taking appropriate actions to improve the cloud service performance.

System comprising probe runner, monitor, and responder with associated databases for multi-level monitoring of a cloud service

Architecture for aggregating health alerts from a number of related components into a single aggregated health state that can be analyzed to isolate the component responsible for the fault condition. In a hierarchy of related components within various component groups in a computer system, a number of health indicators can indicate alerts occurring in one or more of the related components whereas the fault condition occurs in only one component upon which the other components depend. The health indicators of related components are aggregated into an aggregated health state for each component group. These aggregated health states are analyzed to identify the related component associated with a root cause of the alert condition for an affected component group.

Monitoring data categorization and module-based health correlations

Automated multiple step tasks are executed on a computing device to analyze a computer system. A step engine performs a complex task such as troubleshooting, performance analysis, or disaster recovery as defined by an input file. The step engine parses the input file into individual steps and dispatches actions of the steps to another device for execution. The device returns a file with the results of the action. The step engine progresses through the list of steps and generates a log file representative of the actions taken and data collected during performance of the task.

Automated analysis tasks of complex computer system

A flexible, extensible, uniform, and efficient framework for retrieving and analyzing data from a number of different data sources is disclosed. Instructions for retrieving and analyzing data are provided in a configuration file that is defined in a common format irrespective of the different data sources. The configuration file is submitted to a dispatcher, which uses the information therein to dispatch a number of data source collectors. Each such data source collector is unique to a corresponding data source and is able to formulate an efficient method for retrieving the necessary data from its corresponding data source. An analyzer then analyzes the retrieved data according to the instructions in the configuration file.

System and method for retrieving and analyzing data from a variety of different sources

A mechanism is described for allowing third party client applications to affect how high-level document commands are implemented in a database. After a high-level document command meeting certain criteria is received in a database management system, the system identifies one or more third party client application that are to be notified when such high-level document commands are received. The client applications are then notified allowing the client application to return implementation instructions which are used by the database management system in determining how to implement the high-level document command. The instruction may be to prevent implementation altogether, to somehow change the implementation, or even to perform high-level document commands in addition to the original high-level document command.

Methods and systems for allowing third party client applications to influence implementation of high-level document commands

A mechanism is described for the reliable notification to client applications of the implementation of predefined high-level document commands in a database. The database management system is issued a number of high-level document commands such as 'move electronic mail message' or 'add folder' which are to be implemented in the underlying database. As each high-level document command is implemented, an entry representing the high-level document command is set in a notification table stored in a persistent memory such as the database. The appropriate notification is then dispatched to any subscribing client applications. The client application then acknowledges to the database application that the notification has been received. In response, the entry is deleted in the notification table in the database. If the database management system were to fail, the system would check the notification table to see what notification it should send upon restarting.

Methods and systems for performing reliable asynchronous notification of high-level document operations

A mechanism is described for the reliable notification to client applications of the implementation of predefined high-level document commands in a database. The database management system is issued a number of high-level document commands such as 'move electronic mail message' or 'add folder' which are to be implemented in the underlying database. As each high-level document command is implemented, an entry representing the high-level document command is set in a notification table stored in a persistent memory such as the database. This entry may be set in the same atomic transaction as the other table updates needed to implement the high-level document command. The appropriate notification is then dispatched to any subscribing client applications. The client application then acknowledges to the database application that the notification has been received. In response, the entry is deleted in the notification table in the database. If the database management system were to fail, the system would check the notification table to see what notification it should send upon restarting.

A method and system for generating unique and human-readable URLs for objects included in a network system. When an object is created in a network system it may be that the application creating the object is unaware of URLs. However, it may also be that other applications included on the network system access object using URLs. When it is determined that an object needs a URL, one or more human-readable properties of the object are used to generate a URL. One or more storage locations associated with previously generated URLs are searched to determine if the human-readable properties of the object will generate a unique URL. If it is determined that the human-readable properties of the object will generate a unique URL, then a URL using the human-readable properties of the object is generated. However, if it is determined that the human-readable properties of the object will not create a unique URL, then the URL created using the human-readable properties is modified so that it is unique. Modification of the URL does not effect the human-readability of the URL. The method is configured so that modifications to future URLs generated from identical human-readable properties will still be unique.

Methods and systems for assigning human-readable and unique uniform resource locators to objects

The present invention increase the efficiency of virtual memory usage when performing heap allocation and reduces virtual memory fragmentation caused by heap allocation. Instead of incrementally growing the initial heaps when there is not enough heap memory to make an allocation, an entirely new heap is created in which to make the allocation. That new heap may be added to the pool of heaps from which an allocation may be made. The additional heaps are of a constant, relatively large, size thereby reducing the risk of virtual memory fragmentation.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Jon Barry Avner