Patent Grant
11194564
The present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for delivery of software code updates.
Information technology (IT) environments can include diverse types of data systems that store large amounts of diverse data types generated by numerous devices. For example, a big data ecosystem may include databases such as MySQL and Oracle databases, cloud computing services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), and other data systems that store passively or actively generated data, including machine-generated data (“machine data”). The machine data can include performance data, diagnostic data, or any other data that can be analyzed to diagnose equipment performance problems, monitor user interactions, and to derive other insights.
The large amount and diversity of data systems containing large amounts of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data relevant to any search query can be massive, and continues to grow rapidly. This technological evolution can give rise to various challenges in relation to managing, understanding and effectively utilizing the data. To reduce the potentially vast amount of data that may be generated, some data systems pre-process data based on anticipated data analysis needs. In particular, specified data items may be extracted from the generated data and stored in a data system to facilitate efficient retrieval and analysis of those data items at a later time. At least some of the remainder of the generated data is typically discarded during pre-processing.
However, storing massive quantities of minimally processed or unprocessed data (collectively and individually referred to as “raw data”) for later retrieval and analysis is becoming increasingly more feasible as storage capacity becomes more inexpensive and plentiful. In general, storing raw data and performing analysis on that data later can provide greater flexibility because it enables an analyst to analyze all of the generated data instead of only a fraction of it.
Although the availability of vastly greater amounts of diverse data on diverse data systems provides opportunities to derive new insights, it also gives rise to technical challenges to search and analyze the data. Tools exist that allow an analyst to search data systems separately and collect results over a network for the analyst to derive insights in a piecemeal manner. However, UI tools that allow analysts to quickly search and analyze large set of raw machine data to visually identify data subsets of interest, particularly via straightforward and easy-to-understand sets of tools and search functionality do not exist.
The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which:
Embodiments are described herein according to the following outline:
1.0. General Overview
In this description, references to “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,” or the like, mean that the particular feature, function, structure or characteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment of the technique introduced herein. Occurrences of such phrases in this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. On the other hand, the embodiments referred to are also not necessarily mutually exclusive.
A data intake and query system can index and store data in data stores of indexers, and can receive search queries causing a search of the indexers to obtain search results. The data intake and query system typically has search, extraction, execution, and analytics capabilities that may be limited in scope to the data stores of the indexers (“internal data stores”). Hence, a seamless and comprehensive search and analysis that includes diverse data types from external data sources, common storage (may also be referred to as global data storage or global data stores), ingested data buffers, query acceleration data stores, etc. may be difficult. Thus, the capabilities of some data intake and query systems remain isolated from a variety of data sources that could improve search results to provide new insights. Furthermore, the processing flow of some data intake and query systems are unidirectional in that data is obtained from a data source, processed, and then communicated to a search head or client without the ability to route data to different destinations.
The disclosed embodiments overcome these drawbacks by extending the search and analytics capabilities of a data intake and query system to include diverse data types stored in diverse data systems internal to or external from the data intake and query system. As a result, an analyst can use the data intake and query system to search and analyze data from a wide variety of dataset sources, including enterprise systems and open source technologies of a big data ecosystem. The term “big data” refers to large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, in some cases, relating to human behavior and interactions.
In particular, introduced herein is a data intake and query system that that has the ability to execute big data analytics seamlessly and can scale across diverse data sources to enable processing large volumes of diverse data from diverse data systems. A “data source” can include a “data system,” which may refer to a system that can process and/or store data. A “data storage system” may refer to a storage system that can store data such as unstructured, semi-structured, or structured data. Accordingly, a data source can include a data system that includes a data storage system.
The system can improve search and analytics capabilities of previous systems by employing a search process master and query coordinators combined with a scalable network of distributed nodes communicatively coupled to diverse data systems. The network of distributed nodes can act as agents of the data intake and query system to collect and process data of distributed data systems, and the search process master and coordinators can provide the processed data to the search head as search results.
For example, the data intake and query system can respond to a query by executing search operations on various internal and external data sources to obtain partial search results that are harmonized and presented as search results of the query. As such, the data intake and query system can offload search and analytics operations to the distributed nodes. Hence, the system enables search and analytics capabilities that can extend beyond the data stored on indexers to include external data systems, common storage, query acceleration data stores, ingested data buffers, etc.
The system can provide big data open stack integration to act as a big data pipeline that extends the search and analytics capabilities of a system over numerous and diverse data sources. For example, the system can extend the data execution scope of the data intake and query system to include data residing in external data systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle databases; NoSQL data stores like Cassandra, Mongo DB; cloud storage like Amazon S3 and Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS); common storage; ingested data buffers; etc. Thus, the system can execute search and analytics operations for all possible combinations of data types stored in various data sources.
The distributed processing of the system enables scalability to include any number of distributed data systems. As such, queries received by the data intake and query system can be propagated to the network of distributed nodes to extend the search and analytics capabilities of the data intake and query system over different data sources. In this context, the network of distributed nodes can act as an extension of the local data intake in query system's data processing pipeline to facilitate scalable analytics across the diverse data systems. Accordingly, the system can extend and transform the data intake and query system to include data resources into a data fabric platform that can leverage computing assets from anywhere and access and execute on data regardless of type or origin.
The disclosed embodiments include services such as new search capabilities, visualization tools, and other services that are seamlessly integrated into the DFS system. For example, the disclosed techniques include new search services performed on internal data stores, external data stores, or a combination of both. The search operations can provide ordered or unordered search results, or search results derived from data of diverse data systems, which can be visualized to provide new and useful insights about the data contained in a big data ecosystem.
Various other features of the DFS system introduced here will become apparent from the description that follows. First, however, it is useful to consider an example of an environment and system in which the techniques can be employed, as will now be described.
1.0. General Overview
Modern data centers and other computing environments can comprise anywhere from a few host computer systems to thousands of systems configured to process data, service requests from remote clients, and perform numerous other computational tasks. During operation, various components within these computing environments often generate significant volumes of machine data. Machine data is any data produced by a machine or component in an information technology (IT) environment and that reflects activity in the IT environment. For example, machine data can be raw machine data that is generated by various components in IT environments, such as servers, sensors, routers, mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. Machine data can include system logs, network packet data, sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, etc. In general, machine data can also include performance data, diagnostic information, and many other types of data that can be analyzed to diagnose performance problems, monitor user interactions, and to derive other insights.
A number of tools are available to analyze machine data. In order to reduce the size of the potentially vast amount of machine data that may be generated, many of these tools typically pre-process the data based on anticipated data-analysis needs. For example, pre-specified data items may be extracted from the machine data and stored in a database to facilitate efficient retrieval and analysis of those data items at search time. However, the rest of the machine data typically is not saved and is discarded during pre-processing. As storage capacity becomes progressively cheaper and more plentiful, there are fewer incentives to discard these portions of machine data and many reasons to retain more of the data.
This plentiful storage capacity is presently making it feasible to store massive quantities of minimally processed machine data for later retrieval and analysis. In general, storing minimally processed machine data and performing analysis operations at search time can provide greater flexibility because it enables an analyst to search all of the machine data, instead of searching only a pre-specified set of data items. This may enable an analyst to investigate different aspects of the machine data that previously were unavailable for analysis.
However, analyzing and searching massive quantities of machine data presents a number of challenges. For example, a data center, servers, or network appliances may generate many different types and formats of machine data (e.g., system logs, network packet data (e.g., wire data, etc.), sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, operating system data, virtualization data, etc.) from thousands of different components, which can collectively be very time-consuming to analyze. In another example, mobile devices may generate large amounts of information relating to data accesses, application performance, operating system performance, network performance, etc. There can be millions of mobile devices that report these types of information.
These challenges can be addressed by using an event-based data intake and query system, such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system developed by Splunk Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system is the leading platform for providing real-time operational intelligence that enables organizations to collect, index, and search machine data from various websites, applications, servers, networks, and mobile devices that power their businesses. The data intake and query system is particularly useful for analyzing data which is commonly found in system log files, network data, and other data input sources. Although many of the techniques described herein are explained with reference to a data intake and query system similar to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, these techniques are also applicable to other types of data systems.
In the data intake and query system, machine data are collected and stored as “events”. An event comprises a portion of machine data and is associated with a specific point in time. The portion of machine data may reflect activity in an IT environment and may be produced by a component of that IT environment, where the events may be searched to provide insight into the IT environment, thereby improving the performance of components in the IT environment. Events may be derived from “time series data,” where the time series data comprises a sequence of data points (e.g., performance measurements from a computer system, etc.) that are associated with successive points in time. In general, each event has a portion of machine data that is associated with a timestamp that is derived from the portion of machine data in the event. A timestamp of an event may be determined through interpolation between temporally proximate events having known timestamps or may be determined based on other configurable rules for associating timestamps with events.
In some instances, machine data can have a predefined format, where data items with specific data formats are stored at predefined locations in the data. For example, the machine data may include data associated with fields in a database table. In other instances, machine data may not have a predefined format (e.g., may not be at fixed, predefined locations), but may have repeatable (e.g., non-random) patterns. This means that some machine data can comprise various data items of different data types that may be stored at different locations within the data. For example, when the data source is an operating system log, an event can include one or more lines from the operating system log containing machine data that includes different types of performance and diagnostic information associated with a specific point in time (e.g., a timestamp).
Examples of components which may generate machine data from which events can be derived include, but are not limited to, web servers, application servers, databases, firewalls, routers, operating systems, and software applications that execute on computer systems, mobile devices, sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. The machine data generated by such data sources can include, for example and without limitation, server log files, activity log files, configuration files, messages, network packet data, performance measurements, sensor measurements, etc.
The data intake and query system uses a flexible schema to specify how to extract information from events. A flexible schema may be developed and redefined as needed. Note that a flexible schema may be applied to events “on the fly,” when it is needed (e.g., at search time, index time, ingestion time, etc.). When the schema is not applied to events until search time, the schema may be referred to as a “late-binding schema.”
During operation, the data intake and query system receives machine data from any type and number of sources (e.g., one or more system logs, streams of network packet data, sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, etc.). The system parses the machine data to produce events each having a portion of machine data associated with a timestamp. The system stores the events in a data store. The system enables users to run queries against the stored events to, for example, retrieve events that meet criteria specified in a query, such as criteria indicating certain keywords or having specific values in defined fields. As used herein, the term “field” refers to a location in the machine data of an event containing one or more values for a specific data item. A field may be referenced by a field name associated with the field. As will be described in more detail herein, a field is defined by an extraction rule (e.g., a regular expression) that derives one or more values or a sub-portion of text from the portion of machine data in each event to produce a value for the field for that event. The set of values produced are semantically-related (such as an Internet Protocol [IP] address), even though the machine data in each event may be in different formats (e.g., semantically-related values may be in different positions in the events derived from different sources).
As described above, the system stores the events in a data store. The events stored in the data store are field-searchable, where field-searchable herein refers to the ability to search the machine data (e.g., the raw machine data) of an event based on a field specified in search criteria. For example, a search having criteria that specifies a field name “UserID” may cause the system to field-search the machine data of events to identify events that have the field name “UserID.” In another example, a search having criteria that specifies a field name “UserID” with a corresponding field value “12345” may cause the system to field-search the machine data of events to identify events having that field-value pair (e.g., field name “UserID” with a corresponding field value of “12345”). Events are field-searchable using one or more configuration files associated with the events. Each configuration file includes one or more field names, where each field name is associated with a corresponding extraction rule and a set of events to which that extraction rule applies. The set of events to which an extraction rule applies may be identified by metadata associated with the set of events. For example, an extraction rule may apply to a set of events that are each associated with a particular host, source, or source type. When events are to be searched based on a particular field name specified in a search, the system uses one or more configuration files to determine whether there is an extraction rule for that particular field name that applies to each event that falls within the criteria of the search. If so, the event is considered as part of the search results (and additional processing may be performed on that event based on criteria specified in the search). If not, the next event is similarly analyzed, and so on.
As noted above, the data intake and query system utilizes a late-binding schema while performing queries on events. One aspect of a late-binding schema is applying extraction rules to events to extract values for specific fields during search time. More specifically, the extraction rule for a field can include one or more instructions that specify how to extract a value for the field from an event. An extraction rule can generally include any type of instruction for extracting values from events. In some cases, an extraction rule comprises a regular expression, where a sequence of characters form a search pattern. An extraction rule comprising a regular expression is referred to herein as a regex rule. The system applies a regex rule to an event to extract values for a field associated with the regex rule, where the values are extracted by searching the event for the sequence of characters defined in the regex rule.
In the data intake and query system, a field extractor may be configured to automatically generate extraction rules for certain fields in the events when the events are being created, indexed, or stored, or possibly at a later time. Alternatively, a user may manually define extraction rules for fields using a variety of techniques. In contrast to a conventional schema for a database system, a late-binding schema is not defined at data ingestion time. Instead, the late-binding schema can be developed on an ongoing basis until the time a query is actually executed. This means that extraction rules for the fields specified in a query may be provided in the query itself, or may be located during execution of the query. Hence, as a user learns more about the data in the events, the user can continue to refine the late-binding schema by adding new fields, deleting fields, or modifying the field extraction rules for use the next time the schema is used by the system. Because the data intake and query system maintains the underlying machine data and uses a late-binding schema for searching the machine data, it enables a user to continue investigating and learn valuable insights about the machine data.
In some embodiments, a common field name may be used to reference two or more fields containing equivalent and/or similar data items, even though the fields may be associated with different types of events that possibly have different data formats and different extraction rules. By enabling a common field name to be used to identify equivalent and/or similar fields from different types of events generated by disparate data sources, the system facilitates use of a “common information model” (CIM) across the disparate data sources (further discussed with respect to
2.0. Operating Environment
The networked computer system 100 comprises one or more computing devices. These one or more computing devices comprise any combination of hardware and software configured to implement the various logical components described herein. For example, the one or more computing devices may include one or more memories that store instructions for implementing the various components described herein, one or more hardware processors configured to execute the instructions stored in the one or more memories, and various data repositories in the one or more memories for storing data structures utilized and manipulated by the various components.
In some embodiments, one or more client devices 102 are coupled to one or more host devices 106 and a data intake and query system 108 via one or more networks 104. Networks 104 broadly represent one or more local area networks [LANs], wide area networks [WANs], cellular networks (e.g., Long-Term Evolution (LTE), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Third Generation (3G), and other cellular technologies), and/or networks using any of wired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, or satellite links, and may include the public Internet.
2.1. Host Devices
In the illustrated embodiment, a system 100 includes one or more host devices 106. Host devices 106 may broadly include any number of computers, virtual machine instances, and/or data centers that are configured to host or execute one or more instances of host applications 114. In general, a host device 106 may be involved, directly or indirectly, in processing requests received from client devices 102. Each host device 106 may comprise, for example, one or more of a network device, a web server, an application server, a database server, etc. A collection of host devices 106 may be configured to implement a network-based service. For example, a provider of a network-based service may configure one or more host devices 106 and host applications 114 (e.g., one or more web servers, application servers, database servers, etc.) to collectively implement the network-based application.
In general, client devices 102 communicate with one or more host applications 114 to exchange information. The communication between a client device 102 and a host application 114 may, for example, be based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or any other network protocol. Content delivered from the host application 114 to a client device 102 may include, for example, hyper-text markup language (HTML) documents, media content, etc. The communication between a client device 102 and host application 114 may include sending various requests and receiving data packets. For example, in general, a client device 102 or application running on a client device may initiate communication with a host application 114 by making a request for a specific resource (e.g., based on an HTTP request), and the application server may respond with the requested content stored in one or more response packets.
In the illustrated embodiment, one or more of host applications 114 may generate various types of performance data during operation, including event logs, network data, sensor data, and other types of machine data. For example, a host application 114 comprising a web server may generate one or more web server logs in which details of interactions between the web server and any number of client devices 102 is recorded. As another example, a host device 106 comprising a router may generate one or more router logs that record information related to network traffic managed by the router. As yet another example, a host application 114 comprising a database server may generate one or more logs that record information related to requests sent from other host applications 114 (e.g., web servers or application servers) for data managed by the database server.
2.2. Client Devices
Client devices 102 of
2.3. Client Device Applications
In some embodiments, each client device 102 may host or execute one or more client applications 110 that are capable of interacting with one or more host devices 106 via one or more networks 104. For instance, a client application 110 may be or comprise a web browser that a user may use to navigate to one or more websites or other resources provided by one or more host devices 106. As another example, a client application 110 may comprise a mobile application or “app.” For example, an operator of a network-based service hosted by one or more host devices 106 may make available one or more mobile apps that enable users of client devices 102 to access various resources of the network-based service. As yet another example, client applications 110 may include background processes that perform various operations without direct interaction from a user. A client application 110 may include a “plug-in” or “extension” to another application, such as a web browser plug-in or extension.
In some embodiments, a client application 110 may include a monitoring component 112. At a high level, the monitoring component 112 comprises a software component or other logic that facilitates generating performance data related to a client device's operating state, including monitoring network traffic sent and received from the client device and collecting other device and/or application-specific information. Monitoring component 112 may be an integrated component of a client application 110, a plug-in, an extension, or any other type of add-on component. Monitoring component 112 may also be a stand-alone process.
In some embodiments, a monitoring component 112 may be created when a client application 110 is developed, for example, by an application developer using a software development kit (SDK). The SDK may include custom monitoring code that can be incorporated into the code implementing a client application 110. When the code is converted to an executable application, the custom code implementing the monitoring functionality can become part of the application itself.
In some embodiments, an SDK or other code for implementing the monitoring functionality may be offered by a provider of a data intake and query system, such as a system 108. In such cases, the provider of the system 108 can implement the custom code so that performance data generated by the monitoring functionality is sent to the system 108 to facilitate analysis of the performance data by a developer of the client application or other users.
In some embodiments, the custom monitoring code may be incorporated into the code of a client application 110 in a number of different ways, such as the insertion of one or more lines in the client application code that call or otherwise invoke the monitoring component 112. As such, a developer of a client application 110 can add one or more lines of code into the client application 110 to trigger the monitoring component 112 at desired points during execution of the application. Code that triggers the monitoring component may be referred to as a monitor trigger. For instance, a monitor trigger may be included at or near the beginning of the executable code of the client application 110 such that the monitoring component 112 is initiated or triggered as the application is launched, or included at other points in the code that correspond to various actions of the client application, such as sending a network request or displaying a particular interface.
In some embodiments, the monitoring component 112 may monitor one or more aspects of network traffic sent and/or received by a client application 110. For example, the monitoring component 112 may be configured to monitor data packets transmitted to and/or from one or more host applications 114. Incoming and/or outgoing data packets can be read or examined to identify network data contained within the packets, for example, and other aspects of data packets can be analyzed to determine a number of network performance statistics. Monitoring network traffic may enable information to be gathered particular to the network performance associated with a client application 110 or set of applications.
In some embodiments, network performance data refers to any type of data that indicates information about the network and/or network performance. Network performance data may include, for instance, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) requested, a connection type (e.g., Hypertext Transport Protocol [HTTP], HTTP Secure [HTTPS], etc.), a connection start time, a connection end time, an HTTP status code, request length, response length, request headers, response headers, connection status (e.g., completion, response time(s), failure, etc.), and the like. Upon obtaining network performance data indicating performance of the network, the network performance data can be transmitted to a data intake and query system 108 for analysis.
Upon developing a client application 110 that incorporates a monitoring component 112, the client application 110 can be distributed to client devices 102. Applications generally can be distributed to client devices 102 in any manner, or they can be pre-loaded. In some cases, the application may be distributed to a client device 102 via an application marketplace or other application distribution system. For instance, an application marketplace or other application distribution system might distribute the application to a client device based on a request from the client device to download the application.
Examples of functionality that enables monitoring performance of a client device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/524,748, entitled “UTILIZING PACKET HEADERS TO MONITOR NETWORK TRAFFIC IN ASSOCIATION WITH A CLIENT DEVICE”, filed on 27 Oct. 2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
In some embodiments, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor and collect performance data related to one or more aspects of the operational state of a client application 110 and/or client device 102. For example, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to collect device performance information by monitoring one or more client device operations, or by making calls to an operating system and/or one or more other applications executing on a client device 102 for performance information. Device performance information may include, for instance, a current wireless signal strength of the device, a current connection type and network carrier, current memory performance information, a geographic location of the device, a device orientation, and any other information related to the operational state of the client device.
In some embodiments, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor and collect other device profile information including, for example, a type of client device, a manufacturer and model of the device, versions of various software applications installed on the device, and so forth.
In general, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to generate performance data in response to a monitor trigger in the code of a client application 110 or other triggering application event, as described above, and to store the performance data in one or more data records. Each data record, for example, may include a collection of field-value pairs, each field-value pair storing a particular item of performance data in association with a field for the item. For example, a data record generated by a monitoring component 112 may include a “networkLatency” field (not shown in the Figure) in which a value is stored. This field indicates a network latency measurement associated with one or more network requests. The data record may include a “state” field to store a value indicating a state of a network connection, and so forth for any number of aspects of collected performance data.
2.4. Data Server System
Each data source 202 broadly represents a distinct source of data that can be consumed by system 108. Examples of a data sources 202 include, without limitation, data files, directories of files, data sent over a network, event logs, registries, etc.
During operation, the forwarders 204 identify which indexers 206 receive data collected from a data source 202 and forward the data to the appropriate indexers. Forwarders 204 can also perform operations on the data before forwarding, including removing extraneous data, detecting timestamps in the data, parsing data, indexing data, routing data based on criteria relating to the data being routed, and/or performing other data transformations.
In some embodiments, a forwarder 204 may comprise a service accessible to client devices 102 and host devices 106 via a network 104. For example, one type of forwarder 204 may be capable of consuming vast amounts of real-time data from a potentially large number of client devices 102 and/or host devices 106. The forwarder 204 may, for example, comprise a computing device which implements multiple data pipelines or “queues” to handle forwarding of network data to indexers 206. A forwarder 204 may also perform many of the functions that are performed by an indexer. For example, a forwarder 204 may perform keyword extractions on raw data or parse raw data to create events. A forwarder 204 may generate time stamps for events. Additionally or alternatively, a forwarder 204 may perform routing of events to indexers 206. Data store 208 may contain events derived from machine data from a variety of sources all pertaining to the same component in an IT environment, and this data may be produced by the machine in question or by other components in the IT environment.
2.5. Cloud-Based System Overview
The example data intake and query system 108 described in reference to
In one embodiment, to provide an alternative to an entirely on-premises environment for system 108, one or more of the components of a data intake and query system instead may be provided as a cloud-based service. In this context, a cloud-based service refers to a service hosted by one more computing resources that are accessible to end users over a network, for example, by using a web browser or other application on a client device to interface with the remote computing resources. For example, a service provider may provide a cloud-based data intake and query system by managing computing resources configured to implement various aspects of the system (e.g., forwarders, indexers, search heads, etc.) and by providing access to the system to end users via a network. Typically, a user may pay a subscription or other fee to use such a service. Each subscribing user of the cloud-based service may be provided with an account that enables the user to configure a customized cloud-based system based on the user's preferences.
In some embodiments, a cloud-based data intake and query system 306 may comprise a plurality of system instances 308. In general, each system instance 308 may include one or more computing resources managed by a provider of the cloud-based system 306 made available to a particular subscriber. The computing resources comprising a system instance 308 may, for example, include one or more servers or other devices configured to implement one or more forwarders, indexers, search heads, and other components of a data intake and query system, similar to system 108. As indicated above, a subscriber may use a web browser or other application of a client device 302 to access a web portal or other interface that enables the subscriber to configure an instance 308.
Providing a data intake and query system as described in reference to system 108 as a cloud-based service presents a number of challenges. Each of the components of a system 108 (e.g., forwarders, indexers, and search heads) may at times refer to various configuration files stored locally at each component. These configuration files typically may involve some level of user configuration to accommodate particular types of data a user desires to analyze and to account for other user preferences. However, in a cloud-based service context, users typically may not have direct access to the underlying computing resources implementing the various system components (e.g., the computing resources comprising each system instance 308) and may desire to make such configurations indirectly, for example, using one or more web-based interfaces. Thus, the techniques and systems described herein for providing user interfaces that enable a user to configure source type definitions are applicable to both on-premises and cloud-based service contexts, or some combination thereof (e.g., a hybrid system where both an on-premises environment, such as SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE, and a cloud-based environment, such as SPLUNK CLOUD™, are centrally visible).
2.6. Searching Externally-Archived Data
The search head 210 of the data intake and query system receives search requests from one or more client devices 404 over network connections 420. As discussed above, the data intake and query system 108 may reside in an enterprise location, in the cloud, etc.
The search head 210 analyzes the received search request to identify request parameters. If a search request received from one of the client devices 404 references an index maintained by the data intake and query system, then the search head 210 connects to one or more indexers 206 of the data intake and query system for the index referenced in the request parameters. That is, if the request parameters of the search request reference an index, then the search head accesses the data in the index via the indexer. The data intake and query system 108 may include one or more indexers 206, depending on system access resources and requirements. As described further below, the indexers 206 retrieve data from their respective local data stores 208 as specified in the search request. The indexers and their respective data stores can comprise one or more storage devices and typically reside on the same system, though they may be connected via a local network connection.
If the request parameters of the received search request reference an external data collection, which is not accessible to the indexers 206 or under the management of the data intake and query system, then the search head 210 can access the external data collection through an External Result Provider (ERP) process 410. An external data collection may be referred to as a “virtual index” (plural, “virtual indices”). An ERP process provides an interface through which the search head 210 may access virtual indices.
Thus, a search reference to an index of the system relates to a locally stored and managed data collection. In contrast, a search reference to a virtual index relates to an externally stored and managed data collection, which the search head may access through one or more ERP processes 410, 412.
The search head 210 may spawn a single ERP process in response to multiple virtual indices referenced in a search request, or the search head may spawn different ERP processes for different virtual indices. Generally, virtual indices that share common data configurations or protocols may share ERP processes. For example, all search query references to a Hadoop file system may be processed by the same ERP process, if the ERP process is suitably configured. Likewise, all search query references to a SQL database may be processed by the same ERP process. In addition, the search head may provide a common ERP process for common external data source types (e.g., a common vendor may utilize a common ERP process, even if the vendor includes different data storage system types, such as Hadoop and SQL). Common indexing schemes also may be handled by common ERP processes, such as flat text files or Weblog files.
The search head 210 determines the number of ERP processes to be initiated via the use of configuration parameters that are included in a search request message. Generally, there is a one-to-many relationship between an external results provider “family” and ERP processes. There is also a one-to-many relationship between an ERP process and corresponding virtual indices that are referred to in a search request. For example, using RDBMS, assume two independent instances of such a system by one vendor, such as one RDBMS for production and another RDBMS used for development. In such a situation, it is likely preferable (but optional) to use two ERP processes to maintain the independent operation as between production and development data. Both of the ERPs, however, will belong to the same family, because the two RDBMS system types are from the same vendor.
The ERP processes 410, 412 receive a search request from the search head 210. The search head may optimize the received search request for execution at the respective external virtual index. Alternatively, the ERP process may receive a search request as a result of analysis performed by the search head or by a different system process. The ERP processes 410, 412 can communicate with the search head 210 via conventional input/output routines (e.g., standard in/standard out, etc.). In this way, the ERP process receives the search request from a client device such that the search request may be efficiently executed at the corresponding external virtual index.
The ERP processes 410, 412 may be implemented as a process of the data intake and query system. Each ERP process may be provided by the data intake and query system, or may be provided by process or application providers who are independent of the data intake and query system. Each respective ERP process may include an interface application installed at a computer of the external result provider that ensures proper communication between the search support system and the external result provider. The ERP processes 410, 412 generate appropriate search requests in the protocol and syntax of the respective virtual indices 414, 416, each of which corresponds to the search request received by the search head 210. Upon receiving search results from their corresponding virtual indices, the respective ERP process passes the result to the search head 210, which may return or display the results or a processed set of results based on the returned results to the respective client device.
Client devices 404 may communicate with the data intake and query system 108 through a network interface 420, e.g., one or more LANs, WANs, cellular networks, intranetworks, and/or internetworks using any of wired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and may include the public Internet.
The analytics platform utilizing the External Result Provider process described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,629, entitled “EXTERNAL RESULT PROVIDED PROCESS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED USING A DIFFERENT CONFIGURATION OR PROTOCOL”, issued on 27 May 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,587, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST BY RETRIEVING RESULTS FROM BOTH A NATIVE INDEX AND A VIRTUAL INDEX”, issued on 25 Jul. 2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,832, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST ACROSS DISPARATE DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS”, filed on 1 May 2014, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,514,189, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST INCLUDING EXTERNAL DATA SOURCES”, issued on 6 Dec. 2016, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
2.6.1. ERP Process Features
The ERP processes described above may include two operation modes: a streaming mode and a reporting mode. The ERP processes can operate in streaming mode only, in reporting mode only, or in both modes simultaneously. Operating in both modes simultaneously is referred to as mixed mode operation. In a mixed mode operation, the ERP at some point can stop providing the search head with streaming results and only provide reporting results thereafter, or the search head at some point may start ignoring streaming results it has been using and only use reporting results thereafter.
The streaming mode returns search results in real time, with minimal processing, in response to the search request. The reporting mode provides results of a search request with processing of the search results prior to providing them to the requesting search head, which in turn provides results to the requesting client device. ERP operation with such multiple modes provides greater performance flexibility with regard to report time, search latency, and resource utilization.
In a mixed mode operation, both streaming mode and reporting mode are operating simultaneously. The streaming mode results (e.g., the machine data obtained from the external data source) are provided to the search head, which can then process the results data (e.g., break the machine data into events, timestamp it, filter it, etc.) and integrate the results data with the results data from other external data sources, and/or from data stores of the search head. The search head performs such processing and can immediately start returning interim (streaming mode) results to the user at the requesting client device; simultaneously, the search head is waiting for the ERP process to process the data it is retrieving from the external data source as a result of the concurrently executing reporting mode.
In some instances, the ERP process initially operates in a mixed mode, such that the streaming mode operates to enable the ERP quickly to return interim results (e.g., some of the machined data or unprocessed data necessary to respond to a search request) to the search head, enabling the search head to process the interim results and begin providing to the client or search requester interim results that are responsive to the query. Meanwhile, in this mixed mode, the ERP also operates concurrently in reporting mode, processing portions of machine data in a manner responsive to the search query. Upon determining that it has results from the reporting mode available to return to the search head, the ERP may halt processing in the mixed mode at that time (or some later time) by stopping the return of data in streaming mode to the search head and switching to reporting mode only. The ERP at this point starts sending interim results in reporting mode to the search head, which in turn may then present this processed data responsive to the search request to the client or search requester. Typically the search head switches from using results from the ERP's streaming mode of operation to results from the ERP's reporting mode of operation when the higher bandwidth results from the reporting mode outstrip the amount of data processed by the search head in the streaming mode of ERP operation.
A reporting mode may have a higher bandwidth because the ERP does not have to spend time transferring data to the search head for processing all the machine data. In addition, the ERP may optionally direct another processor to do the processing.
The streaming mode of operation does not need to be stopped to gain the higher bandwidth benefits of a reporting mode; the search head could simply stop using the streaming mode results—and start using the reporting mode results—when the bandwidth of the reporting mode has caught up with or exceeded the amount of bandwidth provided by the streaming mode. Thus, a variety of triggers and ways to accomplish a search head's switch from using streaming mode results to using reporting mode results may be appreciated by one skilled in the art.
The reporting mode can involve the ERP process (or an external system) performing event breaking, time stamping, filtering of events to match the search query request, and calculating statistics on the results. The user can request particular types of data, such as if the search query itself involves types of events, or the search request may ask for statistics on data, such as on events that meet the search request. In either case, the search head understands the query language used in the received query request, which may be a proprietary language. One exemplary query language is Splunk Processing Language (SPL) developed by the assignee of the application, Splunk Inc. The search head typically understands how to use that language to obtain data from the indexers, which store data in a format used by the SPLUNK® Enterprise system.
The ERP processes support the search head, as the search head is not ordinarily configured to understand the format in which data is stored in external data sources such as Hadoop or SQL data systems. Rather, the ERP process performs that translation from the query submitted in the search support system's native format (e.g., SPL if SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE is used as the search support system) to a search query request format that will be accepted by the corresponding external data system. The external data system typically stores data in a different format from that of the search support system's native index format, and it utilizes a different query language (e.g., SQL or MapReduce, rather than SPL or the like).
As noted, the ERP process can operate in the streaming mode alone. After the ERP process has performed the translation of the query request and received raw results from the streaming mode, the search head can integrate the returned data with any data obtained from local data sources (e.g., native to the search support system), other external data sources, and other ERP processes (if such operations were required to satisfy the terms of the search query). An advantage of mixed mode operation is that, in addition to streaming mode, the ERP process is also executing concurrently in reporting mode. Thus, the ERP process (rather than the search head) is processing query results (e.g., performing event breaking, timestamping, filtering, possibly calculating statistics if required to be responsive to the search query request, etc.). It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that additional time is needed for the ERP process to perform the processing in such a configuration. Therefore, the streaming mode will allow the search head to start returning interim results to the user at the client device before the ERP process can complete sufficient processing to start returning any search results. The switchover between streaming and reporting mode happens when the ERP process determines that the switchover is appropriate, such as when the ERP process determines it can begin returning meaningful results from its reporting mode.
The operation described above illustrates the source of operational latency: streaming mode has low latency (immediate results) and usually has relatively low bandwidth (fewer results can be returned per unit of time). In contrast, the concurrently running reporting mode has relatively high latency (it has to perform a lot more processing before returning any results) and usually has relatively high bandwidth (more results can be processed per unit of time). For example, when the ERP process does begin returning report results, it returns more processed results than in the streaming mode, because, e.g., statistics only need to be calculated to be responsive to the search request. That is, the ERP process doesn't have to take time to first return machine data to the search head. As noted, the ERP process could be configured to operate in streaming mode alone and return just the machine data for the search head to process in a way that is responsive to the search request. Alternatively, the ERP process can be configured to operate in the reporting mode only. Also, the ERP process can be configured to operate in streaming mode and reporting mode concurrently, as described, with the ERP process stopping the transmission of streaming results to the search head when the concurrently running reporting mode has caught up and started providing results. The reporting mode does not require the processing of all machine data that is responsive to the search query request before the ERP process starts returning results; rather, the reporting mode usually performs processing of chunks of events and returns the processing results to the search head for each chunk.
For example, an ERP process can be configured to merely return the contents of a search result file verbatim, with little or no processing of results. That way, the search head performs all processing (such as parsing byte streams into events, filtering, etc.). The ERP process can be configured to perform additional intelligence, such as analyzing the search request and handling all the computation that a native search indexer process would otherwise perform. In this way, the configured ERP process provides greater flexibility in features while operating according to desired preferences, such as response latency and resource requirements.
2.7. Data Ingestion
2.7.1. Input
At block 502, a forwarder receives data from an input source, such as a data source 202 shown in
At block 504, a forwarder or other system component annotates each block generated from the raw data with one or more metadata fields. These metadata fields may, for example, provide information related to the data block as a whole and may apply to each event that is subsequently derived from the data in the data block. For example, the metadata fields may include separate fields specifying each of a host, a source, and a source type related to the data block. A host field may contain a value identifying a host name or IP address of a device that generated the data. A source field may contain a value identifying a source of the data, such as a pathname of a file or a protocol and port related to received network data. A source type field may contain a value specifying a particular source type label for the data. Additional metadata fields may also be included during the input phase, such as a character encoding of the data, if known, and possibly other values that provide information relevant to later processing steps. In some embodiments, a forwarder forwards the annotated data blocks to another system component (typically an indexer) for further processing.
The data intake and query system allows forwarding of data from one data intake and query instance to another, or even to a third-party system. The data intake and query system can employ different types of forwarders in a configuration.
In some embodiments, a forwarder may contain the essential components needed to forward data. A forwarder can gather data from a variety of inputs and forward the data to an indexer for indexing and searching. A forwarder can also tag metadata (e.g., source, source type, host, etc.).
In some embodiments, a forwarder has the capabilities of the aforementioned forwarder as well as additional capabilities. The forwarder can parse data before forwarding the data (e.g., can associate a time stamp with a portion of data and create an event, etc.) and can route data based on criteria such as source or type of event. The forwarder can also index data locally while forwarding the data to another indexer.
2.7.2. Parsing
At block 506, an indexer receives data blocks from a forwarder and parses the data to organize the data into events. In some embodiments, to organize the data into events, an indexer may determine a source type associated with each data block (e.g., by extracting a source type label from the metadata fields associated with the data block, etc.) and refer to a source type configuration corresponding to the identified source type. The source type definition may include one or more properties that indicate to the indexer to automatically determine the boundaries within the received data that indicate the portions of machine data for events. In general, these properties may include regular expression-based rules or delimiter rules where, for example, event boundaries may be indicated by predefined characters or character strings. These predefined characters may include punctuation marks or other special characters including, for example, carriage returns, tabs, spaces, line breaks, etc. If a source type for the data is unknown to the indexer, an indexer may infer a source type for the data by examining the structure of the data. Then, the indexer can apply an inferred source type definition to the data to create the events.
At block 508, the indexer determines a timestamp for each event. Similar to the process for parsing machine data, an indexer may again refer to a source type definition associated with the data to locate one or more properties that indicate instructions for determining a timestamp for each event. The properties may, for example, instruct an indexer to extract a time value from a portion of data for the event, to interpolate time values based on timestamps associated with temporally proximate events, to create a timestamp based on a time the portion of machine data was received or generated, to use the timestamp of a previous event, or use any other rules for determining timestamps.
At block 510, the indexer associates with each event one or more metadata fields including a field containing the timestamp determined for the event. In some embodiments, a timestamp may be included in the metadata fields. These metadata fields may include any number of “default fields” that are associated with all events, and may also include one more custom fields as defined by a user. Similar to the metadata fields associated with the data blocks at block 504, the default metadata fields associated with each event may include a host, source, and source type field including or in addition to a field storing the timestamp.
At block 512, an indexer may optionally apply one or more transformations to data included in the events created at block 506. For example, such transformations can include removing a portion of an event (e.g., a portion used to define event boundaries, extraneous characters from the event, other extraneous text, etc.), masking a portion of an event (e.g., masking a credit card number), removing redundant portions of an event, etc. The transformations applied to events may, for example, be specified in one or more configuration files and referenced by one or more source type definitions.
As mentioned above, certain metadata, e.g., host 536, source 537, source type 538 and timestamps 535 can be generated for each event, and associated with a corresponding portion of machine data 539 when storing the event data in a data store, e.g., data store 208. Any of the metadata can be extracted from the corresponding machine data, or supplied or defined by an entity, such as a user or computer system. The metadata fields can become part of or stored with the event. Note that while the time-stamp metadata field can be extracted from the raw data of each event, the values for the other metadata fields may be determined by the indexer based on information it receives pertaining to the source of the data separate from the machine data.
While certain default or user-defined metadata fields can be extracted from the machine data for indexing purposes, all the machine data within an event can be maintained in its original condition. As such, in embodiments in which the portion of machine data included in an event is unprocessed or otherwise unaltered, it is referred to herein as a portion of raw machine data. In other embodiments, the port of machine data in an event can be processed or otherwise altered. As such, unless certain information needs to be removed for some reasons (e.g. extraneous information, confidential information), all the raw machine data contained in an event can be preserved and saved in its original form. Accordingly, the data store in which the event records are stored is sometimes referred to as a “raw record data store.” The raw record data store contains a record of the raw event data tagged with the various default fields.
In
In the example shown in
Event 534 is associated with an entry in a server error log, as indicated by “error.log” in the source column 537, that records errors that the server encountered when processing a client request. Similar to the events related to the server access log, all the raw machine data in the error log file pertaining to event 534 can be preserved and stored as part of the event 534.
Saving minimally processed or unprocessed machine data in a data store associated with metadata fields in the manner similar to that shown in
2.7.3. Indexing
At blocks 514 and 516, an indexer can optionally generate a keyword index to facilitate fast keyword searching for events. To build a keyword index, at block 514, the indexer identifies a set of keywords in each event. At block 516, the indexer includes the identified keywords in an index, which associates each stored keyword with reference pointers to events containing that keyword (or to locations within events where that keyword is located, other location identifiers, etc.). When an indexer subsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexer can access the keyword index to quickly identify events containing the keyword.
In some embodiments, the keyword index may include entries for field name-value pairs found in events, where a field name-value pair can include a pair of keywords connected by a symbol, such as an equals sign or colon. This way, events containing these field name-value pairs can be quickly located. In some embodiments, fields can automatically be generated for some or all of the field names of the field name-value pairs at the time of indexing. For example, if the string “dest=10.0.1.2” is found in an event, a field named “dest” may be created for the event, and assigned a value of “10.0.1.2”.
At block 518, the indexer stores the events with an associated timestamp in a data store 208. Timestamps enable a user to search for events based on a time range. In some embodiments, the stored events are organized into “buckets,” where each bucket stores events associated with a specific time range based on the timestamps associated with each event. This improves time-based searching, as well as allows for events with recent timestamps, which may have a higher likelihood of being accessed, to be stored in a faster memory to facilitate faster retrieval. For example, buckets containing the most recent events can be stored in flash memory rather than on a hard disk. In some embodiments, each bucket may be associated with an identifier, a time range, and a size constraint.
Each indexer 206 may be responsible for storing and searching a subset of the events contained in a corresponding data store 208. By distributing events among the indexers and data stores, the indexers can analyze events for a query in parallel. For example, using map-reduce techniques, each indexer returns partial responses for a subset of events to a search head that combines the results to produce an answer for the query. By storing events in buckets for specific time ranges, an indexer may further optimize the data retrieval process by searching buckets corresponding to time ranges that are relevant to a query.
In some embodiments, each indexer has a home directory and a cold directory. The home directory of an indexer stores hot buckets and warm buckets, and the cold directory of an indexer stores cold buckets. A hot bucket is a bucket that is capable of receiving and storing events. A warm bucket is a bucket that can no longer receive events for storage but has not yet been moved to the cold directory. A cold bucket is a bucket that can no longer receive events and may be a bucket that was previously stored in the home directory. The home directory may be stored in faster memory, such as flash memory, as events may be actively written to the home directory, and the home directory may typically store events that are more frequently searched and thus are accessed more frequently. The cold directory may be stored in slower and/or larger memory, such as a hard disk, as events are no longer being written to the cold directory, and the cold directory may typically store events that are not as frequently searched and thus are accessed less frequently. In some embodiments, an indexer may also have a quarantine bucket that contains events having potentially inaccurate information, such as an incorrect time stamp associated with the event or a time stamp that appears to be an unreasonable time stamp for the corresponding event. The quarantine bucket may have events from any time range; as such, the quarantine bucket may always be searched at search time. Additionally, an indexer may store old, archived data in a frozen bucket that is not capable of being searched at search time. In some embodiments, a frozen bucket may be stored in slower and/or larger memory, such as a hard disk, and may be stored in offline and/or remote storage.
Moreover, events and buckets can also be replicated across different indexers and data stores to facilitate high availability and disaster recovery as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,130,971, entitled “SITE-BASED SEARCH AFFINITY”, issued on 8 Sep. 2015, and in U.S. patent Ser. No. 14/266,817, entitled “MULTI-SITE CLUSTERING”, issued on 1 Sep. 2015, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
The data store 501 can correspond to a data store 208 that stores events managed by an indexer 206 or can correspond to a different data store associated with an indexer 206. In the illustrated embodiment, the data store 501 includes a _main directory 503 associated with a _main index and a _test directory 505 associated with a _test index. However, the data store 501 can include fewer or more directories. In some embodiments, multiple indexes can share a single directory or all indexes can share a common directory. Additionally, although illustrated as a single data store 501, it will be understood that the data store 501 can be implemented as multiple data stores storing different portions of the information shown in
In the illustrated embodiment of
In some embodiments, the inverted index 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can correspond to a distinct time-series bucket that is managed by the indexer 206 and that contains events corresponding to the relevant index (e.g., _main index, _test index). As such, each inverted index can correspond to a particular range of time for an index. Additional files, such as high performance indexes for each time-series bucket of an index, can also be stored in the same directory as the inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B. In some embodiments inverted index 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can correspond to multiple time-series buckets or inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can correspond to a single time-series bucket.
Each inverted index 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can include one or more entries, such as keyword (or token) entries or field-value pair entries. Furthermore, in certain embodiments, the inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can include additional information, such as a time range 523 associated with the inverted index or an index identifier 525 identifying the index associated with the inverted index 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B. However, each inverted index 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can include less or more information than depicted.
Token entries, such as token entries 511 illustrated in inverted index 507B, can include a token 511A (e.g., “error,” “itemID,” etc.) and event references 511B indicative of events that include the token. For example, for the token “error,” the corresponding token entry includes the token “error” and an event reference, or unique identifier, for each event stored in the corresponding time-series bucket that includes the token “error.” In the illustrated embodiment of
In some cases, some token entries can be default entries, automatically determined entries, or user specified entries. In some embodiments, the indexer 206 can identify each word or string in an event as a distinct token and generate a token entry for it. In some cases, the indexer 206 can identify the beginning and ending of tokens based on punctuation, spaces, as described in greater detail herein. In certain cases, the indexer 206 can rely on user input or a configuration file to identify tokens for token entries 511, etc. It will be understood that any combination of token entries can be included as a default, automatically determined, a or included based on user-specified criteria.
Similarly, field-value pair entries, such as field-value pair entries 513 shown in inverted index 507B, can include a field-value pair 513A and event references 513B indicative of events that include a field value that corresponds to the field-value pair. For example, for a field-value pair sourcetype::sendmail, a field-value pair entry would include the field-value pair sourcetype::sendmail and a unique identifier, or event reference, for each event stored in the corresponding time-series bucket that includes a sendmail sourcetype.
In some cases, the field-value pair entries 513 can be default entries, automatically determined entries, or user specified entries. As a non-limiting example, the field-value pair entries for the fields host, source, sourcetype can be included in the inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B as a default. As such, all of the inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can include field-value pair entries for the fields host, source, sourcetype. As yet another non-limiting example, the field-value pair entries for the IP _address field can be user specified and may only appear in the inverted index 507B based on user-specified criteria. As another non-limiting example, as the indexer indexes the events, it can automatically identify field-value pairs and create field-value pair entries. For example, based on the indexers review of events, it can identify IP address as a field in each event and add the IP _address field-value pair entries to the inverted index 507B. It will be understood that any combination of field-value pair entries can be included as a default, automatically determined, or included based on user-specified criteria.
Each unique identifier 517, or event reference, can correspond to a unique event located in the time series bucket. However, the same event reference can be located in multiple entries. For example if an event has a sourcetype splunkd, host www1 and token “warning,” then the unique identifier for the event will appear in the field-value pair entries sourcetype::splunkd and host::www1, as well as the token entry “warning.” With reference to the illustrated embodiment of
For some fields, the unique identifier is located in only one field-value pair entry for a particular field. For example, the inverted index may include four sourcetype field-value pair entries corresponding to four different sourcetypes of the events stored in a bucket (e.g., sourcetypes: sendmail, splunkd, web_access, and web_service). Within those four sourcetype field-value pair entries, an identifier for a particular event may appear in only one of the field-value pair entries. With continued reference to the example illustrated embodiment of
The event references 517 can be used to locate the events in the corresponding bucket. For example, the inverted index can include, or be associated with, an event reference array 515. The event reference array 515 can include an array entry 517 for each event reference in the inverted index 507B. Each array entry 517 can include location information 519 of the event corresponding to the unique identifier (non-limiting example: seek address of the event), a timestamp 521 associated with the event, or additional information regarding the event associated with the event reference, etc.
For each token entry 511 or field-value pair entry 513, the event reference 501B or unique identifiers can be listed in chronological order or the value of the event reference can be assigned based on chronological data, such as a timestamp associated with the event referenced by the event reference. For example, the event reference 1 in the illustrated embodiment of
As a non-limiting example of how the inverted indexes 507A . . . 507B, and 509A . . . 509B can be used during a data categorization request command, the indexers can receive filter criteria indicating data that is to be categorized and categorization criteria indicating how the data is to be categorized. Example filter criteria can include, but is not limited to, indexes (or partitions), hosts, sources, sourcetypes, time ranges, field identifier, keywords, etc.
Using the filter criteria, the indexer identifies relevant inverted indexes to be searched. For example, if the filter criteria includes a set of partitions, the indexer can identify the inverted indexes stored in the directory corresponding to the particular partition as relevant inverted indexes. Other means can be used to identify inverted indexes associated with a partition of interest. For example, in some embodiments, the indexer can review an entry in the inverted indexes, such as an index-value pair entry 513 to determine if a particular inverted index is relevant. If the filter criteria does not identify any partition, then the indexer can identify all inverted indexes managed by the indexer as relevant inverted indexes.
Similarly, if the filter criteria includes a time range, the indexer can identify inverted indexes corresponding to buckets that satisfy at least a portion of the time range as relevant inverted indexes. For example, if the time range is last hour then the indexer can identify all inverted indexes that correspond to buckets storing events associated with timestamps within the last hour as relevant inverted indexes.
When used in combination, an index filter criterion specifying one or more partitions and a time range filter criterion specifying a particular time range can be used to identify a subset of inverted indexes within a particular directory (or otherwise associated with a particular partition) as relevant inverted indexes. As such, the indexer can focus the processing to only a subset of the total number of inverted indexes that the indexer manages.
Once the relevant inverted indexes are identified, the indexer can review them using any additional filter criteria to identify events that satisfy the filter criteria. In some cases, using the known location of the directory in which the relevant inverted indexes are located, the indexer can determine that any events identified using the relevant inverted indexes satisfy an index filter criterion. For example, if the filter criteria includes a partition main, then the indexer can determine that any events identified using inverted indexes within the partition main directory (or otherwise associated with the partition main) satisfy the index filter criterion.
Furthermore, based on the time range associated with each inverted index, the indexer can determine that that any events identified using a particular inverted index satisfies a time range filter criterion. For example, if a time range filter criterion is for the last hour and a particular inverted index corresponds to events within a time range of 50 minutes ago to 35 minutes ago, the indexer can determine that any events identified using the particular inverted index satisfy the time range filter criterion. Conversely, if the particular inverted index corresponds to events within a time range of 59 minutes ago to 62 minutes ago, the indexer can determine that some events identified using the particular inverted index may not satisfy the time range filter criterion.
Using the inverted indexes, the indexer can identify event references (and therefore events) that satisfy the filter criteria. For example, if the token “error” is a filter criterion, the indexer can track all event references within the token entry “error.” Similarly, the indexer can identify other event references located in other token entries or field-value pair entries that match the filter criteria. The system can identify event references located in all of the entries identified by the filter criteria. For example, if the filter criteria include the token “error” and field-value pair sourcetype::web_ui, the indexer can track the event references found in both the token entry “error” and the field-value pair entry sourcetype::web_ui. As mentioned previously, in some cases, such as when multiple values are identified for a particular filter criterion (e.g., multiple sources for a source filter criterion), the system can identify event references located in at least one of the entries corresponding to the multiple values and in all other entries identified by the filter criteria. The indexer can determine that the events associated with the identified event references satisfy the filter criteria.
In some cases, the indexer can further consult a timestamp associated with the event reference to determine whether an event satisfies the filter criteria. For example, if an inverted index corresponds to a time range that is partially outside of a time range filter criterion, then the indexer can consult a timestamp associated with the event reference to determine whether the corresponding event satisfies the time range criterion. In some embodiments, to identify events that satisfy a time range, the indexer can review an array, such as the event reference array 1614 that identifies the time associated with the events. Furthermore, as mentioned above using the known location of the directory in which the relevant inverted indexes are located (or other index identifier), the indexer can determine that any events identified using the relevant inverted indexes satisfy the index filter criterion.
In some cases, based on the filter criteria, the indexer reviews an extraction rule. In certain embodiments, if the filter criteria includes a field name that does not correspond to a field-value pair entry in an inverted index, the indexer can review an extraction rule, which may be located in a configuration file, to identify a field that corresponds to a field-value pair entry in the inverted index.
For example, the filter criteria includes a field name “sessionID” and the indexer determines that at least one relevant inverted index does not include a field-value pair entry corresponding to the field name sessionID, the indexer can review an extraction rule that identifies how the sessionID field is to be extracted from a particular host, source, or sourcetype (implicitly identifying the particular host, source, or sourcetype that includes a sessionID field). The indexer can replace the field name “sessionID” in the filter criteria with the identified host, source, or sourcetype. In some cases, the field name “sessionID” may be associated with multiples hosts, sources, or sourcetypes, in which case, all identified hosts, sources, and sourcetypes can be added as filter criteria. In some cases, the identified host, source, or sourcetype can replace or be appended to a filter criterion, or be excluded. For example, if the filter criteria includes a criterion for source S1 and the “sessionID” field is found in source S2, the source S2 can replace S1 in the filter criteria, be appended such that the filter criteria includes source S1 and source S2, or be excluded based on the presence of the filter criterion source S1. If the identified host, source, or sourcetype is included in the filter criteria, the indexer can then identify a field-value pair entry in the inverted index that includes a field value corresponding to the identity of the particular host, source, or sourcetype identified using the extraction rule.
Once the events that satisfy the filter criteria are identified, the system, such as the indexer 206 can categorize the results based on the categorization criteria. The categorization criteria can include categories for grouping the results, such as any combination of partition, source, sourcetype, or host, or other categories or fields as desired.
The indexer can use the categorization criteria to identify categorization criteria-value pairs or categorization criteria values by which to categorize or group the results. The categorization criteria-value pairs can correspond to one or more field-value pair entries stored in a relevant inverted index, one or more index-value pairs based on a directory in which the inverted index is located or an entry in the inverted index (or other means by which an inverted index can be associated with a partition), or other criteria-value pair that identifies a general category and a particular value for that category. The categorization criteria values can correspond to the value portion of the categorization criteria-value pair.
As mentioned, in some cases, the categorization criteria-value pairs can correspond to one or more field-value pair entries stored in the relevant inverted indexes. For example, the categorization criteria-value pairs can correspond to field-value pair entries of host, source, and sourcetype (or other field-value pair entry as desired). For instance, if there are ten different hosts, four different sources, and five different sourcetypes for an inverted index, then the inverted index can include ten host field-value pair entries, four source field-value pair entries, and five sourcetype field-value pair entries. The indexer can use the nineteen distinct field-value pair entries as categorization criteria-value pairs to group the results.
Specifically, the indexer can identify the location of the event references associated with the events that satisfy the filter criteria within the field-value pairs, and group the event references based on their location. As such, the indexer can identify the particular field value associated with the event corresponding to the event reference. For example, if the categorization criteria include host and sourcetype, the host field-value pair entries and sourcetype field-value pair entries can be used as categorization criteria-value pairs to identify the specific host and sourcetype associated with the events that satisfy the filter criteria.
In addition, as mentioned, categorization criteria-value pairs can correspond to data other than the field-value pair entries in the relevant inverted indexes. For example, if partition or index is used as a categorization criterion, the inverted indexes may not include partition field-value pair entries. Rather, the indexer can identify the categorization criteria-value pair associated with the partition based on the directory in which an inverted index is located, information in the inverted index, or other information that associates the inverted index with the partition, etc. As such a variety of methods can be used to identify the categorization criteria-value pairs from the categorization criteria.
Accordingly based on the categorization criteria (and categorization criteria-value pairs), the indexer can generate groupings based on the events that satisfy the filter criteria. As a non-limiting example, if the categorization criteria includes a partition and sourcetype, then the groupings can correspond to events that are associated with each unique combination of partition and sourcetype. For instance, if there are three different partitions and two different sourcetypes associated with the identified events, then the six different groups can be formed, each with a unique partition value-sourcetype value combination. Similarly, if the categorization criteria includes partition, sourcetype, and host and there are two different partitions, three sourcetypes, and five hosts associated with the identified events, then the indexer can generate up to thirty groups for the results that satisfy the filter criteria. Each group can be associated with a unique combination of categorization criteria-value pairs (e.g., unique combinations of partition value sourcetype value, and host value).
In addition, the indexer can count the number of events associated with each group based on the number of events that meet the unique combination of categorization criteria for a particular group (or match the categorization criteria-value pairs for the particular group). With continued reference to the example above, the indexer can count the number of events that meet the unique combination of partition, sourcetype, and host for a particular group.
Each indexer communicates the groupings to the search head. The search head can aggregate the groupings from the indexers and provide the groupings for display. In some cases, the groups are displayed based on at least one of the host, source, sourcetype, or partition associated with the groupings. In some embodiments, the search head can further display the groups based on display criteria, such as a display order or a sort order as described in greater detail above.
As a non-limiting example and with reference to
Based on the above criteria, the indexer 206 identifies _main directory 503 and can ignore _test directory 505 and any other partition-specific directories. The indexer determines that inverted partition 507B is a relevant partition based on its location within the _main directory 503 and the time range associated with it. For sake of simplicity in this example, the indexer 206 determines that no other inverted indexes in the _main directory 503, such as inverted index 507A satisfy the time range criterion.
Having identified the relevant inverted index 507B, the indexer reviews the token entries 511 and the field-value pair entries 513 to identify event references, or events, that satisfy all of the filter criteria.
With respect to the token entries 511, the indexer can review the error token entry and identify event references 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, indicating that the term “error” is found in the corresponding events. Similarly, the indexer can identify event references 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 in the field-value pair entry sourcetype::sourcetypeC and event references 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 in the field-value pair entry host::hostB. As the filter criteria did not include a source or an IP_address field-value pair, the indexer can ignore those field-value pair entries.
In addition to identifying event references found in at least one token entry or field-value pair entry (e.g., event references 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12), the indexer can identify events (and corresponding event references) that satisfy the time range criterion using the event reference array 1614 (e.g., event references 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). Using the information obtained from the inverted index 507B (including the event reference array 515), the indexer 206 can identify the event references that satisfy all of the filter criteria (e.g., event references 5, 6, 8).
Having identified the events (and event references) that satisfy all of the filter criteria, the indexer 206 can group the event references using the received categorization criteria (source). In doing so, the indexer can determine that event references 5 and 6 are located in the field-value pair entry source::sourceD (or have matching categorization criteria-value pairs) and event reference 8 is located in the field-value pair entry source::sourceC. Accordingly, the indexer can generate a sourceC group having a count of one corresponding to reference 8 and a sourceD group having a count of two corresponding to references 5 and 6. This information can be communicated to the search head. In turn the search head can aggregate the results from the various indexers and display the groupings. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the groupings can be displayed based at least in part on the categorization criteria, including at least one of host, source, sourcetype, or partition.
It will be understood that a change to any of the filter criteria or categorization criteria can result in different groupings. As a one non-limiting example, a request received by an indexer 206 that includes the following filter criteria: partition=main, time range=3/1/17 3/1/17 16:21:20.000-16:28:17.000, and the following categorization criteria: host, source, sourcetype would result in the indexer identifying event references 1-12 as satisfying the filter criteria. The indexer would then generate up to 24 groupings corresponding to the 24 different combinations of the categorization criteria-value pairs, including host (hostA, hostB), source (sourceA, sourceB, sourceC, sourceD), and sourcetype (sourcetypeA, sourcetypeB, sourcetypeC). However, as there are only twelve events identifiers in the illustrated embodiment and some fall into the same grouping, the indexer generates eight groups and counts as follows:
Group 1 (hostA, sourceA, sourcetypeA): 1 (event reference 7)
Group 2 (hostA, sourceA, sourcetypeB): 2 (event references 1, 12)
Group 3 (hostA, sourceA, sourcetypeC): 1 (event reference 4)
Group 4 (hostA, sourceB, sourcetypeA): 1 (event reference 3)
Group 5 (hostA, sourceB, sourcetypeC): 1 (event reference 9)
Group 6 (hostB, sourceC, sourcetypeA): 1 (event reference 2)
Group 7 (hostB, sourceC, sourcetypeC): 2 (event references 8, 11)
Group 8 (hostB, sourceD, sourcetypeC): 3 (event references 5, 6, 10)
As noted, each group has a unique combination of categorization criteria-value pairs or categorization criteria values. The indexer communicates the groups to the search head for aggregation with results received from other indexers. In communicating the groups to the search head, the indexer can include the categorization criteria-value pairs for each group and the count. In some embodiments, the indexer can include more or less information. For example, the indexer can include the event references associated with each group and other identifying information, such as the indexer or inverted index used to identify the groups.
As another non-limiting examples, a request received by an indexer 206 that includes the following filter criteria: partition=main, time range=3/1/17 3/1/17 16:21:20.000—16:28:17.000, source=sourceA, sourceD, and keyword=itemID and the following categorization criteria: host, source, sourcetype would result in the indexer identifying event references 4, 7, and 10 as satisfying the filter criteria, and generate the following groups:
Group 1 (hostA, sourceA, sourcetypeC): 1 (event reference 4)
Group 2 (hostA, sourceA, sourcetypeA): 1 (event reference 7)
Group 3 (hostB, sourceD, sourcetypeC): 1 (event references 10)
The indexer communicates the groups to the search head for aggregation with results received from other indexers. As will be understand there are myriad ways for filtering and categorizing the events and event references. For example, the indexer can review multiple inverted indexes associated with an partition or review the inverted indexes of multiple partitions, and categorize the data using any one or any combination of partition, host, source, sourcetype, or other category, as desired.
Further, if a user interacts with a particular group, the indexer can provide additional information regarding the group. For example, the indexer can perform a targeted search or sampling of the events that satisfy the filter criteria and the categorization criteria for the selected group, also referred to as the filter criteria corresponding to the group or filter criteria associated with the group.
In some cases, to provide the additional information, the indexer relies on the inverted index. For example, the indexer can identify the event references associated with the events that satisfy the filter criteria and the categorization criteria for the selected group and then use the event reference array 515 to access some or all of the identified events. In some cases, the categorization criteria values or categorization criteria-value pairs associated with the group become part of the filter criteria for the review.
With reference to
In some embodiments, the indexer identifies the event references associated with the group using the filter criteria and the categorization criteria for the group (e.g., categorization criteria values or categorization criteria-value pairs unique to the group). Together, the filter criteria and the categorization criteria for the group can be referred to as the filter criteria associated with the group. Using the filter criteria associated with the group, the indexer identifies event references 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11.
Based on a sampling criteria, discussed in greater detail above, the indexer can determine that it will analyze a sample of the events associated with the event references 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11. For example, the sample can include analyzing event data associated with the event references 5, 8, 10. In some embodiments, the indexer can use the event reference array 1616 to access the event data associated with the event references 5, 8, 10. Once accessed, the indexer can compile the relevant information and provide it to the search head for aggregation with results from other indexers. By identifying events and sampling event data using the inverted indexes, the indexer can reduce the amount of actual data this is analyzed and the number of events that are accessed in order to generate the summary of the group and provide a response in less time.
2.8. Query Processing
At block 608, the indexers to which the query was distributed, search data stores associated with them for events that are responsive to the query. To determine which events are responsive to the query, the indexer searches for events that match the criteria specified in the query. These criteria can include matching keywords or specific values for certain fields. The searching operations at block 608 may use the late-binding schema to extract values for specified fields from events at the time the query is processed. In some embodiments, one or more rules for extracting field values may be specified as part of a source type definition in a configuration file. The indexers may then either send the relevant events back to the search head, or use the events to determine a partial result, and send the partial result back to the search head.
At block 610, the search head combines the partial results and/or events received from the indexers to produce a final result for the query. In some examples, the results of the query are indicative of performance or security of the IT environment and may help improve the performance of components in the IT environment. This final result may comprise different types of data depending on what the query requested. For example, the results can include a listing of matching events returned by the query, or some type of visualization of the data from the returned events. In another example, the final result can include one or more calculated values derived from the matching events.
The results generated by the system 108 can be returned to a client using different techniques. For example, one technique streams results or relevant events back to a client in real-time as they are identified. Another technique waits to report the results to the client until a complete set of results (which may include a set of relevant events or a result based on relevant events) is ready to return to the client. Yet another technique streams interim results or relevant events back to the client in real-time until a complete set of results is ready, and then returns the complete set of results to the client. In another technique, certain results are stored as “search jobs” and the client may retrieve the results by referring the search jobs.
The search head can also perform various operations to make the search more efficient. For example, before the search head begins execution of a query, the search head can determine a time range for the query and a set of common keywords that all matching events include. The search head may then use these parameters to query the indexers to obtain a superset of the eventual results. Then, during a filtering stage, the search head can perform field-extraction operations on the superset to produce a reduced set of search results. This speeds up queries, which may be particularly helpful for queries that are performed on a periodic basis.
2.9. Pipelined Search Language
Various embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented using, or in conjunction with, a pipelined command language. A pipelined command language is a language in which a set of inputs or data is operated on by a first command in a sequence of commands, and then subsequent commands in the order they are arranged in the sequence. Such commands can include any type of functionality for operating on data, such as retrieving, searching, filtering, aggregating, processing, transmitting, and the like. As described herein, a query can thus be formulated in a pipelined command language and include any number of ordered or unordered commands for operating on data.
Splunk Processing Language (SPL) is an example of a pipelined command language in which a set of inputs or data is operated on by any number of commands in a particular sequence. A sequence of commands, or command sequence, can be formulated such that the order in which the commands are arranged defines the order in which the commands are applied to a set of data or the results of an earlier executed command. For example, a first command in a command sequence can operate to search or filter for specific data in particular set of data. The results of the first command can then be passed to another command listed later in the command sequence for further processing.
In various embodiments, a query can be formulated as a command sequence defined in a command line of a search UI. In some embodiments, a query can be formulated as a sequence of SPL commands. Some or all of the SPL commands in the sequence of SPL commands can be separated from one another by a pipe symbol “|”. In such embodiments, a set of data, such as a set of events, can be operated on by a first SPL command in the sequence, and then a subsequent SPL command following a pipe symbol “|” after the first SPL command operates on the results produced by the first SPL command or other set of data, and so on for any additional SPL commands in the sequence. As such, a query formulated using SPL comprises a series of consecutive commands that are delimited by pipe “|” characters. The pipe character indicates to the system that the output or result of one command (to the left of the pipe) should be used as the input for one of the subsequent commands (to the right of the pipe). This enables formulation of queries defined by a pipeline of sequenced commands that refines or enhances the data at each step along the pipeline until the desired results are attained. Accordingly, various embodiments described herein can be implemented with Splunk Processing Language (SPL) used in conjunction with the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system.
While a query can be formulated in many ways, a query can start with a search command and one or more corresponding search terms at the beginning of the pipeline. Such search terms can include any combination of keywords, phrases, times, dates, Boolean expressions, fieldname-field value pairs, etc. that specify which results should be obtained from an index. The results can then be passed as inputs into subsequent commands in a sequence of commands by using, for example, a pipe character. The subsequent commands in a sequence can include directives for additional processing of the results once it has been obtained from one or more indexes. For example, commands may be used to filter unwanted information out of the results, extract more information, evaluate field values, calculate statistics, reorder the results, create an alert, create summary of the results, or perform some type of aggregation function. In some embodiments, the summary can include a graph, chart, metric, or other visualization of the data. An aggregation function can include analysis or calculations to return an aggregate value, such as an average value, a sum, a maximum value, a root mean square, statistical values, and the like.
Due to its flexible nature, use of a pipelined command language in various embodiments is advantageous because it can perform “filtering” as well as “processing” functions. In other words, a single query can include a search command and search term expressions, as well as data-analysis expressions. For example, a command at the beginning of a query can perform a “filtering” step by retrieving a set of data based on a condition (e.g., records associated with server response times of less than 1 microsecond). The results of the filtering step can then be passed to a subsequent command in the pipeline that performs a “processing” step (e.g. calculation of an aggregate value related to the filtered events such as the average response time of servers with response times of less than 1 microsecond). Furthermore, the search command can allow events to be filtered by keyword as well as field value criteria. For example, a search command can filter out all events containing the word “warning” or filter out all events where a field value associated with a field “clientip” is “10.0.1.2.”
The results obtained or generated in response to a command in a query can be considered a set of results data. The set of results data can be passed from one command to another in any data format. In one embodiment, the set of result data can be in the form of a dynamically created table. Each command in a particular query can redefine the shape of the table. In some implementations, an event retrieved from an index in response to a query can be considered a row with a column for each field value. Columns contain basic information about the data and also may contain data that has been dynamically extracted at search time.
Disk 622 represents the event data in the raw record data store.
When a user query is processed, a search step will precede other queries in the pipeline in order to generate a set of events at block 640. For example, the query can comprise search terms “sourcetype=syslog ERROR” at the front of the pipeline as shown in
At block 642, the set of events generated in the first part of the query may be piped to a query that searches the set of events for field-value pairs or for keywords. For example, the second intermediate results table 626 shows fewer columns, representing the result of the top command, “top user” which summarizes the events into a list of the top 10 users and displays the user, count, and percentage.
Finally, at block 644, the results of the prior stage can be pipelined to another stage where further filtering or processing of the data can be performed, e.g., preparing the data for display purposes, filtering the data based on a condition, performing a mathematical calculation with the data, etc. As shown in
2.10 Field Extraction
The search head 210 allows users to search and visualize events generated from machine data received from homogenous data sources. The search head 210 also allows users to search and visualize events generated from machine data received from heterogeneous data sources. The search head 210 includes various mechanisms, which may additionally reside in an indexer 206, for processing a query. A query language may be used to create a query, such as any suitable pipelined query language. For example, Splunk Processing Language (SPL) can be utilized to make a query. SPL is a pipelined search language in which a set of inputs is operated on by a first command in a command line, and then a subsequent command following the pipe symbol “|” operates on the results produced by the first command, and so on for additional commands. Other query languages, such as the Structured Query Language (“SQL”), can be used to create a query.
In response to receiving the search query, search head 210 uses extraction rules to extract values for fields in the events being searched. The search head 210 obtains extraction rules that specify how to extract a value for fields from an event. Extraction rules can comprise regex rules that specify how to extract values for the fields corresponding to the extraction rules. In addition to specifying how to extract field values, the extraction rules may also include instructions for deriving a field value by performing a function on a character string or value retrieved by the extraction rule. For example, an extraction rule may truncate a character string or convert the character string into a different data format. In some cases, the query itself can specify one or more extraction rules.
The search head 210 can apply the extraction rules to events that it receives from indexers 206. Indexers 206 may apply the extraction rules to events in an associated data store 208. Extraction rules can be applied to all the events in a data store or to a subset of the events that have been filtered based on some criteria (e.g., event time stamp values, etc.). Extraction rules can be used to extract one or more values for a field from events by parsing the portions of machine data in the events and examining the data for one or more patterns of characters, numbers, delimiters, etc., that indicate where the field begins and, optionally, ends.
Using the log data received at one or more indexers 206 from the three systems, the vendor can uniquely obtain an insight into user activity, user experience, and system behavior. The search head 210 allows the vendor's administrator to search the log data from the three systems that one or more indexers 206 are responsible for searching, thereby obtaining correlated information, such as the order number and corresponding customer ID number of the person placing the order. The system also allows the administrator to see a visualization of related events via a user interface. The administrator can query the search head 210 for customer ID field value matches across the log data from the three systems that are stored at the one or more indexers 206. The customer ID field value exists in the data gathered from the three systems, but the customer ID field value may be located in different areas of the data given differences in the architecture of the systems. There is a semantic relationship between the customer ID field values generated by the three systems. The search head 210 requests events from the one or more indexers 206 to gather relevant events from the three systems. The search head 210 then applies extraction rules to the events in order to extract field values that it can correlate. The search head may apply a different extraction rule to each set of events from each system when the event format differs among systems. In this example, the user interface can display to the administrator the events corresponding to the common customer ID field values 707, 708, and 709, thereby providing the administrator with insight into a customer's experience.
Note that query results can be returned to a client, a search head, or any other system component for further processing. In general, query results may include a set of one or more events, a set of one or more values obtained from the events, a subset of the values, statistics calculated based on the values, a report containing the values, a visualization (e.g., a graph or chart) generated from the values, and the like.
The search system enables users to run queries against the stored data to retrieve events that meet criteria specified in a query, such as containing certain keywords or having specific values in defined fields.
If a user inputs a search query into search bar 1401 that includes only keywords (also known as “tokens”), e.g., the keyword “error” or “warning”, the query search engine of the data intake and query system searches for those keywords directly in the event data 722 stored in the raw record data store. Note that while
As disclosed above, an indexer can optionally generate a keyword index to facilitate fast keyword searching for event data. The indexer includes the identified keywords in an index, which associates each stored keyword with reference pointers to events containing that keyword (or to locations within events where that keyword is located, other location identifiers, etc.). When an indexer subsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexer can access the keyword index to quickly identify events containing the keyword. For example, if the keyword “HTTP” was indexed by the indexer at index time, and the user searches for the keyword “HTTP”, events 713 to 715 will be identified based on the results returned from the keyword index. As noted above, the index contains reference pointers to the events containing the keyword, which allows for efficient retrieval of the relevant events from the raw record data store.
If a user searches for a keyword that has not been indexed by the indexer, the data intake and query system would nevertheless be able to retrieve the events by searching the event data for the keyword in the raw record data store directly as shown in
In most cases, however, in addition to keywords, a user's search will also include fields. The term “field” refers to a location in the event data containing one or more values for a specific data item. Often, a field is a value with a fixed, delimited position on a line, or a name and value pair, where there is a single value to each field name. A field can also be multivalued, that is, it can appear more than once in an event and have a different value for each appearance, e.g., email address fields. Fields are searchable by the field name or field name-value pairs. Some examples of fields are “clientip” for IP addresses accessing a web server, or the “From” and “To” fields in email addresses.
By way of further example, consider the search, “status=404”. This search query finds events with “status” fields that have a value of “404.” When the search is run, the search engine does not look for events with any other “status” value. It also does not look for events containing other fields that share “404” as a value. As a result, the search returns a set of results that are more focused than if “404” had been used in the search string as part of a keyword search. Note also that fields can appear in events as “key=value” pairs such as “user_name=Bob.” But in most cases, field values appear in fixed, delimited positions without identifying keys. For example, the data store may contain events where the “user_name” value always appears by itself after the timestamp as illustrated by the following string: “November 15 09:33:22 johnmedlock.”
The data intake and query system advantageously allows for search time field extraction. In other words, fields can be extracted from the event data at search time using late-binding schema as opposed to at data ingestion time, which was a major limitation of the prior art systems.
In response to receiving the search query, search head 210 uses extraction rules to extract values for the fields associated with a field or fields in the event data being searched. The search head 210 obtains extraction rules that specify how to extract a value for certain fields from an event. Extraction rules can comprise regex rules that specify how to extract values for the relevant fields. In addition to specifying how to extract field values, the extraction rules may also include instructions for deriving a field value by performing a function on a character string or value retrieved by the extraction rule. For example, a transformation rule may truncate a character string, or convert the character string into a different data format. In some cases, the query itself can specify one or more extraction rules.
Configuration file 712 may contain extraction rules for all the various fields that are not metadata fields, e.g., the “clientip” field. The extraction rules may be inserted into the configuration file in a variety of ways. In some embodiments, the extraction rules can comprise regular expression rules that are manually entered in by the user. Regular expressions match patterns of characters in text and are used for extracting custom fields in text.
In one or more embodiments, as noted above, a field extractor may be configured to automatically generate extraction rules for certain field values in the events when the events are being created, indexed, or stored, or possibly at a later time. In one embodiment, a user may be able to dynamically create custom fields by highlighting portions of a sample event that should be extracted as fields using a graphical user interface. The system would then generate a regular expression that extracts those fields from similar events and store the regular expression as an extraction rule for the associated field in the configuration file 712.
In some embodiments, the indexers may automatically discover certain custom fields at index time and the regular expressions for those fields will be automatically generated at index time and stored as part of extraction rules in configuration file 712. For example, fields that appear in the event data as “key=value” pairs may be automatically extracted as part of an automatic field discovery process. Note that there may be several other ways of adding field definitions to configuration files in addition to the methods discussed herein.
The search head 210 can apply the extraction rules derived from configuration file 1402 to event data that it receives from indexers 206. Indexers 206 may apply the extraction rules from the configuration file to events in an associated data store 208. Extraction rules can be applied to all the events in a data store, or to a subset of the events that have been filtered based on some criteria (e.g., event time stamp values, etc.). Extraction rules can be used to extract one or more values for a field from events by parsing the event data and examining the event data for one or more patterns of characters, numbers, delimiters, etc., that indicate where the field begins and, optionally, ends.
In one more embodiments, the extraction rule in configuration file 712 will also need to define the type or set of events that the rule applies to. Because the raw record data store will contain events from multiple heterogeneous sources, multiple events may contain the same fields in different locations because of discrepancies in the format of the data generated by the various sources. Furthermore, certain events may not contain a particular field at all. For example, event 719 also contains “clientip” field, however, the “clientip” field is in a different format from events 713-715. To address the discrepancies in the format and content of the different types of events, the configuration file will also need to specify the set of events that an extraction rule applies to, e.g., extraction rule 716 specifies a rule for filtering by the type of event and contains a regular expression for parsing out the field value. Accordingly, each extraction rule will pertain to only a particular type of event. If a particular field, e.g., “clientip” occurs in multiple events, each of those types of events would need its own corresponding extraction rule in the configuration file 712 and each of the extraction rules would comprise a different regular expression to parse out the associated field value. The most common way to categorize events is by source type because events generated by a particular source can have the same format.
The field extraction rules stored in configuration file 712 perform search-time field extractions. For example, for a query that requests a list of events with source type “access_combined” where the “clientip” field equals “127.0.0.1,” the query search engine would first locate the configuration file 712 to retrieve extraction rule 716 that would allow it to extract values associated with the “clientip” field from the event data 720 “where the source type is “access_combined. After the “clientip” field has been extracted from all the events comprising the “clientip” field where the source type is “access_combined,” the query search engine can then execute the field criteria by performing the compare operation to filter out the events where the “clientip” field equals “127.0.0.1.” In the example shown in
The configuration file can be created during indexing. It may either be manually created by the user or automatically generated with certain predetermined field extraction rules. As discussed above, the events may be distributed across several indexers, wherein each indexer may be responsible for storing and searching a subset of the events contained in a corresponding data store. In a distributed indexer system, each indexer would need to maintain a local copy of the configuration file that is synchronized periodically across the various indexers.
The ability to add schema to the configuration file at search time results in increased efficiency. A user can create new fields at search time and simply add field definitions to the configuration file. As a user learns more about the data in the events, the user can continue to refine the late-binding schema by adding new fields, deleting fields, or modifying the field extraction rules in the configuration file for use the next time the schema is used by the system. Because the data intake and query system maintains the underlying raw data and uses late-binding schema for searching the raw data, it enables a user to continue investigating and learn valuable insights about the raw data long after data ingestion time.
The ability to add multiple field definitions to the configuration file at search time also results in increased flexibility. For example, multiple field definitions can be added to the configuration file to capture the same field across events generated by different source types. This allows the data intake and query system to search and correlate data across heterogeneous sources flexibly and efficiently.
Further, by providing the field definitions for the queried fields at search time, the configuration file 712 allows the record data store 712 to be field searchable. In other words, the raw record data store 712 can be searched using keywords as well as fields, wherein the fields are searchable name/value pairings that distinguish one event from another and can be defined in configuration file 1402 using extraction rules. In comparison to a search containing field names, a keyword search does not need the configuration file and can search the event data directly as shown in
It should also be noted that any events filtered out by performing a search-time field extraction using a configuration file can be further processed by directing the results of the filtering step to a processing step using a pipelined search language. Using the prior example, a user could pipeline the results of the compare step to an aggregate function by asking the query search engine to count the number of events where the “clientip” field equals “127.0.0.1.”
2.11. Example Search Screen
After the search is executed, the search screen 800 in
The events tab additionally displays a sidebar that is an interactive field picker 806. The field picker 806 may be displayed to a user in response to the search being executed and allows the user to further analyze the search results based on the fields in the events of the search results. The field picker 806 includes field names that reference fields present in the events in the search results. The field picker may display any Selected Fields 820 that a user has pre-selected for display (e.g., host, source, sourcetype) and may also display any Interesting Fields 822 that the system determines may be interesting to the user based on pre-specified criteria (e.g., action, bytes, categoryid, clientip, date_hour, date_mday, date_minute, etc.). The field picker also provides an option to display field names for all the fields present in the events of the search results using the All Fields control 824.
Each field name in the field picker 806 has a value type identifier to the left of the field name, such as value type identifier 826. A value type identifier identifies the type of value for the respective field, such as an “a” for fields that include literal values or a “#” for fields that include numerical values.
Each field name in the field picker also has a unique value count to the right of the field name, such as unique value count 828. The unique value count indicates the number of unique values for the respective field in the events of the search results.
Each field name is selectable to view the events in the search results that have the field referenced by that field name. For example, a user can select the “host” field name, and the events shown in the events list 808 will be updated with events in the search results that have the field that is reference by the field name “host.”
2.12. Data Models
A data model is a hierarchically structured search-time mapping of semantic knowledge about one or more datasets. It encodes the domain knowledge used to build a variety of specialized searches of those datasets. Those searches, in turn, can be used to generate reports.
A data model is composed of one or more “objects” (or “data model objects”) that define or otherwise correspond to a specific set of data. An object is defined by constraints and attributes. An object's contraints are search criteria that define the set of events to be operated on by running a search having that search criteria at the time the data model is selected. An object's attributes are the set of fields to be exposed for operating on that set of events generated by the search criteria.
Objects in data models can be arranged hierarchically in parent/child relationships. Each child object represents a subset of the dataset covered by its parent object. The top-level objects in data models are collectively referred to as “root objects.”
Child objects have inheritance. Child objects inherit constraints and attributes from their parent objects and may have additional constraints and attributes of their own. Child objects provide a way of filtering events from parent objects. Because a child object may provide an additional constraint in addition to the constraints it has inherited from its parent object, the dataset it represents may be a subset of the dataset that its parent represents. For example, a first data model object may define a broad set of data pertaining to e-mail activity generally, and another data model object may define specific datasets within the broad dataset, such as a subset of the e-mail data pertaining specifically to e-mails sent. For example, a user can simply select an “e-mail activity” data model object to access a dataset relating to e-mails generally (e.g., sent or received), or select an “e-mails sent” data model object (or data sub-model object) to access a dataset relating to e-mails sent.
Because a data model object is defined by its constraints (e.g., a set of search criteria) and attributes (e.g., a set of fields), a data model object can be used to quickly search data to identify a set of events and to identify a set of fields to be associated with the set of events. For example, an “e-mails sent” data model object may specify a search for events relating to e-mails that have been sent, and specify a set of fields that are associated with the events. Thus, a user can retrieve and use the “e-mails sent” data model object to quickly search source data for events relating to sent e-mails, and may be provided with a listing of the set of fields relevant to the events in a user interface screen.
Examples of data models can include electronic mail, authentication, databases, intrusion detection, malware, application state, alerts, compute inventory, network sessions, network traffic, performance, audits, updates, vulnerabilities, etc. Data models and their objects can be designed by knowledge managers in an organization, and they can enable downstream users to quickly focus on a specific set of data. A user iteratively applies a model development tool (not shown in
Data definitions in associated schemas can be taken from the common information model (CIM) or can be devised for a particular schema and optionally added to the CIM. Child objects inherit fields from parents and can include fields not present in parents. A model developer can select fewer extraction rules than are available for the sources returned by the query that defines events belonging to a model. Selecting a limited set of extraction rules can be a tool for simplifying and focusing the data model, while allowing a user flexibility to explore the data subset. Development of a data model is further explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,788,525 and 8,788,526, both entitled “DATA MODEL FOR MACHINE DATA FOR SEMANTIC SEARCH”, both issued on 22 Jul. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,994, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL FOR SEARCHING MACHINE DATA”, issued on 17 Mar. 2015, U.S. Pat. No. 9,128,980, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL APPLIED TO QUERIES”, issued on 8 Sep. 2015, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,589,012, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL APPLIED TO OBJECT QUERIES”, issued on 7 Mar. 2017, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
A data model can also include reports. One or more report formats can be associated with a particular data model and be made available to run against the data model. A user can use child objects to design reports with object datasets that already have extraneous data pre-filtered out. In some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 provides the user with the ability to produce reports (e.g., a table, chart, visualization, etc.) without having to enter SPL, SQL, or other query language terms into a search screen. Data models are used as the basis for the search feature.
Data models may be selected in a report generation interface. The report generator supports drag-and-drop organization of fields to be summarized in a report. When a model is selected, the fields with available extraction rules are made available for use in the report. The user may refine and/or filter search results to produce more precise reports. The user may select some fields for organizing the report and select other fields for providing detail according to the report organization. For example, “region” and “salesperson” are fields used for organizing the report and sales data can be summarized (subtotaled and totaled) within this organization. The report generator allows the user to specify one or more fields within events and apply statistical analysis on values extracted from the specified one or more fields. The report generator may aggregate search results across sets of events and generate statistics based on aggregated search results. Building reports using the report generation interface is further explained in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/503,335, entitled “GENERATING REPORTS FROM UNSTRUCTURED DATA”, filed on 30 Sep. 2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. Data visualizations also can be generated in a variety of formats, by reference to the data model. Reports, data visualizations, and data model objects can be saved and associated with the data model for future use. The data model object may be used to perform searches of other data.
The selection of a data model object for use in driving a report generation may be facilitated by a data model object selection interface.
Once a data model object is selected by the user, a user interface screen 1100 shown in
The reporting application allows the user to create graphical visualizations of the statistics generated for a report. For example,
2.13. Acceleration Technique
The above-described system provides significant flexibility by enabling a user to analyze massive quantities of minimally-processed data “on the fly” at search time using a late-binding schema, instead of storing pre-specified portions of the data in a database at ingestion time. This flexibility enables a user to see valuable insights, correlate data, and perform subsequent queries to examine interesting aspects of the data that may not have been apparent at ingestion time.
However, performing extraction and analysis operations at search time can involve a large amount of data and require a large number of computational operations, which can cause delays in processing the queries. Advantageously, the data intake and query system also employs a number of unique acceleration techniques that have been developed to speed up analysis operations performed at search time. These techniques include: (1) performing search operations in parallel across multiple indexers; (2) using a keyword index; (3) using a high performance analytics store; and (4) accelerating the process of generating reports. These novel techniques are described in more detail below.
2.13.1. Aggregation Technique
To facilitate faster query processing, a query can be structured such that multiple indexers perform the query in parallel, while aggregation of search results from the multiple indexers is performed locally at the search head. For example,
During operation, upon receiving search query 1602, a search head 210 determines that a portion of the operations involved with the search query may be performed locally by the search head. The search head modifies search query 1602 by substituting “stats” (create aggregate statistics over results sets received from the indexers at the search head) with “prestats” (create statistics by the indexer from local results set) to produce search query 1604, and then distributes search query 1604 to distributed indexers, which are also referred to as “search peers” or “peer indexers.” Note that search queries may generally specify search criteria or operations to be performed on events that meet the search criteria. Search queries may also specify field names, as well as search criteria for the values in the fields or operations to be performed on the values in the fields. Moreover, the search head may distribute the full search query to the search peers as illustrated in
2.13.2. Keyword Index
As described above with reference to the flow charts in
2.13.3. High Performance Analytics Store
To speed up certain types of queries, some embodiments of system 108 create a high performance analytics store, which is referred to as a “summarization table,” that contains entries for specific field-value pairs. Each of these entries keeps track of instances of a specific value in a specific field in the events and includes references to events containing the specific value in the specific field. For example, an example entry in a summarization table can keep track of occurrences of the value “94107” in a “ZIP code” field of a set of events and the entry includes references to all of the events that contain the value “94107” in the ZIP code field. This optimization technique enables the system to quickly process queries that seek to determine how many events have a particular value for a particular field. To this end, the system can examine the entry in the summarization table to count instances of the specific value in the field without having to go through the individual events or perform data extractions at search time. Also, if the system needs to process all events that have a specific field-value combination, the system can use the references in the summarization table entry to directly access the events to extract further information without having to search all of the events to find the specific field-value combination at search time.
In some embodiments, the system maintains a separate summarization table for each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores events for a specific time range. A bucket-specific summarization table includes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur in events in the specific bucket. Alternatively, the system can maintain a separate summarization table for each indexer. The indexer-specific summarization table includes entries for the events in a data store that are managed by the specific indexer. Indexer-specific summarization tables may also be bucket-specific.
The summarization table can be populated by running a periodic query that scans a set of events to find instances of a specific field-value combination, or alternatively instances of all field-value combinations for a specific field. A periodic query can be initiated by a user, or can be scheduled to occur automatically at specific time intervals. A periodic query can also be automatically launched in response to a query that asks for a specific field-value combination.
In some cases, when the summarization tables may not cover all of the events that are relevant to a query, the system can use the summarization tables to obtain partial results for the events that are covered by summarization tables, but may also have to search through other events that are not covered by the summarization tables to produce additional results. These additional results can then be combined with the partial results to produce a final set of results for the query. The summarization table and associated techniques are described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,682,925, entitled “DISTRIBUTED HIGH PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE”, issued on 25 Mar. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 9,128,985, entitled “SUPPLEMENTING A HIGH PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE WITH EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL EVENTS TO RESPOND TO AN EVENT QUERY”, issued on 8 Sep. 2015, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/815,973, entitled “GENERATING AND STORING SUMMARIZATION TABLES FOR SETS OF SEARCHABLE EVENTS”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
To speed up certain types of queries, e.g., frequently encountered queries or computationally intensive queries, some embodiments of system 108 create a high performance analytics store, which is referred to as a “summarization table,” (also referred to as a “lexicon” or “inverted index”) that contains entries for specific field-value pairs. Each of these entries keeps track of instances of a specific value in a specific field in the event data and includes references to events containing the specific value in the specific field. For example, an example entry in an inverted index can keep track of occurrences of the value “94107” in a “ZIP code” field of a set of events and the entry includes references to all of the events that contain the value “94107” in the ZIP code field. Creating the inverted index data structure avoids needing to incur the computational overhead each time a statistical query needs to be run on a frequently encountered field-value pair. In order to expedite queries, in most embodiments, the search engine will employ the inverted index separate from the raw record data store to generate responses to the received queries.
Note that the term “summarization table” or “inverted index” as used herein is a data structure that may be generated by an indexer that includes at least field names and field values that have been extracted and/or indexed from event records. An inverted index may also include reference values that point to the location(s) in the field searchable data store where the event records that include the field may be found. Also, an inverted index may be stored using well-known compression techniques to reduce its storage size.
Further, note that the term “reference value” (also referred to as a “posting value”) as used herein is a value that references the location of a source record in the field searchable data store. In some embodiments, the reference value may include additional information about each record, such as timestamps, record size, meta-data, or the like. Each reference value may be a unique identifier which may be used to access the event data directly in the field searchable data store. In some embodiments, the reference values may be ordered based on each event record's timestamp. For example, if numbers are used as identifiers, they may be sorted so event records having a later timestamp always have a lower valued identifier than event records with an earlier timestamp, or vice-versa. Reference values are often included in inverted indexes for retrieving and/or identifying event records.
In one or more embodiments, an inverted index is generated in response to a user-initiated collection query. The term “collection query” as used herein refers to queries that include commands that generate summarization information and inverted indexes (or summarization tables) from event records stored in the field searchable data store.
Note that a collection query is a special type of query that can be user-generated and is used to create an inverted index. A collection query is not the same as a query that is used to call up or invoke a pre-existing inverted index. In one or more embodiment, a query can comprise an initial step that calls up a pre-generated inverted index on which further filtering and processing can be performed. For example, referring back to
In one or more embodiments, if one or more of the queries is a collection query, the responsive indexers may generate summarization information based on the fields of the event records located in the field searchable data store. In at least one of the various embodiments, one or more of the fields used in the summarization information may be listed in the collection query and/or they may be determined based on terms included in the collection query. For example, a collection query may include an explicit list of fields to summarize. Or, in at least one of the various embodiments, a collection query may include terms or expressions that explicitly define the fields, e.g., using regex rules. In
In one or more embodiments, collection queries may be saved and scheduled to run periodically. These scheduled collection queries may periodically update the summarization information corresponding to the query. For example, if the collection query that generates inverted index 722 is scheduled to run periodically, one or more indexers would periodically search through the relevant buckets to update inverted index 722 with event data for any new events with the “clientip” value of “127.0.0.1.”
In some embodiments, the inverted indexes that include fields, values, and reference value (e.g., inverted index 722) for event records may be included in the summarization information provided to the user. In other embodiments, a user may not be interested in specific fields and values contained in the inverted index, but may need to perform a statistical query on the data in the inverted index. For example, referencing the example of
The pipelined search language, e.g., SPL of the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system can be used to pipe the contents of an inverted index to a statistical query using the “stats” command for example. A “stats” query refers to queries that generate result sets that may produce aggregate and statistical results from event records, e.g., average, mean, max, min, rms, etc. Where sufficient information is available in an inverted index, a “stats” query may generate their result sets rapidly from the summarization information available in the inverted index rather than directly scanning event records. For example, the contents of inverted index 722 can be pipelined to a stats query, e.g., a “count” function that counts the number of entries in the inverted index and returns a value of “4.” In this way, inverted indexes may enable various stats queries to be performed absent scanning or search the event records. Accordingly, this optimization technique enables the system to quickly process queries that seek to determine how many events have a particular value for a particular field. To this end, the system can examine the entry in the inverted index to count instances of the specific value in the field without having to go through the individual events or perform data extractions at search time.
In some embodiments, the system maintains a separate inverted index for each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores events for a specific time range. A bucket-specific inverted index includes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur in events in the specific bucket. Alternatively, the system can maintain a separate inverted index for each indexer. The indexer-specific inverted index includes entries for the events in a data store that are managed by the specific indexer. Indexer-specific inverted indexes may also be bucket-specific. In at least one or more embodiments, if one or more of the queries is a stats query, each indexer may generate a partial result set from previously generated summarization information. The partial result sets may be returned to the search head that received the query and combined into a single result set for the query
As mentioned above, the inverted index can be populated by running a periodic query that scans a set of events to find instances of a specific field-value combination, or alternatively instances of all field-value combinations for a specific field. A periodic query can be initiated by a user, or can be scheduled to occur automatically at specific time intervals. A periodic query can also be automatically launched in response to a query that asks for a specific field-value combination. In some embodiments, if summarization information is absent from an indexer that includes responsive event records, further actions may be taken, such as, the summarization information may generated on the fly, warnings may be provided the user, the collection query operation may be halted, the absence of summarization information may be ignored, or the like, or combination thereof.
In one or more embodiments, an inverted index may be set up to update continually. For example, the query may ask for the inverted index to update its result periodically, e.g., every hour. In such instances, the inverted index may be a dynamic data structure that is regularly updated to include information regarding incoming events.
In some cases, e.g., where a query is executed before an inverted index updates, when the inverted index may not cover all of the events that are relevant to a query, the system can use the inverted index to obtain partial results for the events that are covered by inverted index, but may also have to search through other events that are not covered by the inverted index to produce additional results on the fly. In other words, an indexer would need to search through event data on the data store to supplement the partial results. These additional results can then be combined with the partial results to produce a final set of results for the query. Note that in typical instances where an inverted index is not completely up to date, the number of events that an indexer would need to search through to supplement the results from the inverted index would be relatively small. In other words, the search to get the most recent results can be quick and efficient because only a small number of event records will be searched through to supplement the information from the inverted index. The inverted index and associated techniques are described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,682,925, entitled “DISTRIBUTED HIGH PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE”, issued on 25 Mar. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 9,128,985, entitled “SUPPLEMENTING A HIGH PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE WITH EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL EVENTS TO RESPOND TO AN EVENT QUERY”, filed on 31 Jan. 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/815,973, entitled “STORAGE MEDIUM AND CONTROL DEVICE”, filed on 21 Feb. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
2.13.3.1 Extracting Event Data Using Posting
In one or more embodiments, if the system needs to process all events that have a specific field-value combination, the system can use the references in the inverted index entry to directly access the events to extract further information without having to search all of the events to find the specific field-value combination at search time. In other words, the system can use the reference values to locate the associated event data in the field searchable data store and extract further information from those events, e.g., extract further field values from the events for purposes of filtering or processing or both.
The information extracted from the event data using the reference values can be directed for further filtering or processing in a query using the pipeline search language. The pipelined search language will, in one embodiment, include syntax that can direct the initial filtering step in a query to an inverted index. In one embodiment, a user would include syntax in the query that explicitly directs the initial searching or filtering step to the inverted index.
Referencing the example in
In one embodiment, the same methodology can be used to pipe the contents of the inverted index to a processing step. In other words, the user is able to use the inverted index to efficiently and quickly perform aggregate functions on field values that were not part of the initially generated inverted index. For example, a user may want to determine an average object size (size of the requested gif) requested by clients from IP address “127.0.0.1.” In this case, the search engine would again use the reference values stored in inverted index 722 to retrieve the event data from the field searchable data store and, further, extract the object size field values from the associated events 731, 732, 733 and 734. Once, the corresponding object sizes have been extracted (i.e. 2326, 2900, 2920, and 5000), the average can be computed and returned to the user.
In one embodiment, instead of explicitly invoking the inverted index in a user-generated query, e.g., by the use of special commands or syntax, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system can be configured to automatically determine if any prior-generated inverted index can be used to expedite a user query. For example, the user's query may request the average object size (size of the requested gif) requested by clients from IP address “127.0.0.1.” without any reference to or use of inverted index 722. The search engine, in this case, would automatically determine that an inverted index 722 already exists in the system that could expedite this query. In one embodiment, prior to running any search comprising a field-value pair, for example, a search engine may search though all the existing inverted indexes to determine if a pre-generated inverted index could be used to expedite the search comprising the field-value pair. Accordingly, the search engine would automatically use the pre-generated inverted index, e.g., index 722 to generate the results without any user-involvement that directs the use of the index.
Using the reference values in an inverted index to be able to directly access the event data in the field searchable data store and extract further information from the associated event data for further filtering and processing is highly advantageous because it avoids incurring the computation overhead of regenerating the inverted index with additional fields or performing a new search.
The data intake and query system includes one or more forwarders that receive raw machine data from a variety of input data sources, and one or more indexers that process and store the data in one or more data stores. By distributing events among the indexers and data stores, the indexers can analyze events for a query in parallel. In one or more embodiments, a multiple indexer implementation of the search system would maintain a separate and respective inverted index for each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores events for a specific time range. A bucket-specific inverted index includes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur in events in the specific bucket. As explained above, a search head would be able to correlate and synthesize data from across the various buckets and indexers.
This feature advantageously expedites searches because instead of performing a computationally intensive search in a centrally located inverted index that catalogues all the relevant events, an indexer is able to directly search an inverted index stored in a bucket associated with the time-range specified in the query. This allows the search to be performed in parallel across the various indexers. Further, if the query requests further filtering or processing to be conducted on the event data referenced by the locally stored bucket-specific inverted index, the indexer is able to simply access the event records stored in the associated bucket for further filtering and processing instead of needing to access a central repository of event records, which would dramatically add to the computational overhead.
In one embodiment, there may be multiple buckets associated with the time-range specified in a query. If the query is directed to an inverted index, or if the search engine automatically determines that using an inverted index would expedite the processing of the query, the indexers will search through each of the inverted indexes associated with the buckets for the specified time-range. This feature allows the High Performance Analytics Store to be scaled easily.
In certain instances, where a query is executed before a bucket-specific inverted index updates, when the bucket-specific inverted index may not cover all of the events that are relevant to a query, the system can use the bucket-specific inverted index to obtain partial results for the events that are covered by bucket-specific inverted index, but may also have to search through the event data in the bucket associated with the bucket-specific inverted index to produce additional results on the fly. In other words, an indexer would need to search through event data stored in the bucket (that was not yet processed by the indexer for the corresponding inverted index) to supplement the partial results from the bucket-specific inverted index.
At block 742, a query is received by a data intake and query system. In some embodiments, the query can be receive as a user generated query entered into search bar of a graphical user search interface. The search interface also includes a time range control element that enables specification of a time range for the query.
At block 744, an inverted index is retrieved. Note, that the inverted index can be retrieved in response to an explicit user search command inputted as part of the user generated query. Alternatively, the search engine can be configured to automatically use an inverted index if it determines that using the inverted index would expedite the servicing of the user generated query. Each of the entries in an inverted index keeps track of instances of a specific value in a specific field in the event data and includes references to events containing the specific value in the specific field. In order to expedite queries, in most embodiments, the search engine will employ the inverted index separate from the raw record data store to generate responses to the received queries.
At block 746, the query engine determines if the query contains further filtering and processing steps. If the query contains no further commands, then, in one embodiment, summarization information can be provided to the user at block 754.
If, however, the query does contain further filtering and processing commands, then at block 750, the query engine determines if the commands relate to further filtering or processing of the data extracted as part of the inverted index or whether the commands are directed to using the inverted index as an initial filtering step to further filter and process event data referenced by the entries in the inverted index. If the query can be completed using data already in the generated inverted index, then the further filtering or processing steps, e.g., a “count” number of records function, “average” number of records per hour etc. are performed and the results are provided to the user at block 752.
If, however, the query references fields that are not extracted in the inverted index, then the indexers will access event data pointed to by the reference values in the inverted index to retrieve any further information required at block 756. Subsequently, any further filtering or processing steps are performed on the fields extracted directly from the event data and the results are provided to the user at step 758.
2.13.4. Accelerating Report Generation
In some embodiments, a data server system such as the data intake and query system can accelerate the process of periodically generating updated reports based on query results. To accelerate this process, a summarization engine automatically examines the query to determine whether generation of updated reports can be accelerated by creating intermediate summaries. If reports can be accelerated, the summarization engine periodically generates a summary covering data obtained during a latest non-overlapping time period. For example, where the query seeks events meeting a specified criteria, a summary for the time period includes only events within the time period that meet the specified criteria. Similarly, if the query seeks statistics calculated from the events, such as the number of events that match the specified criteria, then the summary for the time period includes the number of events in the period that match the specified criteria.
In addition to the creation of the summaries, the summarization engine schedules the periodic updating of the report associated with the query. During each scheduled report update, the query engine determines whether intermediate summaries have been generated covering portions of the time period covered by the report update. If so, then the report is generated based on the information contained in the summaries. Also, if additional event data has been received and has not yet been summarized, and is required to generate the complete report, the query can be run on these additional events. Then, the results returned by this query on the additional events, along with the partial results obtained from the intermediate summaries, can be combined to generate the updated report. This process is repeated each time the report is updated. Alternatively, if the system stores events in buckets covering specific time ranges, then the summaries can be generated on a bucket-by-bucket basis. Note that producing intermediate summaries can save the work involved in re-running the query for previous time periods, so advantageously only the newer events needs to be processed while generating an updated report. These report acceleration techniques are described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,589,403, entitled “COMPRESSED JOURNALING IN EVENT TRACKING FILES FOR METADATA RECOVERY AND REPLICATION”, issued on 19 Nov. 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 8,412,696, entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING AND REPORTING”, issued on 2 Apr. 2011, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,589,375 and 8,589,432, both also entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING AND REPORTING”, both issued on 19 Nov. 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
2.14. Security Features
The data intake and query system provides various schemas, dashboards, and visualizations that simplify developers' tasks to create applications with additional capabilities. One such application is the an enterprise security application, such as SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE SECURITY, which performs monitoring and alerting operations and includes analytics to facilitate identifying both known and unknown security threats based on large volumes of data stored by the data intake and query system. The enterprise security application provides the security practitioner with visibility into security-relevant threats found in the enterprise infrastructure by capturing, monitoring, and reporting on data from enterprise security devices, systems, and applications. Through the use of the data intake and query system searching and reporting capabilities, the enterprise security application provides a top-down and bottom-up view of an organization's security posture.
The enterprise security application leverages the data intake and query system search-time normalization techniques, saved searches, and correlation searches to provide visibility into security-relevant threats and activity and generate notable events for tracking. The enterprise security application enables the security practitioner to investigate and explore the data to find new or unknown threats that do not follow signature-based patterns.
Conventional Security Information and Event Management (STEM) systems lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze large volumes of security-related data. Traditional SIEM systems typically use fixed schemas to extract data from pre-defined security-related fields at data ingestion time and store the extracted data in a relational database. This traditional data extraction process (and associated reduction in data size) that occurs at data ingestion time inevitably hampers future incident investigations that may need original data to determine the root cause of a security issue, or to detect the onset of an impending security threat.
In contrast, the enterprise security application system stores large volumes of minimally-processed security-related data at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at search time when a live security threat is being investigated. To facilitate this data retrieval process, the enterprise security application provides pre-specified schemas for extracting relevant values from the different types of security-related events and enables a user to define such schemas.
The enterprise security application can process many types of security-related information. In general, this security-related information can include any information that can be used to identify security threats. For example, the security-related information can include network-related information, such as IP addresses, domain names, asset identifiers, network traffic volume, uniform resource locator strings, and source addresses. The process of detecting security threats for network-related information is further described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,826,434, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION BASED ON INDICATIONS IN BIG DATA OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 2 Sep. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 9,215,240, entitled “INVESTIGATIVE AND DYNAMIC DETECTION OF POTENTIAL SECURITY-THREAT INDICATORS FROM EVENTS IN BIG DATA”, issued on 15 Dec. 2015, U.S. Pat. No. 9,173,801, entitled “GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF SECURITY THREATS BASED ON INDICATIONS OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 3 Nov. 2015, U.S. Pat. No. 9,248,068, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION OF NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 2 Feb. 2016, U.S. Pat. No. 9,426,172, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME ACCESSES”, issued on 23 Aug. 2016, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,432,396, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS”, issued on 30 Aug. 2016, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. Security-related information can also include malware infection data and system configuration information, as well as access control information, such as login/logout information and access failure notifications. The security-related information can originate from various sources within a data center, such as hosts, virtual machines, storage devices and sensors. The security-related information can also originate from various sources in a network, such as routers, switches, email servers, proxy servers, gateways, firewalls and intrusion-detection systems.
During operation, the enterprise security application facilitates detecting “notable events” that are likely to indicate a security threat. A notable event represents one or more anomalous incidents, the occurrence of which can be identified based on one or more events (e.g., time stamped portions of raw machine data) fulfilling pre-specified and/or dynamically-determined (e.g., based on machine-learning) criteria defined for that notable event. Examples of notable events include the repeated occurrence of an abnormal spike in network usage over a period of time, a single occurrence of unauthorized access to system, a host communicating with a server on a known threat list, and the like. These notable events can be detected in a number of ways, such as: (1) a user can notice a correlation in events and can manually identify that a corresponding group of one or more events amounts to a notable event; or (2) a user can define a “correlation search” specifying criteria for a notable event, and every time one or more events satisfy the criteria, the application can indicate that the one or more events correspond to a notable event; and the like. A user can alternatively select a pre-defined correlation search provided by the application. Note that correlation searches can be run continuously or at regular intervals (e.g., every hour) to search for notable events. Upon detection, notable events can be stored in a dedicated “notable events index,” which can be subsequently accessed to generate various visualizations containing security-related information. Also, alerts can be generated to notify system operators when important notable events are discovered.
The enterprise security application provides various visualizations to aid in discovering security threats, such as a “key indicators view” that enables a user to view security metrics, such as counts of different types of notable events. For example,
These visualizations can also include an “incident review dashboard” that enables a user to view and act on “notable events.” These notable events can include: (1) a single event of high importance, such as any activity from a known web attacker; or (2) multiple events that collectively warrant review, such as a large number of authentication failures on a host followed by a successful authentication. For example,
2.15. Data Center Monitoring
As mentioned above, the data intake and query platform provides various features that simplify the developer's task to create various applications. One such application is a virtual machine monitoring application, such as SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® that provides operational visibility into granular performance metrics, logs, tasks and events, and topology from hosts, virtual machines and virtual centers. It empowers administrators with an accurate real-time picture of the health of the environment, proactively identifying performance and capacity bottlenecks.
Conventional data-center-monitoring systems lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze large volumes of machine-generated data, such as performance information and log data obtained from the data center. In conventional data-center-monitoring systems, machine-generated data is typically pre-processed prior to being stored, for example, by extracting pre-specified data items and storing them in a database to facilitate subsequent retrieval and analysis at search time. However, the rest of the data is not saved and discarded during pre-processing.
In contrast, the virtual machine monitoring application stores large volumes of minimally processed machine data, such as performance information and log data, at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at search time when a live performance issue is being investigated. In addition to data obtained from various log files, this performance-related information can include values for performance metrics obtained through an application programming interface (API) provided as part of the vSphere Hypervisor™ system distributed by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. For example, these performance metrics can include: (1) CPU-related performance metrics; (2) disk-related performance metrics; (3) memory-related performance metrics; (4) network-related performance metrics; (5) energy-usage statistics; (6) data-traffic-related performance metrics; (7) overall system availability performance metrics; (8) cluster-related performance metrics; and (9) virtual machine performance statistics. Such performance metrics are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled “CORRELATION FOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCE METRICS OF COMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOG DATA FROM THAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan. 2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
To facilitate retrieving information of interest from performance data and log files, the virtual machine monitoring application provides pre-specified schemas for extracting relevant values from different types of performance-related events, and also enables a user to define such schemas.
The virtual machine monitoring application additionally provides various visualizations to facilitate detecting and diagnosing the root cause of performance problems. For example, one such visualization is a “proactive monitoring tree” that enables a user to easily view and understand relationships among various factors that affect the performance of a hierarchically structured computing system. This proactive monitoring tree enables a user to easily navigate the hierarchy by selectively expanding nodes representing various entities (e.g., virtual centers or computing clusters) to view performance information for lower-level nodes associated with lower-level entities (e.g., virtual machines or host systems). Example node-expansion operations are illustrated in
The virtual machine monitoring application also provides a user interface that enables a user to select a specific time range and then view heterogeneous data comprising events, log data, and associated performance metrics for the selected time range. For example, the screen illustrated in
2.16. IT Service Monitoring
As previously mentioned, the data intake and query platform provides various schemas, dashboards and visualizations that make it easy for developers to create applications to provide additional capabilities. One such application is an IT monitoring application, such as SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™, which performs monitoring and alerting operations. The IT monitoring application also includes analytics to help an analyst diagnose the root cause of performance problems based on large volumes of data stored by the data intake and query system as correlated to the various services an IT organization provides (a service-centric view). This differs significantly from conventional IT monitoring systems that lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze large volumes of service-related events. Traditional service monitoring systems typically use fixed schemas to extract data from pre-defined fields at data ingestion time, wherein the extracted data is typically stored in a relational database. This data extraction process and associated reduction in data content that occurs at data ingestion time inevitably hampers future investigations, when all of the original data may be needed to determine the root cause of or contributing factors to a service issue.
In contrast, an IT monitoring application system stores large volumes of minimally-processed service-related data at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at search time, to perform regular monitoring, or to investigate a service issue. To facilitate this data retrieval process, the IT monitoring application enables a user to define an IT operations infrastructure from the perspective of the services it provides. In this service-centric approach, a service such as corporate e-mail may be defined in terms of the entities employed to provide the service, such as host machines and network devices. Each entity is defined to include information for identifying all of the events that pertains to the entity, whether produced by the entity itself or by another machine, and considering the many various ways the entity may be identified in machine data (such as by a URL, an IP address, or machine name). The service and entity definitions can organize events around a service so that all of the events pertaining to that service can be easily identified. This capability provides a foundation for the implementation of Key Performance Indicators.
One or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are defined for a service within the IT monitoring application. Each KPI measures an aspect of service performance at a point in time or over a period of time (aspect KPI's). Each KPI is defined by a search query that derives a KPI value from the machine data of events associated with the entities that provide the service. Information in the entity definitions may be used to identify the appropriate events at the time a KPI is defined or whenever a KPI value is being determined. The KPI values derived over time may be stored to build a valuable repository of current and historical performance information for the service, and the repository, itself, may be subject to search query processing. Aggregate KPIs may be defined to provide a measure of service performance calculated from a set of service aspect KPI values; this aggregate may even be taken across defined timeframes and/or across multiple services. A particular service may have an aggregate KPI derived from substantially all of the aspect KPI's of the service to indicate an overall health score for the service.
The IT monitoring application facilitates the production of meaningful aggregate KPI's through a system of KPI thresholds and state values. Different KPI definitions may produce values in different ranges, and so the same value may mean something very different from one KPI definition to another. To address this, the IT monitoring application implements a translation of individual KPI values to a common domain of “state” values. For example, a KPI range of values may be 1-100, or 50-275, while values in the state domain may be ‘critical,’ ‘warning,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘informational’ . . . Thresholds associated with a particular KPI definition determine ranges of values for that KPI that correspond to the various state values. In one case, KPI values 95-100 may be set to correspond to ‘critical’ in the state domain. KPI values from disparate KPI's can be processed uniformly once they are translated into the common state values using the thresholds. For example, “normal 80% of the time” can be applied across various KPI's. To provide meaningful aggregate KPI's, a weighting value can be assigned to each KPI so that its influence on the calculated aggregate KPI value is increased or decreased relative to the other KPI's.
One service in an IT environment often impacts, or is imp.acted by, another service. The IT monitoring application can reflect these dependencies. For example, a dependency relationship between a corporate e-mail service and a centralized authentication service can be reflected by recording an association between their respective service definitions. The recorded associations establish a service dependency topology that informs the data or selection options presented in a GUI, for example. (The service dependency topology is like a “map” showing how services are connected based on their dependencies.) The service topology may itself be depicted in a GUI and may be interactive to allow navigation among related services.
Entity definitions in the IT monitoring application can include informational fields that can serve as metadata, implied data fields, or attributed data fields for the events identified by other aspects of the entity definition. Entity definitions in the IT monitoring application can also be created and updated by an import of tabular data (as represented in a CSV, another delimited file, or a search query result set). The import may be GUI-mediated or processed using import parameters from a GUI-based import definition process. Entity definitions in the IT monitoring application can also be associated with a service by means of a service definition rule. Processing the rule results in the matching entity definitions being associated with the service definition. The rule can be processed at creation time, and thereafter on a scheduled or on-demand basis. This allows dynamic, rule-based updates to the service definition.
During operation, the IT monitoring application can recognize notable events that may indicate a service performance problem or other situation of interest. These notable events can be recognized by a “correlation search” specifying trigger criteria for a notable event: every time KPI values satisfy the criteria, the application indicates a notable event. A severity level for the notable event may also be specified. Furthermore, when trigger criteria are satisfied, the correlation search may additionally or alternatively cause a service ticket to be created in an IT service management (ITSM) system, such as a systems available from ServiceNow, Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif.
SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides various visualizations built on its service-centric organization of events and the KPI values generated and collected. Visualizations can be particularly useful for monitoring or investigating service performance. The IT monitoring application provides a service monitoring interface suitable as the home page for ongoing IT service monitoring. The interface is appropriate for settings such as desktop use or for a wall-mounted display in a network operations center (NOC). The interface may prominently display a services health section with tiles for the aggregate KPI's indicating overall health for defined services and a general KPI section with tiles for KPI's related to individual service aspects. These tiles may display KPI information in a variety of ways, such as by being colored and ordered according to factors like the KPI state value. They also can be interactive and navigate to visualizations of more detailed KPI information.
The IT monitoring application provides a service-monitoring dashboard visualization based on a user-defined template. The template can include user-selectable widgets of varying types and styles to display KPI information. The content and the appearance of widgets can respond dynamically to changing KPI information. The KPI widgets can appear in conjunction with a background image, user drawing objects, or other visual elements, that depict the IT operations environment, for example. The KPI widgets or other GUI elements can be interactive so as to provide navigation to visualizations of more detailed KPI information.
The IT monitoring application provides a visualization showing detailed time-series information for multiple KPI's in parallel graph lanes. The length of each lane can correspond to a uniform time range, while the width of each lane may be automatically adjusted to fit the displayed KPI data. Data within each lane may be displayed in a user selectable style, such as a line, area, or bar chart. During operation a user may select a position in the time range of the graph lanes to activate lane inspection at that point in time. Lane inspection may display an indicator for the selected time across the graph lanes and display the KPI value associated with that point in time for each of the graph lanes. The visualization may also provide navigation to an interface for defining a correlation search, using information from the visualization to pre-populate the definition.
The IT monitoring application provides a visualization for incident review showing detailed information for notable events. The incident review visualization may also show summary information for the notable events over a time frame, such as an indication of the number of notable events at each of a number of severity levels. The severity level display may be presented as a rainbow chart with the warmest color associated with the highest severity classification. The incident review visualization may also show summary information for the notable events over a time frame, such as the number of notable events occurring within segments of the time frame. The incident review visualization may display a list of notable events within the time frame ordered by any number of factors, such as time or severity. The selection of a particular notable event from the list may display detailed information about that notable event, including an identification of the correlation search that generated the notable event.
The IT monitoring application provides pre-specified schemas for extracting relevant values from the different types of service-related events. It also enables a user to define such schemas.
3.0 User Journeys
As described above, machine data can be ingested, for example by the data intake and query system 108, and events produced based on the machine data. The events can be utilized to provide insight into complex computing systems. For example, events can be accessibly maintained in the data stores, and queries identifying a set of data and a manner of processing the data can be executed. In this way, the machine data can be investigated (e.g., poked) via differing queries, updated field definitions, and so on, to identify useful information for requesting users.
As an example of machine data in disparate computing systems may generate data in response to events, interactions, triggers, and so on. For example, a computing system may record network access events (e.g., user account logins to a computing system), user events (e.g., a computing system may monitor user activity or user behavior), service related events (e.g., as described above with respect to Section 2.16), and so on. In some cases, the disparate computing systems can record user interactions with the computing systems. For example, the machine data may include information indicative of a particular user interacting with a computing system, along with further information describing the interaction. Further interaction with cone computing system can trigger the computing system to interact with another computing system, which may generate machine data in response.
These disparate computing systems may therefore generate machine data that describes multitudes of touchpoints associated with a respective entity (e.g., a user, an object, a computing system, and so on). In this specification, a touchpoint can refer to any interaction of an entity with a computing system, or any interaction of an entity that is recorded by a computing system. For example, the entity may include a user, and a touchpoint may include the user accessing his/her user account on a particular computing system. The particular computing system, which may be a domain controller or active directory server, may generate machine data associated with the user interaction.
A second touch point may include the user account performing an action on a user device (e.g., a laptop, computer, tablet), such as causing a download of information to the user device or accessing a virtual private network (VPN). The user device may generate data associated with this second touch point. Additionally, a call received at a call center from an entity may represent a third touch point. For example, a computing system recording received calls may generate machine data in response to the call from the entity.
A combination of these touchpoints may, as an example, provide useful information related to interactions with one or more computing systems. With respect to the example of users accessing their respective user accounts, additional touchpoints may include particular types of interactions the user accounts perform, along with a touchpoint specifying that the users logged out of their respective user accounts. In this way, the touchpoints may help form a picture of a particular user's utilization of an accessed user account or interaction with various computer systems associated with the user account. For example, a time at which the particular user accessed his/her user account, along with a location from which the access occurred, can be identified from events. Similarly, the system can identify whether the particular user performed particular types of interactions, and then identify a time at which the particular user ceased accessing his/her user account.
Thus, users, or other entities, may interact with disparate computing systems as part of an ongoing process, or journey. Being able to analyze events describing these interactions, and stitching them together to generate a digestible representation of each user's journey may be beneficial to understand these interactions. For example, stitching (e.g., aggregating) events together can provide insights into specific paths typically taken by users to complete a journey. As an example, a journey may be related to processing of an application, and aggregating events may inform all the interactions (e.g., different paths) that different users have prior to their respective applications being complete. These insights may help improve future computer interactions, for example to reduce user frictions via an understanding of typical journeys.
As will be described below, a user journey may be defined that includes one or more steps. Each step can correspond to one or more events from one or more data sources. Therefore, a user journey can indicate occurrences of events across one or more disparate data sources or data systems.
In some cases, the path of a particular user across one or more steps of a user journey, or the user journey of a particular user or entity can be referred to as a journey instance. In some embodiments, a journey instance can include a path through each of the steps of a user journey, and in certain embodiments, the journey instance includes a path through a subset of the steps of a user journey. Further, in certain cases, a user journey, such as a broadly defined grouping of touchpoints, steps, or events, a particular sequence of steps or touchpoints, or a grouping of multiple particular user's journeys may also be referred to as a journey model.
A system (e.g., the data intake and query system 108) can execute queries based on the steps, and provide results (e.g., in one or more user interfaces) to reviewing users. For example, the results can indicate occurrences of touchpoints that may occur along a user journey. To relate these results to individual entities (e.g., users), for example touchpoints of a specific entity, the system can stitch events together that are related to each entity. However, as different events may include machine data generated from disparate systems, these events may not be easily relatable. For example, an event describing a first touchpoint of a user may identify the user in a first way (e.g., a name of the user), while an event describing a second touchpoint of a user may identify the user in a second way (e.g., a phone number of the user).
As will be described below, with respect to
However, for steps associated with different data sources, the events which satisfy search queries corresponding to these steps may not be immediately relatable. A stitching scheme for these events may therefore include utilization of a lookup table that correlates events associated with different data sources. For example, and with respect to the example described above, a lookup table can correlate names of users with their phone numbers. Another stitching scheme for these events may utilize ‘gluing events’, which can represent intermediate events that include information associated with a first a data source and information associated with a second data source. As an example, a first computing system may trigger a second computing system, and the triggering may specify a Session ID or User ID related to an entity. The second computing system may record this specified information in machine data, and further record its Session ID or User Id. The system can execute one or more search queries to identify these gluing events, and therefore relate events that are associated with the first computing system and the second computing system.
While reference is made herein to a search query, it should be understood that search query can encompass any search of information that causes the system to determine satisfaction of particular constraints, such as whether particular values, fields, and so on, are included in events. As an example, a search query may be specified according to the Splunk Processing Language (SPL) described above.
As an example of a user journey, a user journey can include steps related to processing of a user application (e.g., application for particular network credit application, job application, and so on). For example, a first step may be associated with receipt of an application. The first step may specify a query to identify occurrences of a particular value for a field included in events. The field may be related to actions performed by users, and the particular value may reflect the action of receiving an application submitted by a user. In the example first step, the data sources may include information received from, or generated by, computing systems at which applications are received. As described above, these data sources may be specified by a user creating the user journey, or optionally these data sources may be automatically selected by the system (e.g., based on analyzing the user journey). For the example user journey, additional steps may further specify queries associated with the application's processing and/or status. Each of these additional steps may cause application (e.g., execution) of search queries on differing data sources, such that a user's application may be monitored across the data sources.
As will be described below, for example with respect to
As will be described, at least with respect to
Upon creation of a user journey, the system can execute queries defined based on information provided by steps of the journey, and relate resulting events. As will be described, at least with reference to
User interface 1800 includes a graphical depiction of an example user journey 1802 that includes example steps 1806A-F. As described above, a user journey includes one or more steps, with each step corresponding to one or more queries to be applied to events associated with data sources. A particular entity, such as a user or object, can be monitored as it traverses a user journey. For example, an initial event identifying an example user that satisfies one or more queries corresponding to a first step may be correlated with (e.g., related to) a second event identifying the example user satisfying queries corresponding to a second step. In this way, the example user can be determined to have traversed from the first step to the second step. Similarly, events identifying multitudes of users can be similarly monitored, and related to determine which events are associated with a same user. User interface information describing results of the relating can be presented.
Optionally, the visual element 1808 can represent a single user. As illustrated, visual element 1808 is illustrated as transitioning between step 1806D and step 1806A. The example user journey 1802 may illustrate particular steps (e.g., major steps, for example as specified by a user), but the user journey 1802 may include additional steps not illustrated. Thus, there may be steps between the illustrated steps 1806D and 1806A. To determine the single user's location along with a visual link between step 1806D and 1806A, the system can utilize a number of remaining (e.g., uncompleted) steps between the steps 1806D, 1806A. Optionally, even without these additional steps, the system can predict that the single user is transitioning (e.g., the single user is likely to be transitioning) between the steps 1806D, 1806A, based on a time since the single user completed step 1806D. That is, the system can determine an average time from completion of step 1806D to completion of step 1806A across all users, or users with that share features similar to the single user (e.g., location, demographics, historical information, and so on). In this way, the system can model the visual element's 1808 location along a visual link based on a time since the single user completed step 1806D. For example, the system can identify an event satisfying a query corresponding to step 1806D, and utilize timestamp information included in the event.
In the example of
As will be described in more detail below, with respect to
The user interface 1800 further illustrates representations of users who are transitioning between steps. For example, visual element 1808 (e.g., the visual element can be a circle, square, an arbitrary shape or polygon, and so on) can represent a particular number of users who have completed a step and are traversing to a subsequent step. Optionally, the user interface 1800 can illustrate movement of the visual elements between steps. For example, an animation of the visual elements transitioning between steps 1806A-F can be presented. Optionally, a speed associated with the movement can be based on a measure of central tendency of an amount of time a transition takes. As will be described below, the data intake and query system 108 can monitor occurrences of steps, and determine statistical information associated with the monitoring. In this way, the system 108 can determine that, for example, transitioning from step 1806A to step 1806C takes 44 minutes (e.g., a measure of central tendency of transitions can be determined to take 44 minutes).
Additionally, the user interface 1800 includes textual information 1804 associated with the user journey (e.g., “User Account Creation”). This textual information 1804 can be specified by a user creating the user journey 1802. Optionally, the textual information 1804 may be automatically generated by the data intake and query system 108 based on an analysis of included steps 1806A-F. As an example, utilizing machine learning techniques the data intake and query system 108 can analyze queries specified in the steps 1806A-F, and determine corresponding textual information that reflects the queries. For example, the system 102 can compare the queries with queries utilized in other user journeys, to determine similar user journeys. The textual information 1804 associated with these similar user journeys may be analyzed and updated via the machine learning techniques based on the specific queries of user journey 1802.
At block 1902, the system receives information specifying data sources associated with a user journey. As described above, a user journey can utilize events associated with particular data sources. For example, a user creating the user journey may be interested in particular touchpoints (e.g., user interactions) with disparate computing systems. The user can therefore indicate data sources related to these touchpoints. For example, if a touchpoint is associated with an entity placing a call to a call center, the user creating a user journey can specify a data source that records information associated with such calls.
Optionally, as the system receives information specifying data sources, the system can utilize machine learning techniques to recommend additional data sources that may be of interest to the user. For example, if the user specifies a data source associated with a call center, the system can recommend a data source storing touchpoints (e.g., user interactions) with a front-end system. The system may assume that the user will want to understand why a call center was called, and therefore can recommend a data source indicating specific user interactions that led to a call being placed. That is, the front-end system may record machine data describing user interactions on a web page, with the web page specifying a call number. Therefore, if a call to the call number was placed, the user creating the user journey may be interested in the user interactions with the web page which led to the call. The system can analyze prior created user journeys, and determine clusters of data sources which are generally utilized together. In this way, the system can recommend data sources to the user to increase a speed at which the user journey is created.
At block 1904, the system maps fields included in events associated with the specified data sources to common field identifiers. Each data source may include events with differing field identifiers. For example, values of identifying information included in events associated with a first data source may correspond to a different field identifier than values of identifying information included in events associated with a second data source. The system can map these different field identifiers to a same common field identifier.
As an example, and as will be described in more detail with respect to
As another example, and as will be described in more detail below with respect to
At block 1906, the system obtains information indicating correlations between data sources. As described above, and as illustrated in
A user of the system can specify these stitching schemes. For example, the user can indicate that for events associated with a same data source, a particular field is to be utilized to identify related events. As described above, with respect to block 1904, a particular field may be a session identifier, and the user can specify that the session identifier field be utilized to identify related events. As another example, the user can indicate that a user identifier be utilized to relate events from a particular data source. For example, events from the particular data source may include a user name associated with an interaction. The user can therefore specify that user name be utilized to identify related events from the particular data source.
Additionally, to relate events associated with different data sources, the user can indicate stitching schemes for these different sources. As an example, and as illustrated in
The system may optionally utilize machine learning techniques to determine a stitching scheme. For example, the system can analyze field identifiers included in events associated with the selected data sources. Utilizing similarity rules (e.g., a Levenshtein distance), the system can determine that identifying information may be similarly labeled (e.g., a field identifier labeled ‘processID’ in a first data source may correspond with a field identifier labeled ‘process ID’ or ‘process identifier’ in a second data sources). Optionally the system can automatically select stitching schemes utilized in prior created user journeys. For example, the system can store information indicating correlations between the data sources, and can be automatically utilize stitching schemes created for prior user journeys.
At block 1908, the system obtains selections of steps to be included in the user journey. As will be described below, with respect to
In some cases, the system can recommend additional steps to the user based on current selections of steps. That is, the system can analyze prior created user journeys and determine clusterings of steps (e.g., steps that are commonly included in a same user journey). The system can therefore cause presentation of recommend steps, which the user can select or discard.
At block 1910, the system causes application of the created user journey. Upon selection of the steps, a user can indicate that the user journey is to be applied to events. For example, the user journey can be applied as will be described below with respect to
In the illustrated embodiment, the user interface 2000 includes a list of data source fields 2004 of events associated with the particular data source (e.g., data source ‘Self-Service Portal’). A user of the user interface 2000 can indicate which field identifier from the data source fields 2004 is to be used to identify steps in a journey, e.g., the data source field 2004 whose field values correspond to steps of the user journey. In the illustrated embodiment, the user of user interface 2000 has selected field identifier ‘action’. Upon selection, user interface 2000 has updated to list one or more field values 2006 associated with the selected field identifier. That is, the data intake and query system 108 identifies events associated with the particular data source, and identifies field values included in events for the field ‘action’. In the illustrated embodiment, the field values for the field ‘action,’ include at least: Login, Logout, Addtocart, RemoveFromCart, Checkout, viewProduct, compareProduct, Download, and ReadReview. In some cases, the field values 2006 can correspond to the most common field values for the field ‘action’. However, it will be understood the system can determine and display the field values 2006 using a variety of techniques.
As described in greater detail herein with reference to
In some embodiments, the common field identifier ‘User ID’ can be utilized to stich events together. In some cases, the system can automatically map a specific field identifier 2104 from the particular data source to a common field identifier 2102. For example, the system can automatically map the specific field identifier 2104 “_time” for the events associated with the particular data source with the common field identifier 2102 ‘Time Stamp’, and so forth.
Accordingly, the user interface 2200 presents field identifiers 2204 included in a data source that are associated with the particular step 2202 “Addtocart.” A user of the user interface 2200 can select one or more of the field identifiers 2204, indicating that values of these field identifiers will be recorded. In the example of
In some cases, the system can automatically record other information related to the events identified in the queries, such as the field values that correspond to the common field identifiers. For example, the system can automatically record the time stamp of the events, the field value that corresponds to the field identifier of the data source that was related to the common field identifier Session ID, and so on.
User interface 2300 includes indications of five data sources 2302 selected for a user journey (Call Center IVR, Point of Sale, Mobile App, CRM, NPS Survey). A user of the user interface 2300 has selected the data source ‘Call Center IVR’ 2304, and the system displays the steps 2306 that are available to be selected from the data source ‘Call Center IVR’ 2304 for inclusion in the user journey. In some cases, the available steps 2306 can correspond to field values of a data source field 2004, where the field values are included in events associated with the data source ‘Call Center IVR’ 2304. For example, with reference to
For the selected steps 2308 that are associated with the same data source 2304, the system can relate the steps as described above with respect to
User interface 2400 presents a matrix 2404 specifying various combinations of the selected data sources 2402. A user of user interface 2400 can indicate for any combination, how events associated with the combination correlate. For example, a user has specified that events associated with data source ‘Self-Service Portal’ and events associated with data source ‘CC IVR’ can be correlated using a lookup table 2406. That is, to stitch events together from these data sources, the system can use a lookup table to translate between the identifying information of one to the identifying information of the other. As an example, events associated with ‘Self-Service Portal’ may specify a name of an entity, and events associated with ‘CC IVR’ may specify an address of the entity. A lookup table may therefore be utilized to translate between name and address.
In the illustrated embodiment, events associated with data source 2504 and events associated with data source 2506 may both include a field ‘Session ID’ 2508, and the field values for the events in the different data source can match. Accordingly, the user can specify the field identifiers ‘Session ID’ 2508 for each data source for association. Upon selection, the user interface 2500 can update with example matching values 2510 associated with each field identifier 2508, to ensure that a correct field identifier 2508 was selected. In some embodiments, when relating events based on a ‘Direct Match’, the system can use a variety of techniques to identify the related events. In some cases, the system can determine whether the field values based on identical matches or similar matches using fuzzy logic. For example, the system can determine that a field value in an event in one system of ‘David G Smith’ can be related to an event from a different data source having ‘Dave Smith’, ‘David Smith’, or David Smth’, etc.
In some embodiments, the user interface 2500 can be used to identify a field identifier in different data sources that are to correspond to the common field identifier 2102. For example, a user can enter a field identifier for a field in the Self-Service Portal data source and a corresponding field identifier for a field in the Call Center IVR data source that are to be used as the common field identifiers 2102 ‘Session ID’ for the respective data sources. The entered field identifiers can be used to correlate events from different data sources as part of the same journey.
Utilizing example
Panel 2800 illustrates example steps 2802-2810 that have been included in an example journey. As described above with respect to
As the data intake and query system 108 relates events (e.g., executes search queries corresponding to the steps 2802-2810, and relate the returned events), the system 108 can identify occurrences of the steps 2802-2810 that are associated with a same entity (e.g., user). For example, the system 108 can identify events that satisfy the queries associated with the steps 2802-2810. As described above with respect to at least
Optionally, a user may specify a particular order of one or more steps, such as an initial step and a final step. For example, particular entities may traverse through a portion of the user journey, or initiate at a different step than expected. Based on information indicating an initial step and a final step, the data intake and query system 108 can therefore identify that these particular entities have not completed the user journey, or have avoided one or more initial steps.
Panel 2820 illustrates the steps 2802-2810 presented with links specifying paths traversed by users. For example, as the data intake and query system 108 relates events returned as a result of application of queries corresponding to the steps, the system 108 can determine connections between the steps 2802-2810. These connections can therefore indicate a determined order associated with the steps 2802-2810. For example,
As an example of stitching together events, the data intake and query system 108 can identify a first event satisfying search queries corresponding to step B 2804. Based on analysis of the first event, the data intake and query system 108 can identify an entity (e.g., user) specified in the first event (e.g., a value of a field associated with user identification can be obtained). Similarly, the data intake and query system 108 can identify additional events that satisfy search queries corresponding to step C 2806. The data intake and query system 108 can then stitch the first event together with one of the additional events that specifies the same entity, for example based on a stitching scheme.
In this example, the first event and the additional event may include a field that indicates the same value associated with user identification (e.g., a user name) or session identification (e.g., a process ID). While these fields may optionally have different identifiers (e.g., field names), as described above with respect to
As another example, the first event and the additional event may include respective fields that indicate values associated with user identification, but with values that may be different. For example, and as described above with respect to
As an additional example, the first event and the additional event may be stitched together via information included in an intermediate event (e.g., a ‘gluing event’, as illustrated in
As a more detailed example of a gluing event, a first event may be identified as satisfying search queries corresponding to step A 2802. This first event may be associated with a first data source, and the first data source may include machine data generated by a first computing system. This first computing system can generate machine data that references user names. Therefore, events produced by the data intake and query system 108 from this machine data can include user names referenced by a field. Similarly, a second event may be identified as satisfying search queries corresponding to step B 2804. This second event may be associated with a second, different, data source, and the second data source may include machine data generated by a second computing system. This second computing system may record interactions (e.g., touchpoints as described above) differently than the first computing system. For example, the second computing system may utilize different information to identify a user.
The first computing system may provide information to the second computing system, for example the first computing system may trigger a particular action or interaction on the second computing system. In response to the trigger, the second computing system may generate machine data specifying an identifier provided with, or determined based on, the trigger (e.g., an identifier of a user utilized by the first computing system). The generated machine data may further specify an identifier utilized by the second computing system. Therefore, this handoff between the first computing system and the second computing system may specify identifiers of a same entity (e.g., user) as used by the respective computing systems. The data intake and query system 108 can produce an event that includes this generated machine data, with a first field specifying the identifier utilized by the first computing system and a second field specifying the identifier utilized by the second computing system. Similarly, instead of user identifiers, a gluing event may utilize session or process identifiers. That is, the first computing system may include session identifiers in machine data, and the second computing system may record these session identifiers along with its own session identifiers.
To stitch the first event and the second event together, the data intake and query system 108 can access information specifying respective field identifiers of the first field and the second field. The data intake and query system 108 can then analyze intermediate events (e.g., the system 108 can execute a query to identify ‘gluing events’ as illustrated in
Each of the stitching schemes described above, may be utilized when correlating entities across data sources. For example, a first data source may be correlated with a second data source according to the direct matching scheme. Similarly, the first data source may be correlated with a third data source according to the lookup table, or intermediate event (e.g., ‘gluing event’) schemes. For ease and efficiency of use, and as described above, a user creating a user journey can utilize a user interface to rapidly indicate the appropriate stitching scheme. For example,
Thus, since the data intake and query system 108 can monitor each entities' (e.g., users) traversal through the user journey, the system 108 can determine one or more path's orderings of the steps 2802-2810 as illustrated in panel 2820.
At block 2902, the system obtains information associated with a user journey. The obtained information can relate to steps of the user journey, one or more queries performed as part of a step, field values to be extracted from events identified by the queries, etc. For example, events can be events as described above with respect to
As described above, a user journey can include steps that identify relevant data from one or more data sources. In some embodiments, the system can use the information to define or generate one or more search queries to be applied to events. In certain embodiments, the system can use the information to generate one or more search queries for each step of the user journey. Accordingly, the obtained information can include a definition of the steps of the journey, such as steps A-N 2901 as illustrated in
As described above, a user journey can be utilized to provide a representation of specific interactions (e.g., touchpoints) associated with entities (e.g., users). Each step may therefore correspond to search queries that cause identification of events recording these specific interactions. For example, using the information from a step, the system may define a query that causes identification of events recording users adding an item to a cart, or removing an item from a cart. This defined query can therefore specify a particular field identifier associated with user actions, along with a specific value indicating addition, or removal, of an item from a cart. In addition, the example step may further specify one or more data sources associated with the events that satisfy the query. As an example, a particular data source may produce events recording user interactions on a front-end web page presented on user devices. For example, the events may be produced from machine data generated by a server system (e.g., a web application on the server system, a front-end module recording user interaction logs, and so on). The example step may specify that only events associated with this particular data source are to be analyzed.
Additionally, and as described above, the accessed information can indicate stitching schemes to enable correlation across data sources. For example, the user journey may optionally include steps that specify multiple data sources. To ensure that a same entity (e.g., user) is able to be monitored in each step, the accessed information can indicate particular stitching schemes between the data sources. For example, the accessed information can indicate that events associated with a first data source include a field identifier with same values as values of a different field identifier included in events associated with a second data source. In this way, the system does not require guarantees that field identifiers are utilized consistently across data sources. Similarly, utilizing a lookup table and gluing events (e.g., as described above), the system can stitch events together that include both differing field identifiers and differing values.
Optionally, in addition to one or more search queries corresponding to a step, the step can further define information included in events satisfying the search queries that is to be stored. For example, an example step may be used to generate a query that causes identification of events recording users' adding items to their carts. As described above, this example step may correspond to a query that specifies a particular field identifier along with a value of the field identifier (e.g., a value indicating an action to add an item to a cart). The system can identify events that satisfy this query, and as will be described below with respect to block 2904, generate information indicating, at least, that a user associated with each event completed the example step. In this way, each users' traversal through the user journey can be monitored. In addition to this generated information, the example step can specify that values of one or more additional fields are to be stored. For example, the example step can specify that values of a field associated with a product being added to a cart are to be stored. (e.g., the field can indicate values specifying a product name, a product identifier, a product SKU, and so on).
At block 2904, the system relates events returned as result of queries. As described above, the system executes the search queries based on the steps to obtain events satisfying the search queries. For example, and as illustrated in
To increase efficiency and speed at which events can be returned, the system can optionally execute each step's search queries in parallel. For example, if the events are stored in data stores 2905, the system can rapidly analyze the events according to the accessed information describing the user journey. Since each step's search queries may not be dependent on each other, that is there may be no data dependency across steps, the system can rapidly execute the search queries in parallel. For any returned event, the system can generate information specifying the satisfied step along with an identifier of an entity associated with the returned event (e.g., a user). In this way, the user's traversal through the steps can be monitored. For example, the system can return events indicating that a particular user completed the user journey. As another example, the system can return events indicating that a different user completed a portion of the steps. The system can update this generated information as new events are produced from newly received machine data. Optionally, the generated information can be an inverted index, with the inverted index referencing, for each entity, the returned events.
In certain cases, some returned events may include differing identifying information. That is, a first event returned as a result of execution of a first step's queries may include a name associated with an entity. The system can therefore generate information specifying that the entity completed the first step. Similarly, a second event returned as a result of execution of a second step's queries may include an address associated with an entity instead of the name. The system may therefore generate information specifying that an entity associated with the address completed the second step. Since the respective queries of the first step and the second step may optionally be executed in parallel, a system may be unable to stich these two events together. However, the system can utilize a stitching scheme, for example as described in
Optionally, the system may execute each step's search queries on events being received in substantially real-time. For example, disparate computing systems may generate substantially real-time machine data recording, as an example, interactions with the computing systems. The system can receive this machine data, and as described above, produce events that incorporate the machine data. As these events are produced, the system can optionally execute each step's search queries to determine whether the events satisfy any of the steps.
Optionally, as an event being received in substantially real-time is determined to satisfy a step's search queries, the event may be modified to reflect that satisfaction. For example, metadata describing completion of the step may be generated and included in the event. As an example with respect to a step of adding an item to a cart, the metadata can indicate that the step associated with an adding an item to a cart was completed. For ease of reference, an inverted index associated with a user identified in the event can be updated to reference the event. In this way, the system can monitor and update the inverted index to determine the user's status with respect to completion of the user journey. That is, the events referenced in the inverted index can be modified to reflect respective steps that were completed. In this way, the system can access the inverted index for a particular user, and based on the references to events, rapidly identify the steps completed by the particular user.
Furthermore, an inverted index can be utilized to reference all events that indicate some, or all, user interactions (e.g., touchpoints) of each user, thereby creating a timeline of touchpoints. For example, the user interactions may be associated with steps of one or more user journeys. A user of the system may request, for example via a user interface as illustrated in
While relating the returned events, as described above, the system can determine statistical information associated with the steps. For example, based on timestamps included in the events, the system can determine an average (e.g., measure of central tendency) time that it takes to transition between the steps. As an example, the system can determine an average time for a user to add a product to a cart and then checkout. Alternatively, if the user removed the item from his/her cart, the system can determine an average time that the user has the product in his/her cart prior to removal. Similarly, the system can determine an average time that it takes users to complete all steps included in the user journey.
Optionally, the user journey may include differing versions, and each version may be monitored. For example, a designer may modify a web page that is presented to a first set of users, while retaining an original design of a web page that is presented to a second set of users. The designer may desire to understand whether the modified web page results in a faster average time for users to transition from adding a product to a cart, to checking out. To discriminate between the modified web page and the original web page, each event associated with the web page may be tagged as either the modified web page or the original web page. As an example, a computing system may provide machine data (e.g., log data specifying whether a user received the modified or original web page) to the system. The system can produce events from the received machine data, as described above with respect to
At block 2906, the system causes display of at least a portion of the results. Example user interfaces describing results of the relating are described below, and illustrated in
At block 3002, the system accesses information associated with a user journey. As illustrated in
The example user journey 3001 further indicates that a particular step includes one or more sub-steps. That is, the particular step is a nested user journey that defines sub-steps that are completed as part of the particular step. As illustrated, ‘Step N’ includes Sub-steps A-N, with each sub-step corresponding to respective search queries. Similar to a user journey, the sub-steps of a nested user journey can specify multiple data sources. That is, sub-step A may be defined as searching for machine data stored in a first data source, while sub-step N may be defined as searching for machine data stored in a second data source. In this way, a user creating a user journey can build off of prior created user journeys by incorporating them into the user journey as nested user journeys represented as single steps including sub-steps. A graphical representation of a user journey that includes a nested user journey is described below, and illustrated in
At block 3004, the system relates machine data returned as results of the queries generated based on the user journey. As similarly described above, with respect to
With respect to the nested user journey that includes sub-steps A-N, the system can relate machine data returned as a result of executing the search queries corresponding to the sub-steps. Optionally, if all of the sub-steps are indicated as being completed for a particular entity, the system can store information indicating completion of the nested user journey. For example, the system can update a database table generated for the particular entity to indicate completion of the nested user journey. Optionally, if sub-step N is determined to be completed for the particular entity, the system can update the database table to indicate completion of the nested user journey. That is, the system may optionally assume that completion of the final sub-step indicates completion of the nested user journey. As described above, with respect to
As described above with respect to
At block 3006, the system causes display of at least a portion of the results. As described above, with respect to
As illustrated in
Optionally, the user journey 3102 presented in user interface 3100 may include only steps that were traversed by entities included in the selected clusters 3104. For example, the presented steps may have been determined (e.g., by the data intake and query system 108) to be included in paths traversed by the entities included in the selected clusters 3104. If a user of the user interface 3100 selects one or more additional clusters (e.g., cluster 3), the user interface 3100 may update to present one or more additional steps traversed by entities in the additional clusters.
User interface 3200 further includes a number of policy violations 3210 (e.g., “18” violations in the example). A user (e.g., a user creating the user journey) can specify particular constraints or potential occurrences that are to be monitored, and if detected, are to be indicated as a policy violation. For example, a policy violation can represent a particular step taking longer than a set amount of time to complete, or a transition between two steps (e.g., completion of both steps) taking longer than a set amount of time. As another example, a policy violation can represent a user following a particular path (e.g., a user completing a first step and then completing a second step, which this order being disfavored or other thought to be disallowed).
As illustrated in
In the example of
User interface 3400 further indicates an ID 3410, which can represent a unique identifier associated with a user journey. As described above, different versions of a user journey can be created, and results from each version can be analyzed. Additionally, each user journey may be associated with a unique identifier such that it can be monitored by the data intake and query system 108. An entity 3412 is identified (e.g., user ‘Tula Otten’), along with a start step 3414 and end step 3416. The start step 3414 can represent an initial step satisfied by the entity 3412, and the end step 3416 can represent a final step completed by the entity. Additionally, an average time gap 3420 can be determined (e.g., an average time between completion of the steps), along with a longest gap.
As illustrated, touchpoints 3602 of a particular entity 3604 are presented. These touchpoints 3602 are based on a total number of user journeys associated with the particular entity 3602 (e.g., 145 user journeys). For example, the total number can include user journeys started (e.g., the particular entity 3604 satisfied at least one step), or include user journeys completed (e.g., the particular entity 3604 completed a final step, for example as described in
In the example of
Journey Instances and Models
As described herein, a computing system can generate machine data in response to touchpoints or interactions that it has with users, other computing systems, or other entities. The machine data may include information indicative of a particular user (or system) interacting with the computing system, along with further information describing the interaction. Furthermore, the interaction with the computing system can trigger that computing system to interact with another computing system, which may generate its own set of machine data in response.
The machine data generated by various computing systems can be ingested, for example by the data intake and query system 108, which can produce events based on the machine data. The events can be utilized to provide insight into the complex computing system environments. For example, the events can be accessibly maintained in data stores, and queries identifying a set of data and a manner of processing the data can be executed. In this way, the machine data can be investigated (e.g., poked) via differing queries, field definitions updated, and so on, to identify useful information related to the computing systems and users.
In some cases, multiple interactions with one or more computing systems, and the machine data generated in response thereto, can be related. For example, during a single session of a user, multiple events can be generated that each relate to the user or session. In some cases, these events can be generated by one computing system or by multiple similar or heterogeneous computing systems.
A combination of these related interactions and associated machine data (or events) may be referred to herein as a journey instance. Thus, a journey instance can include one or more events or step instances that relate to a particular user, session, entity, or the like. Further, the events or step instances of the journey instance can be generated by the same or different data sources or computing systems and have the same or heterogeneous data formats. Therefore, a journey instance can indicate occurrences of events across one or more disparate data sources or data systems. This includes occurrences of events across heterogeneous data sources and/or heterogeneous data systems.
A journey instance can provide useful information related to the functioning and operation of the one or more computing systems. For example, a journey instance can provide useful information regarding how a user, system, or other entity interacts with, e.g., “contacts” or “touches,” a computer system or set of computer systems. In addition, in some cases, a journey instance may help form a picture of a particular user's utilization of a user account or interaction with various computer systems associated with the user account. Furthermore, multiple journey instances (e.g., multiple groupings of related events or machine data), may help form a picture of the system's utilization rate, efficiency, or help identify the cause of an error. In addition, multiple journey instances can form a picture of common interactions (and a sequence of those actions) that a computing system has with users. For example, multiple journey instances may be used to determine the most common, relatively, interactions (and a sequence of those actions), or to determine interactions that happen infrequently. In various implementations, journey instances may include information regarding time spent interacting with various computer systems.
In some cases, multiple journey instances can be used to generate a journey model. For example, in some cases, the system 108 can combine multiple journey instances to generate the journey model. The journey model can include steps that correspond to all, or a subset, of the step instances (which may be ordered temporally or otherwise) found within any one of the journey instances and can indicate the various paths that the journey instances take through the steps. Thus, while a single journey instance can indicate a particular path through a particular group of steps (based on the step instances of the journey instance), which may not be all of the steps in a set of data, the journey model can, in some embodiments, indicate the various paths taken through any step found within the set of data. Further, the system 108 can generate multiple journey models depending on the journey instances being analyzed. In some cases, the system 108 can generate a first or primary journey model that corresponds to all of the journey instances generated from a set of data. The system 108 can generate additional journey models based on a user filtering or identifying a subset of the journey instances for review.
Moreover, where a journey instance can include a particular sequence of step instances related together based on a pivot ID, user, or entity, a journey model can include a particular number of steps (ordered or unordered) without relation to a particular pivot ID, user, or entity. In this way, a journey instance can be an instance, representation, or example of a journey model, and a step instance can be an instance, representation, or example of a step of the journey model.
In certain embodiments, a journey model can be generated by identifying one or more related steps or events with or without combining journey instances. In some cases, a user can identify certain events as steps within a journey model and/or identify certain values within events as indications of a step within a journey model. For example, a user can identify a field associated with events as a step identifier and identify each unique field value (or a selected subset of the field values) of the identified field as a step in a journey model. Similarly, if multiple fields are identified as step identifiers (across one or more data sources), the unique field values across the identified fields (or a selected subset of the field values) can be identified as steps in the journey model. In addition, in certain cases, a user may specify a preferred or expected order of the steps, which can be used to order the steps of the journey model. In some cases, one or more journey instances can be used to determine the order of steps of a journey model. Accordingly, in some embodiments, a journey model can include an ordered or unordered set of steps. Thus, the journey models can be ordered journey models or unordered journey models. The ordered journey models can include a set of steps ordered in a particular way. The unordered journey models can include a set of steps, but may not include a particular order for the steps.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the description above, the embodiments disclosed herein substantially increase the ability of computing systems, such as the data intake and query system, to process related data from one or more disparate data sources or computing systems that generate heterogeneous machine data. Specifically, the embodiments disclosed herein enable the data intake and query system to parse heterogeneous machine data across disparate computing systems to identify and group related events and to generate visualizations of the related machine data to facilitate understanding of the system topology and the interactions with and between disparate computing systems. The aforementioned features enable the system to reduce the computing resources used to correlate heterogeneous data across disparate computing systems. Thus, the presently disclosed embodiments represent an improvement in the functioning of such data intake and query systems. Moreover, the presently disclosed embodiments address technical problems inherent within computing systems; specifically, the limited capacity of computing systems to parse and correlate machine data from one or more disparate computing systems, as well as the limited ability of such systems to generate visualizations of correlated data in a manner that facilitates the understanding of the underlying computing topology and interactions between and with disparate computing systems. These technical problems are addressed by the various technical solutions described herein, including the utilization of particular data structures and computing resources to identify related data across one or more disparate computing systems and particular data structures to indicate the relationship of the data. Thus, the present application represents a substantial improvement on existing data intake and query systems and computing systems in general.
Non-limiting examples of visualizations of multiple subsets of events, multiple journey instances, clusters of journey instances, or one or more journey models are shown at least in
While identifying related data can be helpful, it can be difficult to do given the large amounts of data ingested by the data intake and query system. This can be further complicated when the related data is located across disparate data sources that store heterogeneous data. Thus, as will be discussed in more detail herein, various embodiments allow identification of related data, including in systems in which large amounts of data are ingested and/or when the related data is located across multiple or disparate data sources that may store heterogeneous data.
4.1 User Interface Overview
In the illustrated embodiment, the user interface 3700 includes interface control objects 3701A-3701C, a data source section 3702, a field identifier section 3704, and a field value preview section 3706. It will be understood that the interface 3700 can include fewer or more sections, display objects, features, etc.
The interface control objects 3701A-3701C, can be used to select various portions of the user interface 3704 for display. For example, the search interface control object 3701A can be used to select an interface that includes a search bar for entering a query. Similarly, the sessionization interface control object 3701C can be used to select an interface that includes sections to indicate a time period or time constraints for the query, or for the events that can satisfy the query, or other constraints or conditions regarding the query. In the illustrated embodiment, the field mapping interface control object 3701B is selected. Based on the selection of the field mapping interface control object 3701B, the interface 3700 displays the field identifier section 3704 and the field value preview section 3706.
The data source section 3702 can be used to select a data source for review. In some embodiments, the data source section 3702 can identify the data sources or data streams corresponding to the data that satisfies a query. For example, if the query indicates that the set of data to be processed corresponds to all data from a particular index, the data source section 3702 can identify each data source corresponding to the events in the particular index. In certain embodiments, the data source section 3702 can correspond to the data sources managed by the user or the data sources selected for review as part of generating the journey instances and/or journey models. In the illustrated, the data source Buttercup Games is selected. The data source section 3702 may allow the user to add additional data sources for review, or, in other implementations, the data source section 3702 may be populated automatically through various pre-determined settings, configurations and configuration files, etc.
4.1.1 Displaying Field Identifiers
Based on a query and or a selection of a particular data source, the data intake and query system 108 can identify and display in the field identifier section 3704 the field identifiers of events from the particular data source or that satisfy the query. In some cases, to identify the field identifiers to be displayed in the field identifier section 3704, the data intake and query system 108 can consult one or more configuration files. As described in greater detail above, the data intake and query system 108 can include one or more configuration files for each data source that provides data to the data intake and query system 108. The configuration files can include field identifiers for the data received by the data intake and query system 108 from the data source. Furthermore, the configuration files can include one or more field definitions or regex rules to extract field values corresponding to the field identifiers. For example, the data intake and query system 108 can include a configuration file that includes some or all of the field identifiers for data that the data intake and query system 108 has received from the data source Buttercup Games, as well as field definitions for extracting field values corresponding to the field identifiers found in data received from the data source Buttercup Games. In other implementations, the field identifiers may be obtained using other techniques, including user input, machine-learning inferences about field identifiers, or other field identification techniques described in this and the incorporated applications.
In the illustrated embodiment, the data intake and query system 108 has identified and displays in the field identifier section 3704 a number of field identifiers corresponding to the data source Buttercup Games. For example, the data intake and query system 108 has determined that data from the data source Buttercup Games includes the fields: “ident,” “items,” “JSESSIONID,” “method,” “msg,” “other,” “product,” “productid,” “q,” etc. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify the aforementioned fields by consulting a configuration file that corresponds to the data source Buttercup Games. In certain embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify the aforementioned fields based on user input, machine learning, extracting the fields from the set of data, using a lookup table or other system resource that indicates fields for a particular set of data, etc.
In some cases, the field identifiers shown in the field identifier section 3704 can correspond to field identifiers of the data that satisfies a query. As mentioned above, a query can be used to identify a set of data to be processed. In some cases, the identified set of data can correspond to data from one or more data sources. The data intake and query system 108 can analyze the set of data (e.g., a group of events) that satisfies the query to identify field identifiers to display in the field identifier section 3704. In some cases, the data intake and query system 108 can use one or more configuration files to identify the field identifiers corresponding to the data that satisfies the query. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the fields “ident,” “items,” “JSESSIONID,” “method,” “msg,” “other,” “product,” “productid,” “q,” can correspond to fields associated with data from multiple data sources.
Upon selection of a field identifier, the user interface 3700 can display, in the field value preview section 3706, one or more field values corresponding to the selected field identifier. In certain embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 determines that a field identifier has been selected based on user interaction with the field identifier, such as, but not limited to, hovering over, pointing to, clicking on, etc.
In the illustrated embodiment of
In some embodiments, the system 108 can consult one or more inverted indexes, as described in greater detail above with reference to at least
4.1.2 Selecting Pivot IDENTIFIERS and Step IDENTIFIERS
In addition to displaying field identifiers in the field identifier section 3704, the user interface 3700 can enable a user to identify one or more pivot IDs, one or more step IDs, one or more attributes, etc. This can be done in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, drop-down menus, text boxes, checks boxes, fields, etc. In the illustrated embodiments of
The selection status indicators 3710A-3710C, can be used to indicate whether and how many step IDs, pivot IDs, and attributes have been selected. In the illustrated embodiment of
As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the field identifiers displayed in the field identifier section 3704 can correspond to all of the field identifiers associated with the events in the set of data or can correspond to the field identifiers associated with the events from a one or more data sources associated with the set of data, such as the data source “Buttercup Games” as illustrated in
In embodiments, where field identifiers displayed in the field identifier section 3704 correspond to all of the field identifiers associated with the events in the set of data, the user interface 3700 can enable a user to identify one or more fields as one or more step identifiers, one or more pivot identifiers, or one or more attributes. In certain embodiments, a single step ID can be selected for all data sources associated with events that satisfy the query. For example, certain fields within each data source can be associated with a universal field, and that field can be identified as the step ID.
Using one or more pivot IDs and one or more step IDs, the data intake and query system 108 can parse the set of data, or events, to identify one or more journey instances and journey models, as well as identify particular steps within the journey instances and journey models. Further, the data intake and query system 108 can display visualizations corresponding to the journey instances and journey models.
4.2 Pivot IDENTIFIERS
In some embodiments, the data intake and query system uses one or more pivot IDs to identify related events from the set of data and/or to create journey instances. In some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify related events and/or generate journey instances based on field values associated with the pivot identifier. For example, the data intake and query system 108 can identify the events from a data source that include the same field value for the field associated with the pivot ID (also referred to as the pivot ID field). The system 108 can then associate the identified events as part of a journey instance. For example, with reference to
In some embodiments, the user interface 3700 can enable an identification of a subset of the field values in the field value preview section 3706 as field values for the pivot ID. In some cases, the system can ignore deselected field values and not use them to relate events, build sets of events, or generate journey instances or journey models. For example, the user interface 3700 can include checkboxes or some other indicator to enable a user to deselect “SD5SLFF8ADFF4961” (or any other field value). Based on the deselection, the system 108 can ignore, discard, or not use events with the field value “SD5SLFF8ADFF4961” to build sets of events, journey instances, journey models, etc.
In embodiments where events from multiple data sources are to be associated together as part of a single journey instance, the data intake and query system 108 can identify a relationship between a unique field value of a field in a first data source with a unique field value of a field in a second data source. Once the relationship between the two unique field values from different data sources is identified, the data intake and query system 108 can associate the events from the first data source that have the first unique field value with the events from the second data source with the second unique field value.
Accordingly, in certain embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify a journey instance for unique combinations of related field values across different data sources. As a non-limiting example, suppose events with the information identified in Table 1 are related.
Based on an identified relationship between the field values identified in Table 1, the data intake and query system 108 can generate a journey instance that includes all events from Buttercup Games that include the field value “SD5SL5FF8ADFF4961” for the field “JSESSIONID,” all events from Sales Email that include the field value “X12245YZ” for the field sess_ID, and all events from Order Process Flow that include the field value “6812-TUXKE1” for the field user_ID. In an implementation, the identified pivot ID or pivot IDs will be used to facilitate determination of relationships between field values. Specifically, in an implementation, identified pivot ID fields will be examined for field values that can be used to cross-correlate events across disparate data sets. It will be understood that the data intake and query system 108 can use a variety of techniques to generate journey instances. For example, in some embodiments, based on the Table 1 above, the data intake and query system can generate a journey instance that includes all events from any one of the data sources that includes any one of the identified field values.
By identifying intra-data source related events and inter-data source related events, the data intake and query system 108 can generate a journey instance that includes related events across one or more data sources. In some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 identifies intra-data source related events and inter-data source related events concurrently. In certain embodiments, the data intake and query system identifies intra-data source related events before or after inter-data source related events.
As a non-limiting example and with reference to table above, the data intake and query system 108 can first separately identify the events from the data source Buttercup Games with the field value “SD5SL5FF8ADFF4961” and the events from the data source Sales Email that include the field value “X12245YZ” before interrelating the events from the data source Buttercup Games and the data source Sales Email. Alternatively, the data intake and query system 108 can concurrently identify and relate events from the same data source and from multiple data sources.
4.2.1 Gluing Events
In some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify a relationship between two unique field values of events from different data sources based on a gluing event that includes both field values within the event. In some cases, when one computing system interacts with another computing system, one or both computing systems generate an event that includes an identifier from both computing systems. For example, if a first data source that includes a value of “1234” for a field “cust_ID” interacts with a second data source, the second data source may include an event with the value “1234,” as well as the value “ABC” for a “trackID” field. Further, the value “ABC” for the “trackID” field may be found in each event of the second data source that relate to the same user or session, and the value“1234” for the “cust_ID” field may be found in each events of the first data source that relate to the same user or session.
Accordingly, the system 108 can identify the event in the second data source that includes the value “ABC” for the “trackID” field, as well as the value “1234.” Based on the identification of this “gluing event,” the system 108 can determine that events with the value “1234” for the field “cust_ID” from the first data source are related to events with the value “ABC” for the field “trackID” from the second data source. Based on this relationship, the system 108 can generate a journey instance that includes events or steps across data sources, e.g., multiple or disparate data sources. Moreover, there may be multiple gluing events within a particular data source, which would allow data sources having no fields in common to be connected, provided that an intermediate data source (or intermediate data sources) including gluing events that linked to each of the data sources to be logically connected and searched. Further, the system 108 can use gluing events within a particular data source to identify primary and nested journey instances. For example, events in a primary journey instance can be associated based on a first pivot ID and events in a related nested journey instance can be identified based on a second pivot ID. Specifically, a first data source could share a gluing event with a second data source, and the second data source could share a gluing event with a third data source. The first data source and the third data source could then be linked and searched together, despite having no fields in common (or no fields in common capable of linking the two data sources).
In certain cases, to identify the gluing event, the system 108 can identify the field value for a pivot ID field in a first data source and then perform a search for that field value among the events from the second data source. In some embodiments, the search can be performed by analyzing the machine data of each event and/or by analyzing an inverted index or keyword index, as described herein. In embodiments where an inverted or keyword index is searched, in some cases, the system 108 can identify a field-value pair entry that includes the searched for value as the field value portion of the field-value pair or identify a token entry that includes the searched for value as a token or keyword. It will be understood that the system 108 can identify and/or search the inverted or keyword index in a variety of ways. For example, the system 108 can search for the searched for value in any location of an inverted or keyword index.
With reference to the example above, if the “cust_ID” field is identified as the pivot ID field for the first data source with a field value of “1234,” the system 108 can perform a search on the events from the second data source to identify any events with the value “1234” located within the data of the event. As mentioned, the search can include a review of the data (e.g., machine data) of each event from the second data source and/or a review of an inverted or keyword index that corresponds to the events from the second data source. With reference to searching an inverted or keyword index, the system 108 can identify an inverted or keyword index that includes information about the events from the second data source, and then identify a field-value pair entry or token entry in the inverted/keyword index that includes the value “1234.” For the field-value pair entry, the system 108 can review the value portion of a field-value pair for the value “1234.” For the keyword entry, the system 108 can review the keyword portion of the keyword entry for the value “1234.”
The identified event(s) can be used to link the value “1234” to the field value of the pivot ID field for the second data source. Once the two field values are linked, the system 108 can relate events with either field value as part of the same journey instance.
In some embodiments, when searching for a gluing event, the system 108 can limit the search to events from the second data source that include the pivot ID field for the second data source. In this way, the system 108 can exclude events from the second data source that will not have a field value that can be linked with the field value from the first data source. With reference to the example above, the system 108 can exclude from the search events from the second data source that will not have a field value that can be linked with the field value “1234” from the first data source.
In some cases, the system 108 can identify a field in one or more events from the second data source that includes the field value from the first data source. Such a field may be referred to as a linking field. For example, one or more events in the second data source may have the field value from a different computing system identified in a field “previousID.” Based on an identification of the linking field in the events from the second data source, the system 108 can tune its search for events in the second data source with a field value that matches the field value from the first data source to events from the second data source that include the identified linking field.
With continued reference to the above example, once the system 108 identifies the previousID field, it can narrow its search to those events that include a field “previousID.”. In this way, rather than searching across all events from the second data source for the field value “1234,” the system 108 can limit its search to a subset of the events from the second data source (e.g., those events in the second data source that include a field “previousID”). By targeting the search in this way, the system 108 can reduce the processing overhead used to identify a gluing event.
Further, if using an inverted or keyword index to identify gluing events, the system 108 can focus or narrow its search to field-value pair entries that include the identified linking field as the field portion of a field-value pair. With reference to the example, the system 108 can tailor its search in the inverted or keyword index to field-value pair entries that include previousID as the field portion of the field-value pair.
In some cases, the system 108 can suggest certain fields as potential linking fields to the user. For example, the system can suggest to a user that fields with certain names or frequency may be useful as linking fields. For example, fields like “previousID,” “prevID,” “oldSession,” etc. may be suggested as they may be linking fields. The system 108 can obtain the list of fields using a configuration file or inverted or keyword index, as described herein. Similarly, the system 108 can identify a particular event, such as an earliest-in-time event for a journey instance, or set of related events potential gluing event(s). The fields from the potential gluing events can be suggested to a user as potential linking fields. In other implementations, machine learning techniques, e.g., training on known data sources with similarities to the data sources that are the subject of the instant search, may be used to suggest potential gluing events.
4.3 Step Identifiers
In certain embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 uses the one or more step IDs to identify events that correspond to steps, order individual journey instances, and/or generate journey models. In some embodiments, each unique field value, or a subset thereof, for a field identified as the step ID (also referred to as a step ID field) corresponds to a step in a journey instance or journey model. Accordingly, based on the field value for the step ID field, the system 108 can determine the step to which a particular event belongs. For example, if the event includes the field value “purchase” for the step ID field “action,” the system 108 can determine that the event is a “purchase” step.
In some cases, the data intake and query system 108 can parse journey instances using the step ID to identify the individual steps within the journey instance. For example, with reference to
In some embodiments, the user interface 3700 can enable an identification of a subset of the field values in the field value preview section 3706 as field values for the step ID. In some cases, the system can ignore deselected field values and not use them to identify steps, categorize events, build subsets of events, or generate journey instances or journey models. For example, the user interface 3700 can include checkboxes or some other indicator to enable a user to deselect “addtocart” (or any other field value) Based on the deselection, the system 108 can ignore, discard, or not use events with the field value “addtocart” to build subsets of events journey instances, journey models, etc.
In some embodiments, multiple step IDs can be used to categorize events or build subsets of events. For example, as described herein, one step ID can be selected for one data source and a second step ID can be selected for another data source. Each step ID can identify a particular field in the data source as the step ID field.
Further, in some embodiments, the system can use a second step ID to categorize events in nested journey instances, which can be located in the same or a different data source as each other or as the events in the primary journey instance. In some cases, the nested journey instances can have a field value for a step ID field for a primary journey instance and a field value for a step ID field for the nested journey instance. In cases, where the events in the journey instance have a field value for the parent primary journey instance, the field values may be the same (indicating they are all part of the same step) or different.
Moreover, in certain embodiments, multiple events (or a subset of events) can correspond to a single step instance. For example, the system 108 can determine that to satisfy the “addtocart” step or step instance, three events need to occur. As such, the system 108 can identify the three events that make up the “addtocart” step. Based on an occurrence of the three events (ordered or unordered), the system 108 can determine that the “addtocart” step has occurred. In such embodiments, events that make up a step instance or subset of events can be categorized by one or more step IDs (e.g., can be categorized as part of the journey instance using one step ID and categorized between each other using a second step ID) and may or may not form part of a nested journey instance.
In some cases, the system 108 can exclude one or more events using the step ID. In some cases, if a particular event does not include a step ID (e.g., does not include the field identified by the step ID, does not include a field value corresponding to the field identified by the step ID, or includes an excluded field value for the step ID), the data intake and query system 108 can discard the particular event as not part of a journey instance. For example, a gluing event may include a field value for a pivot ID field, but may not include a field value for a step ID field. As such, it may be discarded from a journey instance (but still used by the system 108 to identify related events across different systems or related events from nested journey instances).
Furthermore, the step ID can be used to generate the journey model. For example, the field values (or a subset thereof) of the step ID field can be identified as steps within a journey model. In certain cases, some or all of the journey instances identified from the set of data can be used to form a journey model (e.g., by combining the journey instances or identifying journey model's step order from the journey instances). Thus, where a single journey instance may include a subset of the field values of the step ID field, a journey model can include all of the field values for the step ID field or all of the field values for the step ID field found within any single journey instance. Furthermore, the journey model can identify the different paths between its steps or the steps of the different journey instances.
In some embodiments, the data intake and query system can use a timestamp associated with each event or step to identify and order the steps of a journey instance. For example, based on a timestamp for a “view” step that is earlier in time than the timestamp for a “purchase” step, the system 108 can determine that the “view” step precedes the “purchase” step for the journey instance. If there are not intervening timestamps from related steps, the system 108 can determine that the “view” step immediately precedes the “purchase” step. In certain embodiments, such as when steps are taken in a particular order, the step ID can be used to identify the order. For example, if a “login” step is required before a “view” step, then the system 108 can determine the order of the steps based on their identification. In other implementations, the journey instance may be ordered using other techniques, such as analyzing the underlying data or metadata that makes up the steps of the journey instance.
In certain embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify and order a journey instance without the use of a step ID. For example, the data intake and query system 108 can identify related events using one or more pivot IDs, and can order the related events as journey instances based on timestamps associated with the identified related events.
Although reference in the above examples is made to parsing journey instances/models to identify steps within them, it will be understood that the data intake and query system 108 can parse events to identify steps using one or more step IDs and then interrelate the steps into journey instances using one or more pivot IDs, or concurrently identify journey instances and steps. For example, it will be understood that the one or more pivot IDs can be selected before, after, or concurrently with the one or more step IDs. In some embodiments, based on a selection of the one or more pivot IDs prior to one or more step IDs, the data intake and query system can identify journey instances from the events. Upon selection of one or more step of IDs, the data intake and query system 108 can then parse the journey instances to identify one or more steps within them. In certain embodiments, based on a selection of one or more step IDs prior to one or more pivot IDs, the data intake and query system 108 can identify events that correspond to steps. Upon selection of one or more pivot IDs, the data intake and query system can parse the events identified as steps to identify journey instances.
4.4 Attributes
The attributes can be used to track, categorize, or group events, subsets of events, journey instances, or journey models. In some cases, when the user selects a field as an attribute, the system 108 can track the field values for the selected field as the system generate the journey instances or models. For example, with reference to
Using the field values of the attribute field, the system 108 can filter, group, sort, visualize, or otherwise manipulate the journey instances or models. For example, the system 108 can build one or more journey instances or journey models using only events that include the field value “SMS,” or some other subset of field values, for the attribute field. Similarly, the system can build a journey model with journey instances that only include events with the field value “phone” for the attribute field or generate visualizations of journey instances that include an event with the field value “email” for the “method” field. As yet another example, the system can group or sort journey instances or journey models based on the field value for the attribute field. Thus, one or more fields identified as one or more attributes can enable the system to manipulate subsets of events, journey instances, or journey models in a variety of ways. In this way, the system 108 can facilitate the understanding of the machine data and the interactions within the computing system.
4.5 Journey Summarization Overview
Based on the selection of one or more pivot IDs and one or more step IDs and the processing of the events of the set of data, the data intake and query system 108 can identify and organize journey instances. As discussed herein, in some embodiments, the data intake and query system 108 can identify a path through a journey instance based on timestamps associated with the events of the journey instance. For example, the data intake and query system 108 can order the step instances of the journey instance in chronological order and show paths between the step instances. As mentioned, in some cases, a journey instance may include multiple step instances of the same step (e.g., system recording that a user is interacting with a computer system in the same way multiple times, or is iteratively going through a set or subset of interactions with a computer system) or pass through each step instance of the journey instance once.
In some embodiments, the journey instances can be used to form a journey model. For example, a group of journey instances can be combined to form the journey model. In some cases, some or all of the identified journey instances for a set of data can be combined to form the journey model. For example, the journey model may be based on only those journey instances that include a certain number of step instances or a particular order of step instances. In addition, the journey model can indicate the various pathways between its different steps as taken by the individual journey instances. Furthermore, the data intake and query system 108 can determine various analytics associated with the journey model, such as, but not limited to, common paths through the steps of the journey model, average time between each step, average length of time of a journey instance, most common steps in a journey, etc. The system 108 can display visualizations of the journey instances, journey models, and/or associated analytics to facilitate the understanding of relationships between events, data sources, and computing systems.
Using the pivot ID and step ID, the system 108 can more efficiently (e.g., using less computing resources) identify related events and an ordering of those events to generate or build journey instances or journey models. Using the journey instances and the journey model, the data intake and query system 108 can more efficiently identify relationships between events across one more heterogeneous data systems and facilitate the understanding of the complex interactions with the various data sources. Furthermore, based on the identification of the one or more pivot IDs in one or more step IDs, the data intake and query system can more efficiently process the events to identify related events and typical journeys through the related events.
The total journey instances section 3804 can indicate the total number of journey instances identified from the analyzed events or set of data. As discussed above, in some cases, the total number of journey instances can correspond to a total number of unique field values for a pivot ID field, or a total number of unique combinations of related field values for multiple pivot ID fields across one or more data sources.
The total events section 3806 can indicate the total number of events analyzed in order to form the journey instances. In some cases, all of the events can be included in a journey instance. However in certain cases some of the events may be excluded from a journey instance. For example, an event from a data source may not include a field identifier that corresponds to the selected pivot ID field(s) or step ID field(s), or may include a field value that was excluded from a pivot ID field or step ID field. Such an event may not be included in a journey instance.
The timing parameters sections 3808A, 3808B, can indicate certain parameters used to identify journey instances. For example, with reference to
The journey instance length distribution graphic 3810 can be used to graphically illustrate the quantity of journey instances of a particular length or having a particular number of step instances. In some cases, the journey instance length distribution graphic 3810 can group journey instances with the same number of step instances together and display the number of journey instances with that particular number of step instances. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the largest share of journey instances have one step instance and there are progressively fewer journey instances for each additional step instance (e.g., there are approximately 1,000 journey instances with two or three journey instances, approximately 550 journey instances with six step instances, etc.). It will be understood that additional graphics can be used to illustrate information about the journey instances, journey models, or events, as desired.
The step analytics section 3812 can identify the steps of one or more journey model or step instances of one or more journey instances as well as various analytics associated with each. In the illustrated embodiment, the step analytics section 3812 identifies a count, start percentage, and end percentage for each step. The count can correspond to the number of journey instances that include that a step instance that corresponds to the particular step and/or the number of instances of that step found within the events (e.g., one step may occur multiple times within a single journey instance). The start percentage and end percentage can indicate the percentage of journey instances that include a step instance that corresponds to that particular step as the first or last step (e.g., number of journey instances that include a step instance that corresponds to the step as the first or last step instance/the total number of journey instances), respectively, or the percentage of times that the particular step is the first or last step instance in a journey instance (e.g., the number of time that the step is found as the first or last step instance of a journey instance/the total number of instances of that step), respectively. It will be understood that fewer or more analytics can be displayed as part of the step analytics section 3812. For example, the steps analytics section 3812 can include information about common orders or relationships between steps, the number of instances of a particular order of steps, average time between steps, average time on a particular step, number of journey instances that started with a step instance that corresponds to that step, number of journey instances that ended with a step instance that corresponds to that step, number (and identification) of steps that occurred before or after that step for one or more journey instances, most/least common steps (and identification) that occurred before/after that step, number of journey instances that include a step instance that corresponds to that step more than once, number of journey instances that include a threshold number of step instances that correspond to that (or visited that step more or less than a particular number of times), number of journey instances that visited that include a step instance that corresponds to the step but does not include a step instance that corresponds to a particular different step, number of journey instances that include a step instance that corresponds to step directly before or after a particular step, any of the foregoing metrics applied to a number of journey instances or users that meet a particular attribute, etc.
4.5 Journey Visualizations
In the illustrated embodiments of
The summarization selection objects 3904A, 3904B, 3904C can be used to select a visualization for the summarization. Although only three summarization selection objects are shown, it will be understood that fewer or more summarization selection objects can be used to provide different visualizations for the summarization.
In certain embodiments, selection of the list summarization selection object 3904A can result in the display of one or more lists of events, journey instances, or journey models. In some embodiments, selection of the flow chart summarization selection object 3904B, can result in the display of one or more flow charts corresponding to one or more related events, journey instances, or journey models. Furthermore, in some cases, selection of the metrics summarization selection object 3904C can result in the display of a summarization that includes one or more metrics associated with the journey instances, events, or journey models generated by the data intake and query system 108, such as but not limited to a completion rate (number of percentage of journey instances or models that started with a particular step instance or step and ended with a particular step instance or step), time to completion (average time of the journey instances that were completed, average time for all journey instance, or a subset, etc.), or other analytics described herein. Accordingly, the summarization selection objects 3904A-3904C can be used to select various summarizations to aid a user in visualizing the journey instances or journey models generated from the events analyzed by the data intake and query system 108.
With reference to the illustrated embodiments of
4.6.1 Control Selection
The control selection objects 3906A-3906D can be used to select different controls for display in the summarization control area 3912. The displayed controls can be used to modify the summarization displayed in the display area 3902. Although only four control selection objects are shown, it will be understood that fewer or more control selection objects can be used to provide additional controls or to further modify the visualizations for the summarization.
In some embodiments, selection of the list steps control object 3906A can result in the summarization control area 3912 displaying the steps identified in one or more journey instances or one or more journey models. In certain embodiments, selection of the filter control object 3906B can result in the summarization control area 3912 displaying one or more controls that enable a user to set certain filters on the journey instances used to generate one or more journey models. In some cases, selection of the clustering control object 3906C can result in the summarization control area 3912 displaying one or more controls that enable a user to view journey models formed from similar journey instances, such as journey instances that include the same steps and/or the same order of steps, etc., or to view clusters of journey instances. In certain cases, selection of the settings control object 3906D can result in the summarization control area 3912 displaying one or more controls that enable a user to modify one or more settings of the journey instances, journey models, or data sources, whose events are used to generate the journey instances and models.
Using the controls displayed in the summarization control area 3912, a user can manipulate the view of the various journey instances generated by the data intake and query system 108. Further, based on the particular settings or controls selected from the summarization control area 3912, the data intake and query system 108 can generate and display one or more journey visualizationsbased on the journey instances that satisfy the conditions selected by the controls in the summarization control area 3912.
4.6.2 Journey Model Visualization
In the illustrated embodiment of
In the illustrated embodiment of
In the illustrated embodiment of
In addition to the steps of the journey instances, the journey visualizations 3908, 3910 can include start/end nodes. The start/end nodes may or may not correspond to one or more step instances of a journey instance or steps of a journey model. In certain embodiments, the system 108 can use the start/end nodes to indicate which steps or step instances are first or last in a journey model or journey instance, respectively. For example, arrows from the start node can indicate which step or step instances is the first step or step instance of a journey model or journey instances, respectively (e.g., node corresponding to a step or step instance pointed to from the start node). Similarly, arrows to the end node can indicate which step or step instance is the last step or step instance of a journey model or journey instances, respectively (e.g., nodes corresponding to a step or step instance from which an arrow that points to the end node originate).
In the illustrated embodiments of
In some embodiments, individual steps that appear in more journey instances relative to other steps may appear along a first arc and steps that appear in fewer journey instances relative to other steps may appear along a second arc. In some embodiments the first or second arc can be closer to a “center” of the semi-circle, such that distance from the center in the visualization may roughly correspond to frequency of appearance of that step in the various journey instances. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other, similar adaptations to the visualizations are also contemplated here. For example, more than three arcs can be used or different lines can be used. As another example, the system can use highlights, colorization, or patterns to indicate the frequency with which steps appear in step instances, etc.
With continued reference to the journey visualizations 3908, 3910, various relationships between the steps in the journey model or steps instances in the journey instances can be identified. For example, journey visualizations 3908, 3910 can include edges (e.g., lines, arrows, etc.) between different step nodes. The edges can indicate the traversal from one step to another step and/or identify which step preceded another step in a journey model (or step instances in a journey instance). In some embodiments, the system 108 can determine the traversal from one step or step instance to another step or step instance based on a timestamp associated with an event that corresponds to a step or step instance. For example, the system 108 can determine that a journey instance traversed from a purchase step instance to a view step instance based on a timestamp associated with an event that corresponds to the purchase step instance that immediately precedes (relative to any other steps in the journey instance) a timestamp associated with an event that corresponds to the view step instance. As shown in the illustrated embodiment of journey visualization 3908, in some instances a step node can be immediately preceded by the same type of step node, or steps may be repeatedly traversed as part of a journey model or instance.
In addition, characteristics of the edges of a journey visualization can indicate the frequency of a particular traversal or progression. For example, if a majority of journey instances indicate a traversal or progression from the addtocart step to the purchase step, and a minority of journey instances indicate a traversal from the addtocart step to the remove step, the journey visualization can indicate this relationship by making an arrow from the addtocart step node to the purchase step node more pronounced than an arrow from the addtocart step node to the remove step node. In some cases, the more pronounced edge can be thicker, darker, or have a different pattern (e.g., solid vs. dashed) or color than a less pronounced edge. As such, more pronounced edges between steps nodes can indicate a greater frequency of a particular traversal than less pronounced edges between step nodes.
It will be understood that the edges can be configured to convey information as desired. For example, less pronounced edges can indicate that a particular traversal is more common, etc. Accordingly, the journey visualization 3908 can communicate significant amounts of information to a user about the underlying events, data sources, and computing systems, including, but not limited to, the step instances of journey instances, steps of a journey model, order of steps/step instances, frequency of traversals between steps/step instances, starting steps/step instances and ending steps/step instances, etc. In other implementations, not shown here, numeric representations of information regarding the underlying events, e.g., the frequency of traversals between steps/step instances, may be shown within or in proximity to the various steps/step instances. In still other implementations, those numeric representations may be hidden until some interaction with the step node in the visualization, e.g., selection of that step node or zooming in on that step node.
It will be understood that the journey visualization can be displayed in a variety of ways. In some cases, more common steps can be shown as part of a first ring and less common steps can be shown as part of a second ring, such as an outer or inner ring relative to the first ring. In this way, the system 108 can communicate to a user a relationship between the various steps of the journey model. For example, the system 108 can identify steps that are found within a threshold number or percentage of journey instances as part of a first ring and identify steps that are not found within a threshold number or percentage of journey instances as part of a second ring. In some cases, the threshold number can vary depending on the total number of journey instances. In certain embodiments, the threshold number can depend on a percentile. For example, steps found in at least 30% of the journey instances can form part of a first ring and steps found in less than less than 30% of the journey instances can form part of a second ring. Additional rings can be used as desired.
In certain embodiments, sub journeys or nested journeys can be displayed as part of a second ring. For example, if the step changequantity initiates a number of sub-processes or steps (also referred to as dependent steps), then the dependent steps can be shown as a loop next to the changequantity step. In this way, the journey visualization 3908 can indicate to a user steps related to nested journeys, etc. In some cases, the journey visualization can hide or group dependent steps together until a user interacts with the parent step (e.g., step that lead to or relates to the nested journey). With reference to the example above, based on an interaction of the user with the changequantity step node, the journey visualization can display step nodes corresponding to the dependent steps related to the changequantity step.
In some embodiments, the user interface 3900 can enable a user to move the steps of the journey visualization 3908 in order to more readily view relationships. For example, it may be difficult to see which steps precede other steps, but by moving a step, the connections thereto from different steps may become more visible.
4.6.3 Clusters of Journey Instances
With reference to
The clusters can correspond to one or more journey instances that include a particular grouping of steps and/or a particular order of steps. For example, some journey instances may include traversal through multiple steps, whereas other journey instances may include traversal through only one step. The data intake and query system 108 can analyze the identified journey instances to determine how many or what percentage of journey instances are similar. The data intake and query system 108 can group or cluster the similar journey instances together and provide information about the clusters to a user.
In the illustrated embodiments of
In the illustrated embodiments of
The displayed information about the third cluster 4004C indicates that the journey instances in the third cluster make up 4% of the journey instances generated from the set of data. The displayed information 4004C further indicates the steps identified in the journey instances of the third cluster, as well as an order of the steps. In some embodiments, the order of steps indicates the order of steps for all journey instances of the third cluster. In certain embodiments, the order of steps indicates a common or most common order of step instances for journey instances of the third cluster. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the journey instances that form part of the third cluster include step instances of the same steps, as well as the same order of steps. In certain embodiments, the journey instances that form part of the third cluster include the step instances of the same steps, but not necessarily the same order of steps.
In some embodiments, to indicate the steps and/or order of steps for journey instances of a particular cluster, the summarization control area 3912 can include an indicator, such as a graphic, name, etc., for each step. In certain cases, each distinct step can be uniquely identified, such as by color, shading, pattern, word, etc. Thus, by looking at the summarization control area 3912, a user can identify which steps are found in the journey instances of a particular cluster, and in some cases, the order of those steps. In the illustrated embodiment of
Similarly, displayed information 4004B, 4004D, 4004E is included for the second, fourth, and fifth clusters, indicating a percentage of the journey instances that make the respective cluster and identifying at least the steps found in each cluster. It will be understood that the displayed information 4004A-4004E can include less or more information about the clusters. For example, the displayed information 4004A-4004E can indicate a total number of journey instances in each cluster, display information about each and every cluster, etc.
As mentioned, the user interface 3900 enables the user to select a cluster in order to display a journey model associated with the cluster. In the illustrated embodiment of
In the illustrated embodiment of
With reference to the illustrated embodiment, 9% of the journey instances include a “view” step instance, 5% of the journey instances include an “addtocart” step instance, 4% of the journey instances include “addtocart,” “purchase,” “purchase” step instances (in that order), and 3% include “addtocart,” “purchase,” step instances (in that order). Based on the selection of the display information 4004D, the system 108 generate and displays the journey visualization 4006 that shows the paths for the journey instances of the different clusters.
Further, as “addtocart” is the most frequent first step of the combined clusters (e.g., it makes up the first step in 12% of the journey instances or >50% of the selected journey instances), the system 108 includes an indication that “addtocart” is the most frequent first step using a solid line, whereas a dashed line to the “view” step node is used to indicate that the “view” step occurs less frequently as the first step. Similarly, the journey visualization 4006 uses different weights or patterns to indicate the frequency of transitions between the steps corresponding to the step nodes (other indications of frequency can be used as desired). As mentioned herein, in some cases, the journey visualization 4006 can include multiple arcs or paths and include more frequent steps on a first arc or path and less frequent steps on a second arc or path.
In some embodiments, the system 108 can use the clusters or selected clusters to generate one or more journey models (ordered or unordered). For example, the journey visualization 4006 can correspond to an unordered journey model that includes the steps “view,” “addtocart,” and “purchase.” Thus, the journey visualization can illustrate the various paths that journey instances take through the steps of the unordered journey model.
In certain embodiments, the journey visualization 4006 can illustrate multiple ordered journey models. For example, the system can generate one journey model based on the first cluster of journey instances (ordered journey model with the sequence “view”), a second journey model based on the second cluster of journey instances (ordered journey model with the sequence “addtocart”), a third journey model based on the third cluster of journey instances (ordered journey model with the sequence of steps “addtocart,” “purchase,” “purchase”), and a fourth journey model based on the fourth cluster of journey instances (ordered journey model with the sequence of steps “addtocart,” “purchase”). Thus, the journey visualization 4006 can illustrate the various paths of four journey models.
4.6.4 Filtering Journey Instances
In the illustrated embodiment of
The filter controls 4104A-4104C can be implemented as fields, drop-down menus, check boxes, etc., as desired. In the illustrated embodiment, the filter controls 4104A, 4104C are implemented as fields and the filter control 4104B is implemented as a drop-down menu.
The filter controls 4104A, 4104C can be used to identify one or more steps used to filter the journey instances or models. For example, in the illustrated embodiment of
The filter control 4104B can be used to identify the type of relationship between the selected steps that is to be used to filter the journey instances. In the illustrated embodiment of
4.6.5 List Display of Journey Instances
Similar to
However, differing from
In the illustrated embodiment, the listing includes a pivot ID column 4202, start time column 4204, end time column 4206, total duration column 4208, event count column 4210, and a sequence column 4212, as well as journey instance rows 4214A-4214H (generically referred to as journey instance row 4214) for each journey instance. It will be understood that the information displayed can include fewer, more, or different information, as desired. For example, the information displayed can include, but is not limited to, an identification of similar journey instances or clusters of journey instances, etc.
The pivot ID column 4202 can identify the field value of the pivot ID field used to identify the journey instances. With reference to
The start time field 4204, end time column 4206, and total duration 4208, can indicate the start time, end time, and total duration, respectively, of a particular journey instance. The event count column 4210 can indicate the total number of events or step instances in a journey instance or total number of unique events or step instances in a journey instance. As mentioned, in some cases, some steps may be repeated in a journey instance (e.g., multiple step instances corresponding to the same step). Thus, the total number of events or step instances in a journey instance may be different from the total number of unique events or steps in a journey instance.
The sequence column 4212 can indicate a particular sequence of a journey instance. For example, the sequence column 4212 can identify the first and last steps or step instances of a journey instance, as well as the sequence of steps between the first and last steps. In some embodiments, each step can be uniquely identified, such as by, using a different color or pattern. For example, with reference to the steps identified on
It will be understood that a variety of user interfaces can be used to display journey visualizations in a myriad of ways. For example, it will be understood that any one of the user interfaces described above with reference to
4.7 Journey Instance and Model Flows
At block 4302, the system executes a query. The query can include one more commands or filters to identify a set of data, which can include events. For example, the query can identify one or more time constraints or time ranges, one or more data sources, one or more fields or field values, etc. Based on the filters or commands in the query, the system can identify events that satisfy the filters or commands. For example, if the query identifies one or more data sources, the system can identify a set of data from the one or more data source and/or exclude data or events from data sources not identified by the query. Similarly, the system can, using the query, identify a set of data that satisfies one or more time constraints or ranges, or identify events with a particular field or field value. In some embodiments, the system can receive the query via one or more user interfaces. In certain embodiments, the query is in search processing language, or can be generated based on a selection of one or more icons in a user interface. In some embodiments the query can be based on a data stream identified by user. The data stream can include events from one or more data sources, etc.
As described herein, the events of the set of data can include raw machine data associated with a timestamp. In some embodiments, the events can be derived from or based on machine data and be associated with heterogeneous data source having heterogeneous formats. In certain embodiments, the events can include performance information for metrics information.
At block 4304, the system obtains or extracts fields. The fields can be obtained or extracted based on the set of data or the events in the set of data identified from the query. In some embodiments, the obtained fields can correspond to fields in the events or to fields associated with the events. For example, in some cases, the events themselves may not include fields or field identifiers. As a non-limiting example, the events may only include data and/or a timestamp or only include raw machine data associated with a timestamp. Accordingly, in some embodiments, fields related to the events can be obtained or extracted from one or more files associated with the events, such as one or more configuration files.
As described herein, the configuration files can relate to one or more data sources and identify field definitions for events associated with those data sources. For example, data coming from a particular source may have a particular format (and data from different source may have different heterogeneous formats), and field definitions in the configuration files, can identify how to extract field values for different fields from the data of a particular data source. Accordingly, based on an identification of the data sources associated with the set of data, the system can identify one or more configuration files. The system can then parse the configuration files to identify field definitions and field identifiers for fields associated with the set of data. In some cases, the system can identify the data sources associated with the set of data based on input received from a user or based on an analysis of the events and/or inverted or keyword indexes associated with the set of data.
Although described above with reference to using configuration files to obtain fields associated with the set of data, it will be understood that the system can identify the fields in a variety of ways. For example, the system can use a lookup table that relates events of a set of data to fields associated with the events or set of data. In some cases, the events or set of data can include the fields and the system can obtain the fields from the events or the set of data itself, etc.
At block 4306, the system populates a graphical user interface. As described herein, the system can generate and cause the display of a graphical user interface for a user. Some non-limiting examples of graphical user interfaces that can be generated are described herein with reference to
In certain embodiments, the data source section of the user interface can include identifiers for data source(s) and/or stream(s) associated with the set of data or events. In some cases, the system interface can enable a user to add new data sources or data streams. Further, in certain cases, upon selection of a particular data source or stream, the user interface can update the field identifier section to identify fields associated with data from the selected data source, etc.
In some embodiments, a field identifier section of the user interface can include field identifiers that correspond to the fields associated with the set of data. As described herein, the field identifiers can be associated with the data sources related to the set of data. Further, the user interface can include one or more interface objects to enable the selection of the field identifiers by a user. For example, the user interface can include checkboxes, drop down menus, fillable fields, etc.
In some embodiments, the preview field value section of the user interface can identify field values associated with one or more of the field identifier in the field identifier section. In some cases, the user interface can include field values corresponding to a field identifier selected from the field identifier section. In certain embodiments, the preview field value section can also include a count for each field value displayed therein indicating the number of events that include the respective field value.
The system can identify the field values for the preview field value section in a variety of ways. In some embodiments, the system can identify the field values based on an analysis of the set of data. For example, the system can parse events in the set of data to identify field values found therein. In some embodiments, the system can analyze a subset of the set of data or a subset of the events and identify the field values found in the subset of data or events. As the system analyzes the set of data or events, it can update the preview field value section with additional field values or updated counts, etc.
In certain embodiments the system can identify the field values based on one or more inverted or keyword indexes associated with the set of data or events. As discussed in greater detail herein, the system can include one or more inverted or keyword indexes that identify field-value pairs for data and/or events processed or stored by the system. Specifically, the inverted or keyword indexes can identify particular fields for the data and/or events, as well as field values in the data and/or events that correspond to the fields. The inverted or keyword indexes can also identify which events have a particular field-value pair.
Accordingly, using the identification of the events from the set of data, the system can analyze one or more inverted or keyword indexes that includes information about the events from the set of data to identify field values for the preview field value section. Specifically, the system can identify the inverted or keyword indexes that include field-value pair entries that identify the events of the set of data. For each event identified as part of a field-value pair entry, the system can ascertain the field value for the event from the field-value pair of the field-value pair entry. The identified field values can then be added to the preview field value section of the user interface.
Furthermore, in some cases, the system can use the inverted or keyword indexes to execute the query. As such, during the execution of the query, the system can identify the inverted or keyword indexes used to execute the query and refer back to them to identify the field values for the preview field value section.
The user interface can include additional graphical indicators as desired. In some cases, the user interface can indicate the number of fields identified as a pivot identifier, step identifier, attribute, etc. Further, the user interface can provide graphical indicators that enable a user to enter a query or one or more commands for the query, etc.
At block 4308, the system enables identification of one or more pivot identifiers and one or more step identifiers. For example, via the user interface, the system can enable a user to identify one or more pivot identifiers and/or one or more step identifiers used to process the set of data or events.
As described herein, the pivot identifiers can be used to relate different events or generate or build sets of events. In some cases, one or more events are related based on a pivot identifier to form at least part of a journey instance. In some cases, the system enables identification of one or more pivot identifiers based one or more drop down menus, check boxes, fillable fields, etc. For example, the user interface can enable a user to identify a particular field identifier (and its corresponding field) from the field identifier section as a pivot identifier.
Further, in certain embodiments the system suggests certain fields as possible field identifiers. In some cases, the system suggests fields based on a name or identifier for that field, the frequency with which it appears in the set of data, or the field values of a field. For example, the system can identify the fields associated with the set of data and identified names or field identifiers that have been used in the past as a pivot identifier.
In certain cases, the system can determine that fields like “sessionID,” “userID,” or others that appear to indicate an identifier are frequently used as pivot identifiers. As such, the system can use fuzzy logic to suggest fields with a name or identifier that is the same as or similar to fields used for pivot identifiers in the past, fields identified in the system as ID fields, or fields identified in the system as useful fields for identifying related events.
In some cases, the system can identify the top 10, 50, or 100, etc. field identifiers frequently used as a pivot identifier. The system can then use fuzzy logic to compare the identified top field identifiers with the field identifiers associated with the set of data. Field identifiers associated with the set of data that are similar to or match the top field identifiers can be suggested for use as a pivot identifier. In some cases, the system can make suggestions based on the user. For example, the system can identify the top 10, 50, or 100, etc. field identifiers typically selected by a particular user and suggest a field identifier associated with the set of data based on the identified top field identifiers of the user as described above.
In some embodiments, the system can suggest a field identifier based on its frequency within the set of data. For example, the system can identify the fields that are found in the most, least, or threshold number events of the set of data and suggest those fields as pivot identifiers.
In certain embodiments, the system can suggest field identifiers based on the field values of the field. In some cases, if the system determines that the number of unique field values for a particular field satisfies a threshold number, then the system can recommend the field as a pivot identifier. For example, if the system determines that from a set of 1,000 events there are one hundred unique field values, then the system may recommend the field as a pivot ID. However, if the system determines that there are 950 unique field values for the set of 1,000 events, the system may determine not to suggest the field as a pivot identifier. However, it will be understood that the threshold for the number of unique field values or whether to recommend fields based on the fields being greater than or less then the threshold can be adjusted as desired.
In some embodiments, the system can determine the threshold based on a percentage of the events in the set of data. For example, the system can determine that for every 5, 10, or 20 events there should be a unique field value (e.g., the number of unique field values divided by the total number of events should be 5%, 10%, or 20%). Fields that have a quantity of unique field values that are closer to the threshold or target can be given a higher ranking and be more likely to be suggested by the system as potential pivot identifiers than fields that have a quantity of unique field values that are farther away from the threshold or target.
Similarly, if the system determines that the number of events that have the same field value satisfies a threshold, then the system can recommend the field as a pivot identifier. For example, if one field value is found in 50% of the events, then the system may rate the field lower than for a set of events that has a field value in <1%, 2%, or 5% of the events. Accordingly, the system can use information about the set of data itself and/or the user to suggest pivot identifiers.
In certain embodiments, the system can rank fields based on one or more criteria to determine which fields to suggest as pivot identifiers. As described above, the criteria can be based on any one or any combination of field name or identifier, field frequency in the set of data, number of unique field values, etc.
In certain embodiments, the step identifiers can be used to categorize the different events or group sets of events into subsets of events. For example, the system can use the step identifiers to group events into a particular step or step instance. In some cases, events similarly categorized based on a step identifier can correspond to the same step of a journey model, but may relate to different journey instances, e.g., because one or more field values identified as pivot IDs are not the same, or because other fields, field values, or other data is not the same. In some cases, the system enables identification of one or more step identifiers based one or more drop down menus, check boxes, fillable fields, etc. For example, the user interface can enable a user to identify a particular field identifier (and its corresponding field) from the field identifier section as a step identifier.
In some embodiments, the system can use all of the unique field values of the field that corresponds to the step identifier (or step ID field) as different steps. In certain embodiments, the system can enable a user to deselect one or more field values as steps. In such embodiments, events that include a deselected field value may not be included as part of journey models or instances even though they include a field value for the step ID field. In this way a user can identify the field values that are relevant for grouping and categorizing the events.
Similar to the pivot identifiers, the system can suggest one or more step identifiers. As discussed above, the system can suggest fields as step identifiers based on field identifiers, number of unique field values, and/or number of events that have a particular field value. However, in some embodiments, the thresholds for suggesting fields as step identifiers may be different than for suggesting fields as pivot identifiers. In some cases, the threshold for number of unique field values may be higher than the threshold for the number of unique field values for a pivot ID field (or vice versa). Similarly, in certain cases, the threshold for the number of number of events with the same field value for a step ID may be lower than the threshold for the number of number of events with the same field value for a pivot ID (or vice versa). For example, it may be desirable to have fewer unique steps compared to the number of unique journey instances (or vice versa).
Further, in some embodiments, the system can compare the number of unique field values for the step ID field with the number of unique field values for the pivot ID field and make suggestions accordingly. For example, if the number of unique field values for the step ID field is greater than the number of unique values for the pivot ID field (or vice versa), the system can suggest that either the pivot ID or step ID be changed. It will be understood that the system can use a variety of techniques to suggest fields as pivot IDs, step IDs, and the like.
The system can use fewer, more, or different blocks as part of routine 4300, or perform the blocks of routine 4300 in a different order or concurrently. For example, in some embodiments, the system may not generate a graphical user interface. In such embodiments, a user can communicate selections of step identifier(s) or pivot identifier(s) via email, command line, etc. Further, any of the steps described herein with reference to routine 4300 can be combined with one or more steps described herein with reference to routines 4400 and 4500.
In certain embodiments, the user interface can enable a user to select fields for attributes, enter a query, enter filters for the query, etc. In some embodiments, based on a selection of a field as an attribute, the system can track the field values for the identified field in each event and display commands for the user to filter, sort, or process journey instances based on the attribute field.
In some embodiments, the system can use the identified pivot identifier(s) and step identifier(s) to generate or build sets or subsets of events, journey instances, clusters of journey instances, and/or journey models. For example, the system can use the pivot identifiers to identify events that are part of a particular journey instance and use the step identifier(s) to group the events into subsets of events or as step instances of the journey instance. As another example, the system can use the step identifiers to identify steps of an unordered journey model, and use the pivot identifiers to identify an ordered journey model.
Furthermore, in certain embodiments, the system can generate visualizations based on the identified pivot identifier(s) and step identifier(s). For example, the system can build sets of events, subsets of events, journey models, and/or journey instances, and display visualizations of them, as described in greater detail herein. Further, the visualizations can include indications of an ordering of, transitions between, or progression through, step instances of one or more journey instances or steps of a journey model.
At block 4402, the system identifies a set of data, which can include events. As described herein the system can identify the set of data based on the execution of a query as described in greater detail above at least with reference to block 4302 of
At block 4404, the system receives one or more pivot identifiers. As described herein, in some embodiments, the system can receive one or more pivot identifiers via a user interface. However, it will be understood that the system can receive the pivot identifier in a variety of ways. The pivot identifier(s) can be used to relate, identify, or otherwise associate sets of events. As described herein, in some cases, the pivot identifier can correspond to a field associated with the set of data or events of the set of data. The system can use the field, or pivot ID field, to identify the sets of events. For example, the system can relate events with the same field value for the pivot ID field as a set of events.
In some embodiments, the system can identify a set of events based on multiple pivot identifiers. In some cases, the set of events identified based on multiple pivot identifiers can correspond to events from multiple data sources. For example, the system can identify a first group of events from a first data source that have a first field value for a first pivot ID field and the second group of events from second data source that have a second field value for the second pivot ID field. Based on one or more gluing events that include the first field value and the second field value, the system can identify a relationship between the first field value and the second field value. Based on the identified relationship between the first field value and the second field value, the system can relate the first group of events and the second group of events as a set of events. In some embodiments, multiple gluing events in a particular data source can be used to relate events that do not have a gluing event in common or are not otherwise relatable. For example, a first gluing event can be used to relate events in Group A and Group B and a second gluing event can be used to relate events in Group B and Group C. As such, events in Group A and Group C can be related without a gluing event that links them directly. The different groups of events may correspond to events from the same, similar, or heterogeneous data sources.
In some cases, the one or more gluing events can be found in the first group of events or the second group of events. Further, in some instances, a gluing event may have the first field value in a location corresponding to the first field, and may have the second field value in a location that does not correspond to the second field (or may not have the second field). Accordingly, in some instances, the system can perform a search on the event or consult a keyword entry of an inverted or keyword index to identify the second field value in the gluing event.
In certain cases, multiple pivot identifiers can be used to identify a set of events and a nested set of events that are interrelated. For example, the system can identify a first group of events that have a first field value for a first pivot ID field and a second group of events that have a second field value for a second pivot ID field. In some cases, events in the first group may also have the second field value for the second pivot ID field and/or events in the second group may also have the first field value for the first pivot ID field. Further, the events in the first group and the events in the second group may be associated with the same data source.
In some cases, the events of the second group may occur as a result of the occurrence of an event in the first group. For example the occurrence of a particular event may spawn one or more sub processes that results in one or more events (also referred to as dependent events), which can be identified using a separate pivot ID. The dependent events may or may not include the same field value for the first pivot ID field, and may also share the same field value for a different pivot ID field.
Based on one or more gluing events that include the first field value and the second field value, the system can identify relationship between the first field value and second field value. Based on the identified relationship, the system can relate the first group of events with the second group of events as a set of events. Further, based on an identification of a relationship between the dependent events and the parent event, the system can determine that the second group of events corresponds to a nested set of events or a nested journey instance.
At block 4406, the system receives one or more step identifiers. As described herein, in some embodiments, the system can receive one or more step identifiers via a user interface. However, it will be understood that the system can receive the step identifier in a variety of ways.
The step identifier(s) can be used to categorize events as one or more steps or step instances and/or group the sets of events as one or more subsets of events. As described herein, in some cases, the step identifier can correspond to a field associated with the set of data or events. The system can use the field to categorize the events and/or group events in a set of events into one or more subsets of events. In some cases, the system can use the step identifier to identify a journey model or to identify steps of a journey model. In certain embodiments, the identified steps can form an unordered journey model. Further, in some cases, based on user input or based on one or more journey instances, the system can build an ordered journey model from the unordered journey model.
As described herein, in some cases, the field values of the step ID field can be used to identify events as steps or step instances. In some embodiments, each unique field value of a step ID field can be identified as a separate step. In certain embodiments, a subset of the field values of the step ID field can be identified as separate steps. For example, a step ID field may have twenty unique field values, but the system may use fewer than the twenty unique field values to identify different steps or step instances. As described herein, in some cases, the system can exclude certain field values of the step ID field for use as steps based on input received from a user or based on an analysis of the field values of the step ID field.
As described herein, in certain embodiments, the system can use multiple step identifiers to categorize events and/or group events in a set of events into subsets of events. For example, as described above with reference to pivot identifiers, multiple step identifiers can be used to group sets of events that come from multiple data sources into subsets of events. For example, in some cases, the system can receive a step identifier for each data source. In this way, the system can identify a field in events from each data source to categorize the events from the data source. In certain embodiments, one step identifier can be used for multiple data sources. For example, fields from different data sources used to categorize the events into steps can have the same or a similar field identifier. In such embodiments, the step identifier can identify the common field between the different data sources as the step ID field.
Further, similar to the pivot identifiers, the system can receive multiple step identifiers for a particular data source. In such embodiments, the system can use the step identifiers to identify events that are part of a nested set of events or nested journey instance. For example, events that are part of a nested set of events can include a different field that can be used to categorize them apart from the field used to categorize other steps that are part of the set of events. Accordingly, using a first step ID field to categorize events in the set of events and a second step ID field to categorize events in the nested set of events, the system can identify the events in a journey instance, as well as the events in a nested journey instance.
In some cases, the system can group multiple events together as part of the same step. Thus, a subset of the events of a journey instance can include one or more events. For example, if the system determines that multiple events are related to a “purchase” action, the system can group the events together as part of a “purchase” step. In some cases, the system can determine that multiple events are part of the same step based on the one or more pivot ID fields, step ID fields, or timestamps. For example, the multiple events related to the “purchase” step may all have the “purchase” as the field value for the step ID field, may all have a field value for the pivot ID field that matches the other events in the journey instance, and/or may all have iterative timestamps (e.g., no other events of the set of events fall between the events related to the “purchase” action). However, the events grouped together as part of the “purchase” step may have a field value for a second pivot ID field that matches each other. In this way, the system can identify the events as part of the journey instance and also group them together as part of a subset of steps or a single step.
Further, in some cases, the system can determine that a particular step has not occurred until a certain events are observed. With reference to the example above, the system can determine that a “purchase” action is not complete until it receives three events with particular step IDs. Accordingly, the system can group the three events as a subset of events or a step instance.
At block 4408, the system identifies or builds a journey. The journey can correspond to one or more journey instances and/or one or more journey models. As described herein, the system can identify journey instances and journey models in a variety of ways.
In some cases, to identify a journey instance, the system identifies a set of events based on the one or more pivot identifiers, groups the set of events into one or more subsets of events based on the one or more step identifiers, and orders the subset of events. In certain cases, the system identifies step instances or subsets of events from a set of data based on the one or more step identifiers, and then relates the step instances or subset of events based on the one or more pivot identifiers. Accordingly, in certain embodiments, the pivot identifier(s) are used to identify related events or set of events and the step identifier(s) are used to categorize the related events into step instances or subsets of events.
In addition, as described herein the subset of events or step instances can be ordered based on a timestamp or other information associated with the events. The system can order the events before, after, or concurrently with identifying the related events or sets of data and identifying the step instances or subsets of events.
In some cases, the set of events can be based on the step identifier. For example, if an event includes a field value for a pivot ID field, but does not include a step ID field, field value for a step ID field, or includes an excluded field value for the step ID field, the system can exclude the event from the set of events.
As described herein, in some embodiments, events in a journey instance include a common field value or have the same field value for a field associated with or identified by a pivot identifier. Furthermore, when multiple journey instances are generated, each journey instance can correspond to a unique field value for the pivot ID field.
In certain embodiments, such as when multiple pivot identifiers are used, events in a journey instance can include at least one field value from a group of related field values. Each of the field values in the group of related field values can be associated with a different pivot identifier. In some cases, the system can use one or more gluing events to identify and form the group of related field values.
As described herein, in some instances, multiple events may correspond to a subset of events or a single step instance. For example, multiple events may be generated for a single action, such as a purchase. The system can identify the events generated for the single action and group them together as a subset of events or a step instance. In some embodiments, these related events may correspond to a nested journey instance.
As mentioned above, the system can categorize an event as any one of a plurality of steps or a step instance. In some cases, the system can determine the number of steps for a set of data based on a field associated with a step identifier. In some cases, each unique field value for the field associated with the step identifier can be identified as a step. In certain cases, as described herein, a subset of the unique field values of the step ID field can be identified as a step. Based on the field value for the step ID field in the event, the system can identify an event or subset of events as a particular step instance.
As discussed, as part of generating a journey instance, the system can identify an ordering of the subset of events or step instances. In some cases, the ordering can be based on a timestamp associated with each event or step instance. For example, the step instance with the earliest-in-time timestamp can be identified as the first step instance in the journey instance and the step instance with the latest-in-time time stamp can be identified as the last step instance in the journey instance, and so on. The ordered related events, ordered subset of events, or ordered steps instances can correspond to a journey instance.
Similarly, the system can identify a progression through the set of events, subset of events, or step instances based on the time stamp. For example, if a timestamp of Event1 is :33 and the timestamp of a Event2 is :56, and there are no events in the set of events with a timestamp between :33 and :56, the system can determine that the journey instance progressed from Event1 to Event2. However, if the timestamp of Event10 is :45 (and no other events between :33 and :56), then the system can determine that the journey instance progressed from Event1 to Event10 to Event2.
In addition to journey instances, the system can also generate one or more journey models. The journey models can include ordered journey models or unordered journey models. An ordered journey model can correspond to a certain number of steps in a particular order, and an unordered journey model can correspond to a certain number of steps without any particular order. Accordingly, in some embodiments a journey instance can be a representation or an example of an ordered or unordered journey model.
In some embodiments, the journey models can be built or generated based one or more journey instances or one or more ordered subsets of events. For example, one or more journey instances that include the same steps and the same order of steps can be combined to form an ordered journey model. Similarly journey instances that include the same steps but in different orders can be combined to form an unordered journey model. Furthermore, in some cases multiple journey instances with different steps and different orders of steps can be combined to form a journey model. For example, the system can identify steps for a journey model based on the different step instances used to form the journey model. The system can also identify journey instances that follow different paths through the steps of the journey model. The journey model generated from the journey instances can show all of the different paths through the identified steps of the journey model. In such embodiments, the various journey instances may have different steps and different orders of those steps, however, each journey instance can traverse through at least one step of the journey model.
In certain embodiments, a journey model can be built based on field values of one or more step ID fields. For example, the system can identify one or more field values of a step ID field as steps of an unordered journey model. In some cases, the system can generate an ordered journey model from the unordered model based on one or more timestamps, one or more pivot identifiers, and/or one or more journey instances or sets of events.
The system can use fewer, more, or different blocks as part of routine 4400, or perform the blocks of routine 4400 in a different order or concurrently. For example, the routine 4400 can include a block between blocks 4404 and 4406 for generating or building a set of events and/or include a block between blocks 4406 and 4408 for grouping the set of events into one or more subset of events. Further, any of the steps described herein with reference to routine 4400 can be combined with one or more steps described herein with reference to routines 4300 and 4500.
In some embodiments, as part of routine 4400, the system can identify clusters of journey instances. Each cluster of journey instances can correspond to journey instances that follow the same path through the same steps. In some embodiments, a cluster of journey instances can correspond to an ordered journey model.
In certain embodiments, the system can generate one or more journeys without the one or more step identifiers. For example, based on the one or more pivot identifiers the system can identify related events, which can correspond to a journey instance. Further, in such embodiments, the system can order the events in the journey instance based on a timestamp associated with each event of the journey instance.
In some embodiments, the system can generate one or more journeys without the one or more pivot identifiers. For example, based on the one or more step identifiers the system can categorize the events of the set of data, which can correspond to a journey model. Accordingly, based on the one or more pivot identifiers, the system can identify the steps of a journey model.
In certain embodiments, as part of routine 4400, the system can generate and display visualizations of the journeys. As mentioned, the journeys can correspond to journey instances or journey models. Accordingly, the system can generate and display visualizations of one or more journey instances and/or one or more journey models. Furthermore, the visualizations can identify progressions through the set of events, subset of events, journey instances, or journey models.
At block 4502, the system accesses journey instances. As described herein, in some embodiments, each journey instance can include one or more step instances, and each step instance can correspond to one or more events of a set of data. The step instances of the journey instances or subsets of events can be ordered. Further, the journey instances can be generated based on one or more pivot identifiers, one or more step identifiers, and/or one or more timestamps. The journey instances can be stored in memory or on disk. In some embodiments, to access the journey instances, the system can access a file that identifies particular events of a journey instance and an order of those particular events. In certain embodiments, this information can be stored in a relational database. In some embodiments, the file can include an identifier for each of the particular events. In this way, the system can reduce the memory required to store the journey instances.
Further, in certain embodiments, the events of a particular journey instance can correspond to events from one or more data sources. The data sources can be heterogeneous data sources that have heterogeneous data formats. In some embodiments, a journey instance can include a nested journey instance. For example, as described herein, the occurrence of one event can spawn one or more sub processes that generate one or more events. The dependent events can be related to each other as part of a nested journey instance and can be related to a larger or primary journey instance.
At block 4504, the system analyzes the plurality of journey instances to generate a summary. In some embodiments, the summary can correspond to a single journey instance or multiple journey instances. In certain embodiments, the summary can correspond to one or more journey models or one or more clusters of journey instances.
The summary can include various analytics about the journey instances or journey models. For example, as described herein, the summary can indicate the number of journey instances built from a set of data, the number of events in the set of data, the identity of steps in a journey model, a sequence of the step instances in the journey instances, a sequence of steps in a cluster of journey instances or ordered journey model, a percentage of journey instances that represent or are an example of different ordered or unordered journey models, an indication of the frequency of steps across the different journey instances, an indication of the placement of the different steps across the different journey instances (e.g., first, last, etc.), time limits of the set of data, a distribution of the lengths of the journey instances or number of events in the different journey instances, average time of the journey instances, average time on each step of the journey instances, etc.
At block 4506, the system generates a visualization. In some embodiments, the visualization can correspond to one or more journey instances or one or more journey models. In some embodiments, the visualization can correspond to multiple journey instances, or a cluster of journey instances, that include the same path through the same steps or an ordered journey model. In such cases, the journey instances can include step instances that correspond to the same steps of a journey model and that have the same order as an ordered journey model.
In certain embodiments, the visualization can correspond to multiple journey instances that have different paths through the same or different steps. For example, the visualization can include all journey instances for a set of data or all different paths between steps of a journey model based on the set of data. In some cases, one group of the journey instances may include one set of steps from the journey model and another group may include different steps, non-overlapping from the journey model.
In some embodiments, the visualization can include a numerical or non-numerical indication of the number or percentage of journey instances that include a particular order of step instances or include a particular passage between two or more step instances, or a particular passage to or from a particular step or step instance. In some cases, the visualization can include lines or arrows between different steps that are traversed by a journey instance. In some cases the errors or lines can be sized differently depending on the frequency or the number of journey instances that include a particular passage between two steps. For example, the visualization can include a larger or thicker arrow or line indicating a larger percentage or number of journey instances including a particular traversal compared to a smaller or thinner line or arrow. In some cases, the visualization can use different colors to indicate the frequency or number of journey instances that include a particular traversal. In this way, the visualization can facilitate the understanding of the topology of the system and/or the interactions between different data sources.
In some embodiments, the system can include information about each journey instance. For example, the visualization can identify field values for the different journey instances, or the field used as the pivot identifier. In certain cases, the visualization can identify a duration for each journey instance, a number of events in a particular journey instance, and/or a sequence of events for a particular journey instance.
In certain embodiments, the visualization can include a summary of the journey instances identified from a set of data, the number of events identified from the set of data, the number of unique steps in the set of data, timing requirements used to generate the journey instances or process the set of data. In some embodiments the visualization can include one or more graphics indicating a distribution of the number of events in the journey instances.
In certain embodiments, a user interface can include various controls to modify the visualization. For example, the controls can enable a user to filter journey instances based on a particular step, a particular order or sequence of steps, particular transition between steps, a particular first step, a particular last step, etc. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the user interface can include various controls to view visualizations of clusters of journey instances, journey models, or journey instances with the same steps and same sequence of steps, etc. In some cases, the user interface can include controls to modify the visualization to identify one or more journey models derived from or built based on different journey instances.
In some embodiments, the visualization can include multiple nodes along an arc, such as a circle, semi-circle, or half-moon. Some or all of the nodes can correspond to a step or step instance. In some embodiments, the nodes are ordered based on timestamps associated with the corresponding step instance. For example, nodes corresponding to steps that are earliest in time for a journey instance or model can be closer to an origin point (e.g., top, bottom, side, etc.) and nodes later in time can be progressively closer to an end point and can be located along an arc length between the origin point and end point. In certain embodiments, the steps are ordered based on frequency of transitions. For example, the first node can correspond to the node that is most frequently the first node in a journey, the second node can correspond to the step that is most frequently traversed to from the first node, and so forth. In addition, the visualization can include indications that identify transitions between the different nodes of the arc. In some implementations, the visualization may be manipulated by the user, to allow the user to move, position, zoom, and/or focus on elements of the visualization, e.g., nodes and paths. In some implementations, the visualization may include numeric representations of data underlying the visualization, e.g., corresponding to journey models, journey instances, or data underlying the respective journey instances, individually or in aggregate.
In some cases, the visualization can include multiple arcs. The first arc can correspond to steps that occur at least a threshold number of times. The second arc can correspond to steps that occur less than a threshold number of times.
Further, in some embodiments, the first arc can correspond to steps of a journey instance, and the second arc can correspond to steps of a nested journey instance. In some cases, the nodes of the second arc can be positioned proximate the node that corresponds to the step of the journey instance that is related to the nested journey instance. For example, if the nodes for the nested journey correspond to dependent events, then they can be positioned proximate the node that caused them to occur.
The system can use fewer, more, or different blocks as part of routine 4500, or perform the blocks of routine 4500 in a different order or concurrently. Further, any of the steps described herein with reference to routine 4500 can be combined with one or more steps described herein with reference to routines 4300 and 4400. For example, in some embodiments, the routine 4500 can include receiving one or more pivot identifiers and/or one or more step identifiers, generating the journey instances and models, etc.
4.8 Additional Journey Visualizations
In the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization 4600 indicates a relationship between data sources and the events/steps/step instances of one or more journey instances or one or more journey models. For example, the system 108 can group the events/steps/step instances based on their data source and display a traversal through the steps across the different data sources. In the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization 4600 includes data source indicators 4602, 4604, 4606 indicative of the data sources or streams associated with one or more journey instances or journey models, nodes A, B, C, D, E indicative of the events, steps, or step instances associated with the one or more journey instances or journey models, as well as a progression between the events, steps, or step instances of the one or more journey instances or journey models.
As a non-limiting example, suppose journey visualization 4600 represents a particular journey instance, the nodes A, B, C, D, E represent the steps instance of the journey instance, and the data source indicators 4602, 4604, 4606 indicate the data sources related to the journey instance. With reference to the example, the journey visualization 4600 indicates that the journey instance includes five step instances A, B, C, D, E across three data sources 4602, 4604, 4606. Further, the journey visualization 4600 indicates the progression through the step instances based on their placement, with step instances that occurred earlier in time being located higher in the journey visualization than step instances that occurred later in time. In the illustrated embodiment, the journey instance began with the step instance A, and progressed through step instances B, C, and D, and ended with step instance E. It will be understood that the step instances can be placed in any configuration to indicate an order (e.g., bottom-top, left-right, right-left, font size, color, pattern, etc.)
In addition, the journey visualization 4600 identifies the data sources related to each event. Specifically, the journey visualization indicates that step instance A is related to or came from data source 4602, steps B and D are related to data source 4604 and step instances C and E are related to data source 4606.
The journey visualization 4600 also includes indications of the traversal of the journey instance between the different data sources. In addition, in the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization provides one indicator for traversals in one direction of the data sources (e.g., data source 4602→data source 4604 and data source 4604→data source 4606) and a different indicator for traversal in the opposite direction (e.g., data source 4606→4604, etc.).
Although the example identified was with reference to step instances and a journey instance, it will be understood that the journey visualization 4600 can also be used to illustrate the relationship between events of a journey instance or steps or events of one or more journey models, etc. In some embodiments, they journey visualization can indicate the traversals between the events or steps for multiple journey models or journey instances. For example, similar to the journey visualizations 3908, 3910, 4006, and 4102, the journey visualization 4600 can include multiple lines (same or different pattern) between the various nodes A, B, C, D, E. Further different patterns or weights of the lines can indicate different relationships (e.g., frequency or number of transitions, etc.) between the underlying steps, step instance, or events, as described herein.
For simplicity, reference will be made to an indication of a relationship of an anchor step with other steps of a one or more ordered journey models, however, it will be understood that, depending on the embodiment, step instances or events can be used instead of steps and that journey instance(s) can be used in place of the journey models. With the above in mind, in the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization 4700 includes various nodes indicative of steps associated with different ordered journey models. Further, the illustrated embodiment includes step selection control 4702 to select various steps of an unordered journey model.
In the illustrated embodiment a step (step 5) corresponding to node 5 has been selected as an anchor step. Based on the selection, the system 108 generates the journey visualization 4700 to indicate the relationship between step 5 and the other steps of various ordered journey models. To illustrate the relationship between step 5 and the other steps, the journey visualization 4700 includes columns 4704A, 4704B, 4704C, 4704D, 4704E, with each column indicating a distance from the anchor step. In the illustrated embodiment, node 5, corresponding to step 5, is placed in column 4704D. Thus, nodes in column 4704E indicate steps that occur one step after step 5 in one or more journey models or after step 5 with no intervening steps in that particular journey model. Nodes in column 4704C indicate steps that occur one step before step 5 in one or more journey models or before step 5 with no intervening steps in that particular journey model. Thus, nodes in column 4704B and 4704A indicate steps that occur two and three steps, respectively before step 5 in one or more journey models or before step 5 with one or two intervening steps, respectively, in that particular journey model.
By selecting steps 3 and 8, which correspond to nodes 3 and 8, in addition to step 5, the system 108 can filter out journey models that do not include any of steps 3, 5, or 8, journey models that do not include steps 3 and 5 or steps 3 and 8, or journey models that do not include steps 3, 5, and 8. Accordingly, the journey visualization 4700 can show paths of journey models that include different combinations of step 5 with other steps, such as steps 3, and 8.
In the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization 4700 shows the paths of journey models that have steps 3 and 5 or that have steps 5 and 8. Solid lines indicate paths between steps of ordered journey models that include steps 8 and 5 (step 8 occurring three steps before step 5) and steps between ordered journey models that step 3 and step 5 (step 3 occurring one step before step 5 for one or more journey models). Thus, as seen in the journey visualization 4700 at least two ordered journey models includes steps 3 and 5 and a step that precedes step 3 (e.g., the nodes in column 4704B that connect to node 3 indicate steps in different ordered journey models that also include steps 3 and 5). Similarly, journey models with steps 5 and 3 or steps 5 and 8 only include two different paths after step 5 (e.g., the nodes in column 4704E indicate two steps that come after step five in any of the journey models).
The journey visualization 4700 can further indicate additional paths of journey models through step 5, but that do not include steps 3 or 8. In the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization indicates these additional paths through step 5 using dashed lines and dashed circles. For example, at least three journey models include step 5, but does not include step 3 or 8 (e.g., the dashed node in column 4704C with a dashed line to node 5 and the blank dashed nodes in column 4704A with dashed lines to the solid node in column 4704B). In some embodiments, the dashed circle for node 8 can indicate that step 8 does not occur in the same ordered journey models as step 3.
It will be understood that a variety of visualizations can be used to indicate the relationship between the steps of the journey models. Further, as indicated above, the visualization 4700 is not limited to steps and journey models, but can indicate relationship between events of journey instances or journey models or relationships between step instances of journey instances.
For simplicity, reference will be made to an indication of a relationship of a parent event with dependent events of a journey instance, however, it will be understood that, depending on the embodiment, step instances or steps can be used instead of events and that journey model(s) can be used in place of the journey instance. With the above in mind, in the illustrated embodiment, the journey visualization 4800 includes various nodes indicative of events associated with a journey instance. Further, the illustrated embodiment includes event selection control 4802 to select various events of an unordered journey model.
In the illustrated embodiment, an event (event 5) corresponding to node 5 has been selected from a various events of a journey instance. Based on the selection, the system 108 generates the journey visualization 4800 to indicate the relationship between parent event 5 and dependent events (from the same or different data sources as each other and the parent event) of the journey instance, or nested journey instances. To illustrate the relationship between the parent event 5 and the dependent events, the journey visualization 4800 includes rows 4804A, 4804B, 4804C, 4804D, 4804E, with each row indicating a distance from or relationship to the parent event, or indicating a distinct nested journey instance related to event 5.
In addition, the journey visualization indicates a timing relationship between the various events, with nodes corresponding to events occurring earlier in time located farther to the left of nodes corresponding to events occurring later in time (e.g., event related to node C occurs approximately 60 second before the event corresponding to node F).
In the illustrated embodiment, parent node 5, corresponding to parent event 5, is placed in column 4804A. Connecting lines from node 5 to nodes A and B can indicate that events corresponding to events A and are generated based on the occurrence of event 5, or are dependent events. Similarly, the lines between nodes C and D and between nodes E and F can indicate that the events corresponding to nodes D and F are dependent events (or occurred based on the occurrence of) of the events corresponding to nodes C and E, respectively. In some embodiments, all of the events corresponding to the nodes in the different rows 4804B, 4804C, 4804D, 4804E can be identified as dependent events.
Furthermore, nodes in the different rows can correspond to different nested journey instances that relate to the parent or primary journey instance. For example, nodes in row 4804B can indicate nodes in a first nested journey instance, nodes in row 4804C can indicate nodes in a second nested journey instance, nodes in row 4804D can indicate nodes in a third nested journey instance, and nodes in row 4804D can indicate nodes in a fourth nested journey instance. As such, the journey visualization 4800 can indicate that four nested journey instances are related to event
As described herein, events of a nested journey instance can be identified and/or categorized based one or more step identifiers and/or one or more pivot identifiers. For example, the events of the nested journey instance indicated by row 4804B can be related based on a first pivot identifier or a common field value for a first pivot identifier field. Similarly, the events of the nested journey instances indicated by rows 4804C, 4804D, and 4804E can be related based on respective pivot identifiers or respective common field values for respective pivot identifier fields. In addition, one or more of the events in each of the nested journey instances can include a field value that matches the field value of event 5 for the pivot ID field.
In some instances, gluing events can be identified to interrelate the different nested journey instances with the event 5. In some cases, an arrow between nodes can identify a gluing event. For example, the arrows to nodes A, B, D, and F can indicate that those nodes correspond to gluing events. As also described herein, in some cases, multiple gluing events can be used to relate a nested journey instance to the primary journey instance without the presence of a single event that includes the field value for the pivot ID of the primary journey instance and the field value for the pivot ID of the nested journey instance. For example, a first gluing event can be used to identify the relationship between event 5 and the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804B and a second gluing event can be used to identify the relationship between the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804B and the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804C. However, there may not be a gluing event that explicitly identifies the relationship between event 5 and the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804C. Notwithstanding, the system 108 can determine that the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804C are related to event 5 based on the two aforementioned gluing events. In this way, the system 108 can relate the events of the nested journey instance corresponding to row 4804C to event 5 without a gluing event that explicitly relates them.
Furthermore, as described herein, the different events of each journey instance can be categorized based on one or more step IDs. For example, the event corresponding to node A can have a first field value for a first step ID field and the event corresponding to node C can have a second field value for the second step ID. Similarly, events corresponding to nodes B and E can have different field values for the same step ID field. In this way, the system can categorize the different events in the nested journeys with different steps. Although discussed above with reference to a step ID for each nested journey instance, in some cases, a single step ID can be sued for all the nested journey instance and the primary journey instance. Further, in some cases multiple events in the same nested journey can have the same field value for the step ID indicating that a particular step was repeated at a later point in time.
It will be understood that a variety of visualizations can be used to indicate the relationship between the event 5 and events of related nested journey instances. Further, as indicated above, the visualization 4800 is not limited to events and a journey instance, but can indicate relationships between step instances of journey instances with dependent step instances or between events or steps of journey models with dependent events or steps of journey models.
5.0 Hybrid Cloud/Private Data Environments
As discussed above, a data intake and query system as described herein may be implemented within a private environment, such as on-premises of an entity, or in a cloud environment provided by a service provider or hosting entity. Each configuration may provide various benefits while incurring various costs.
For example, a cloud environment may avoid the need for a user to independently provide and manage the computing devices upon which various components of data intake and query system 108 operate. Rather, such responsibility may be delegated to other entities, such as a service provider. In some instances, this may enable users to enjoy less problematic and more feature-filled applications. For example, a service provider may automatically update cloud-provided software providing access to the data intake and query system 108, such that a user is always enabled to use a most recent version of that software, without requiring the user to manage installation and provisioning of that software. This can be especially beneficial in large user environments. For example, where a “user” is in fact a business including both typical end users (who access the system 108 to, e.g., search data) and administrators (who maintain aspects of the system 108 on behalf of the business), use of a cloud-based system can enable typical end users to enjoy constant improvements without requiring intervention of an administrator.
One potential “cost” of using a cloud-based data intake and query system 108 may be that data stored by the system 108 itself exists on a system not under the direct and total control of a user (e.g., a business). While a service provider of the cloud-based system may take measures to safeguard that data (e.g., encryption, strong privacy policies, etc.), some users—and particularly those maintaining highly sensitive personal data—may prefer not to disclose any private data to a service provider or hosting entity, even in encrypted form. As such, these users may maintain an on-premises data intake and query system 108, forgoing the benefits of a cloud-based system. It would be advantageous, therefore, to create environments providing the benefits of a cloud-based data intake and query system 108, such as rapid updating of applications to access the system 108, while still enabling a user to maintain the system 108 on-premises.
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, systems and methods are provided to enable the use of hybrid environments, such as hybrid cloud/private environments, whereby an application used to access functionality of one environment (e.g., a data intake and query system) 108 is provided by a cloud-based hosting system within a different environment, thereby enabling rapid modification to that application without management by an administrator. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure address the problems identified above, providing benefits of a cloud-based data intake and query system 1006 without ramifications of those systems that may be viewed as detrimental by some users.
Specifically, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, access to a data intake and query system 108 is provided by a multi-component application, including a first component provided by a cloud-based component hosting system and a second component within a private environment (e.g., “on-premises”) of the data intake and query system 108. The first and second component illustratively interoperate to provide the application, thus enabling access to on-premises data or functionality. In the illustrative example, the on-premises data is a data intake and query system 108. However, a multi-component application as described herein may additionally or alternatively be used to access other on-premises data or functionality.
Division of an application into multiple components can provide a number of benefits. For example, the cloud-provided component of the application may be rapidly modified to provide new features or functionality, or to correct errors in prior features or functionality, without requiring reconfiguration of the on-premises component. For example, the cloud-provided component may correspond to user interfaces for a data intake and query system 108 (e.g., a “frontend” for that system 108), while the on-premises component may correspond to an application, server, or application executing on a server providing data or functionality to the frontend. In this configuration, a service provider associated with the cloud-provided component may periodically release new versions of the frontend, such as updated functionalities, bug-fixes, or the like, which may be used by users of the system 108 without requiring reconfiguration of the on-premises component or releases of new version of the on-premises component.
In one embodiment, a cloud-based component hosting system may provide multiple versions of a cloud-provided component, and enable users to select which version they would prefer. For example, the cloud-based component hosting system may maintain both a “stable” version (e.g., corresponding to a well-tested and verified-functional version of the component, with a fixed code base over a given period of time) and one or more other versions (e.g., a “latest,” “preview,” “beta,” or “nightly” version corresponding to less well tested but more frequently updated versions). Various additional “versions” may be provided, each associated with different functionalities, and each configured to interact with the on-premises component to provide an application enabling a user to access on-premises data or functionality. End users may be enabled to select an implement various cloud-provided components on-demand. For example, each cloud-provided component may include an input enabling an end user to select an alternative cloud-provided component, and selection of the input may cause the alternative component to be retrieved and implemented, as discussed in more detail below.
An on-premises component, as disclosed herein, may be configured to facilitate access to on-premises data or functionality via the multi-component application. For example, the on-premises component may be configured to obtain requests for information or functionality from a cloud-provided component, and to respond to such requests accordingly (e.g., by providing the requested information, invoking the requested functionality, etc.). In some instances, the on-premises component may be configured to redirect users to a cloud-provided component, enabling use of the cloud-provided component. For example, an on-premises component may include a web server accessible by a network access program (e.g., a web browser) of a client device 102. An end user may access the web server in an attempt to access an application provided access to an on-premises data intake and query system 108. While the web server may be configured to provide direct access to the system 108 (e.g., as a purely on-premises configuration, in accordance with embodiments above), the server may additionally or alternatively be configured to redirect the user to a cloud-based component hosting system, to cause the user to obtain a cloud-provided component used to access the on-premises component (which components, in conjunction, provide the multi-component application). For example, the on-premises web server may redirect a web browser of the client device 102 to a URL of the cloud-based component hosting system.
In some instances, rather than only redirecting a client device 102 to a cloud-provided component, an on-premises component may additionally configure the client device 102 to enable interaction between the cloud-provided and on-premises components. For example, where the cloud-provided component is a web page provided by a cloud-based component hosting system, it may be difficult for that web page to directly access the on-premises component (e.g., due to firewalls or network configuration limiting access to the on-premises component). To address this, the on-premises component may, rather than completely redirecting a client device 102 to a cloud-provided component (e.g., via a 300 series status code redirect), may instruct a client device 102 such that the device 102 both maintains a connection to the on-premises component and loads a cloud-provided component. For example, the on-premises component may return a web page to a client device 102 that includes an embedded element, such as an inline frame (or “iframe”), referencing the cloud-provided component. Code executing within the embedded element may therefore utilize the already-established connection with the on-premises component to communicate with that component. For example, client-side scripting (e.g., JavaScript) within the embedded element may pass requests to client-side scripting within the web page, which may in turn pass requests to the on-premises component. Responses from the on-premises component may similarly be passed to the web page and into the embedded element. In this manner, a cloud-provided component implemented on a client device 102 may communicate with an on-premises component, without requiring direct communication between a cloud-based system and the on-premises component.
While use of a cloud-provided component as part of a multi-component application may enable rapid deployment of new features within the application, in some instances these new features may not be compatible with an on-premises component. For example, where the cloud-provided component provides a “frontend” and the on-premises component provides a “backend,” a variety of improvements may be made to the frontend that do not require changes to backend functionality. However, improvements to backend processing—which may be made accessible via the frontend—may not be possible without modifying the on-premises component. Moreover, the cloud-based component hosting system that provides the cloud-provided component may provide such components to multiple users, associated with multiple on-premises environments. Thus, in practice, it may be desirable for a given cloud-provided component to maintain compatibility with whichever version of an on-premises component a user may have implemented within their on-premises environment.
To address this issue, a cloud-provided component as discussed herein may be configured to, on initialization, determine a version of an on-premises component used as part of a multi-component application (and potentially versions of other on-premises data or functionality, such as a version of a data intake and query system 108 accessed by the on-premises component), and adjust functionality of the cloud-provided component to maintain compatibility with the on-premises component (and/or other on-premises data or functionality). Illustratively, each version of a cloud-provided component may include data mapping features of the cloud-provided component to one or more compatible versions of an on-premises component (and/or other on-premises data or functionality), such as a minimum compatible version of the on-premises component. When the cloud-provided component is accessed in conjunction with an on-premises component, the cloud-provided component may determine the version of the on-premises component, and adjust its functionality to maintain compatibility with the on-premises component, such as by disabling features of the cloud-provided component that are incompatible with the on-premises component. In some instances, the cloud-provided component may be configured to notify an end user of the incompatibility, such as by responding to requests to access the incompatible features by prompting the end user to upgrade their on-premises component.
5.1 Example Hybrid Environment
While shown as a single network 104, the network 104 may represent multiple interconnected networks. For example, the client device 102 and the private environment 4920 may interact via a private network (e.g., a LAN or VPN) while the client device 102 and the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 interact via a public network (e.g., the public Internet). In some instances, the private environment 4920 may have limited or no public availability. For example, the private environment 4920 may be inaccessible to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910.
The private environment 4920 generally represents a collection of computing devices under control of a user, which may for example correspond to a business or organization. As shown in
The environment 4920 further includes an on-premises component 4922. Illustratively, the on-premises component 4922 represents a component that facilitates access to the system 108, such as by providing a web server, application programming interface (API) or the like. The on-premises component 4922 can be, for example, an application or a component of an application that can provide an interface to the system 108. While shown independently in
As noted above, a multi-component application may be formed by cooperation of the on-premises component 4922 with a cloud-provided component 4904 implemented at the client device 102, illustratively provided by the cloud-based component hosting system 4910. As shown in
The cloud-based component hosting system 4910 further includes a component data store 4919 including various versions of a cloud-provided component (e.g., in the form of code, scripts, and/or another format such as HTML). For example, where versions increment sequentially, the store may include a latest version and a past n versions of the component. In some instances, multiple “branches” (e.g., versions not in sequence with one another) may also be included within the component data store 4914. The component data store 4914 can correspond to any substantially persistent data store 4914, a wide variety of which are known in the art. In one embodiment, the component data store 4914 is a logical data store 4914 provided by a network-accessible storage service based on underlying physical data storage devices. For example, the component data store 4914 may be implemented as a data store on AMAZON®'s SIMPLE STORAGE SERVICE (or “S3”).
The cloud-based component hosting system 4910 further includes a versioning data store 4916 including information mapping versions of the cloud-provided component (as stored in the component data store 4914) to version indicators, which generally indicate a version type for the corresponding component version. For example, the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 may maintain both a “stable” version (which has a relatively fixed code base that is infrequently changed relative to other versions) and a “latest” version of a cloud-provided component (which may be more frequently changed, such as changed each day, week, month, as needed or other at other times), and make these versions available to client devices 102 under those indicators. Over time, the code corresponds to indicator such as “latest” and “stable” may vary. For example, a new version of the cloud-provided component may be developed by a developer associated with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 and designated as a new “latest” version. After testing and revision, code previously labeled as a “latest” version may be formally released as a “stable” version on a given release date with the prior “stable” version being deleted or deprecated, etc. Thus, to facilitate identification of the code corresponding to a given version indicator, the versioning data store 4916 includes a mapping of indicators to code, shown in
In addition to the component data store 4914 and the versioning data store 4916, the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 includes an information objects data store 4918 storing information objects utilized by the cloud-provided component 4904. In one embodiment, the information objects data store 4918 stores “metadata” regarding operation of the cloud-provided component 4904. In various examples, the cloud provided component 4904 can to interact with the on-premises component and/or the data intake and query system 108, whereas the data intake and query system 108 may store the data to be interacted with by an end user. The metadata may include information specifying, for example, data flows, workflows, data visualizations, configurations, and the like. In one embodiment, the information objects data store 4918 excludes any raw data stored within the data intake and query system 108, in order to ensure privacy of that data, or for other reasons. The cloud-provided component 4904, when implemented on the client device 102, may interact with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 to retrieve metadata from the information objects data store 4918 for use by the cloud-provided component 4904. In addition to metadata, the information objects data store 4918 may include permission information mapping metadata to individual end user identities.
To access the multi-component application, a user may utilize a client device 102 that includes a network access program 4902. The network access program 4902 may illustratively correspond to a web browser, mobile application, or other software enabling implementation of network-hosted code (e.g., HTML, client-side scripting such as JavaScript, etc.). For example, the user may utilize the access program 4902 to obtain a cloud-provided component 4904 from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, and to implement the cloud-provided component 4904 (e.g., by rendering HTML and/or executing client-side scripting of the component 4904). The cloud-provided component 4904, when implemented by access program 4902, may interact with the on-premises component 4922, thereby provided a multi-component application that enables the user to access the data intake and query system 108. Various example interactions for providing and executing the cloud-provided component on the client device 102 are discussed in more detail below.
While
5.2 Example User Interfaces
The interface 5000 of
As discussed above, in many instances functionality may be added to a multi-component application without requiring modification to a second component. However, in some instances new functionality added to the application via a first component may also depend on functionality provided by the second component. In the instance that an incompatible version of a second component is used, it is desirable to maintain compatibility between the first and second components. In one embodiment, compatibility is maintained by adjusting functionality of the first component, such as by disabling features of the first component that depend on functionalities unavailable within a second component. The interface 5100 of
In contrast to traditional mechanisms of notifying end users of new functions, such as a listing of new features, the interface of
5.3 Multi-Component Applications in a Hybrid Environments
As discussed above, end users may benefit from the agile nature of the multi-component application disclosed herein, enabling aspects of the application to be altered rapidly through changes to a first component (e.g., a cloud-provided component). Moreover, end users may benefit from accessing the multi-component application in a similar manner to accessing a typical single component application (e.g., without being required to themselves configure multiple components to interact with one another).
The interactions of
In response to the request, the access program 4902 at the client device 102 transmits to the on-premises component 4922 a request for a network object corresponding to the application. The request may correspond, for example, to an HTTP GET request for an HTML document. The request may illustratively be transmitted to a web server of the on-premises component 4922 based on a URL entered into or known by the client device 102. Alternatively or additionally, the request may be transmitted to an instance of a web server executing in a cloud-based hosting environment. The request may in some instances include information about the client device 102 or end user, such as authentication information of the end user (e.g., a username and password, a security token, etc.).
At (3), the on-premises component 4922 returns to the client device 102 the requested network object, which may illustratively be a HTML-formatted document renderable by the access program 4902. In a single component application, a network object may be renderable to provide direct access to the on-premises component 4922, thus enabling interaction with a data intake and query system 108 (or other on-premises data or functionality). In a multi-component application, a network object may be utilized to redirect the client device 102 to a cloud-provided component that enables use of the on-premises component. For example, the network object may be an HTML document that includes an embedded element, such as an iframe, addressed to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910.
As discussed above, use of an embedded element may enable the client device 102 to maintain a network connection (e.g., an HTTP session) with both the on-premises component 4922 (by virtue of processing the network object) and with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 (by virtue of processing the embedded network object). In this manner, the client device 102 may act as a “bridge” between these two systems. For example, a cloud-provided component received from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 may obtain metadata from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, and utilize that metadata to derive queries to be passed to the on-premises component 4922 (or directly to the data intake and query system 108). In this manner, information provided by the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 (e.g., a cloud-provided component 4904 and metadata) may be used to facilitate interaction with the data intake and query system 108 without requiring that the system 108 be made publically addressable, thus maintaining security and firewall protections of the system 108.
In one embodiment, the embedded element may span the entire viewing window of an access program 4902, and thus appear from the view of the end user to operate similarly to a full redirect. In other embodiments, such as where the on-premises component 4922 is publically accessible, a full HTTP redirect may be used in place of a network object with an embedded element (e.g., by the on-premises component 4922 returning an HTTP 3XX status code in place of the requested network object).
On receiving the network object, the client device 102 processes the embedded element, causing the client device to request the cloud-provided component from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, at (4). The request may, for example, correspond to an HTTP GET request for a network resource identified in the embedded element. To facilitate identification of a correct version of the cloud-provided component, the request illustratively includes a version indicator, corresponding to a version type for the cloud-provided component. In one embodiment, the version indicator indicates one of a “latest” or “stable” version type. The version indicator may be user-specified, or may be specified by the on-premises component. For example, the embedded element of the network object provided by the on-premises component may by default result in a request that includes a “stable” version indicator (e.g., by use of an HTTP GET variable set to “stable”). Additionally or alternatively, the on-premises component 4922 and/or the client device 102 may maintain preference information for the end user that specifies a version indicator, which may then be included in the request at (4). In some embodiments, preference for a version indicator may be shared among multiple end users. For example, a group of end users (such as all employees of a business entity, a subset of employees, a development team, or other grouping) may be associated with a shared preference for a version indicator. In one instance, the shared preference may be a default preference, and an individual end user may override this preference at an individual level. In another instance, the shared preference may be modifiable at a group level, such that an individual end user (e.g., with appropriate permissions) may modify the shared preference to cause each individual end user of the group, when interacting with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, to receive an on-premises component 4922 corresponding to version indicator indicated by the modified shared preference.
After requesting the cloud-provided component from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 processes the request for the cloud-provided component by identifying a specific version of the cloud-provided component that corresponds to the requested version indicator. For example, at (5), the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 queries the versioning data store 4916 for a version of the cloud-provided component that corresponds to the specified version indicator. Illustratively, the system 4910 may query the data store 4916 for what numerical version of the cloud-provided component is currently designated as “stable.” The versioning data store 4916 identifies the version, and returns information identifying the version to the system 4910. Thereafter, at (7), the system 4910 queries the component data store 4914 for the version identified by the versioning data store 4916, which version may be stored within the component data store 4914 as code. For example, the system 4910 may query the component data store 4914 for version “1.2.8” of a cloud-provided component (corresponding to a “stable” version, in this example).
At (8), the component data store 4914 returns the version to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910. Illustratively, the data store 4914 may return the version as a set of code. In one embodiment, the code can include PHP, JavaScript, and/or another type of code that can be executed on the client device 102, possibly accompanied by HTML, which in combination the client device 102 may implement to provide the cloud-provided component. Thus, at (9), the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 returns the version to the client device 102. The client device 102, at (10), then implements the cloud-provided component. In one embodiment, the cloud-provided component is implemented as a “single page application” (or “SPA”), which provides a variety of functionalities at the client device 102 without requiring the access program 4902 to load additional network objects or to navigate to a different network object (e.g., web page). For example, the cloud-provided component may include client-side scripting or other program code executable to implement a variety of functionalities within a single network object representing the cloud-provided component (which object may, for example, be displayed within the embedded element of a parent network object, as discussed above). In some embodiments, the client-side scripting may enable communication between the client device 102 and other systems, such as the cloud-component hosting system 4910, during implementation of the cloud-provided component. For example, the client-side scripting may implement asynchronous JavaScript (“AJAX”) to retrieve and populate data into the cloud-provided component during implementation on the client device 102, without requiring the access program 4902 to navigate to a different network object. Moreover, and as will be described in more detail below, the cloud-provided component may enable use of the on-premises component, providing the multi-component application to an end user and enabling the end user to access an on-premises data intake and query system 108 (or other on-premises data or functionality).
As shown in
As noted above, in some embodiments the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 may store metadata used by the cloud-provided component, such as workflows, visualizations, or the like. This metadata may be shared between one or more end users. As such, it is desirable to authenticate end users to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, to ensure that each end user is provided only with the metadata intended for that end user. While any number of traditional authentication schemes could be used to authenticate the end user with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, these schemes often require the end user to provide specific information, such as a password, to the system 4910. Because the end user may have already authenticate with the on-premises component 4922, reauthentication may be cumbersome, and may impair providing an experience that is similar to use of a single-component application.
To address these and other possible issues, in some embodiments of the present disclosure the on-premises component 4922 may be configured to act as an identity provider on behalf of the end user. For example, after having authenticated to the on-premises component 4922, the on-premises component 4922 may provide authentication information of an end user to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, thus enabling the end user to access metadata on the system 4910 without reauthenticating to that system 4910. Interactions for using the on-premises component as an identity provider for an end user of a client device 102 are shown in
As shown in
As noted above, the on-premises network object 5304 may act as a “bridge” between the cloud-provided component 5302 and the on-premises component 4922, enabling these two to communicate without compromising firewalls or other security of the on-premises component 4922. Accordingly, the interactions of
In the interactions of
The cloud-based component hosting system 4910, in turn at (4), provides the requested security token to the on-premises component 4922. As shown in
Thereafter, the cloud-provided component 5302 may utilize the security token to directly interact with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 as the authenticated end user, independent of the on-premises component. For example, as shown at interaction (7), the cloud-provided component 5302 may request metadata from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 using the security token, which is returned at (8).
During operation of the cloud-provided component 5302, metadata may be communicated between the cloud-provided component 5302 and the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 at various times. For example, where a user of the cloud-provided component 5302 modifies metadata, the user may request saving of the modification, and the cloud-provided component 5302 may submit the modified metadata to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 for storage. Each such communication may use the security token to ensure authentication of the end user. In some instances, the provided security token may be associated with an expiration time (e.g., a 10, 20, or 30 minute duration, etc.). Thus, the interactions of
As discussed above, use of a multi-component application may enable rapid development of functionality of the application by use of different versions of a first (e.g., cloud-provided) component, without requiring modification of a second (e.g., on-premises) component. For example, a developer of a multi-component application may provide or administer the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, enabling the developer to provide new versions of a first component (such as the cloud-provided component 4904) and to designate version indicators for various versions of the first component. Illustratively, the developer may determine that a given version of the first component (which may have previously been designated as a “latest’ version) should, as of a given date (e.g., a “release date”) be designated as “stable.” The developer may then modify the versioning data store 4916 such that the “stable” version indicator is mapped to the version of the first component. In such a case, the previous “stable” version may be deprecated, and may no longer be available. The developer may further modify the versioning data store 4916 to designate a new “latest” version, which may correspond to newly provided code of the first component. After such modification, requests from client devices 102 to obtain a given version indicator (e.g., “latest” or “stable”) may be satisfied by providing the code of the newly-mapped versions, thus enabling those client devices 102, as of the release date, to obtain a most recent “latest” or “stable” version of the first component. In some instances, the developer may implement a release cadence whereby at each release date, a prior “latest” version is designated as “stable” and a new “latest” version is provided.
However, there may be instances in which functionality added to a multi-component application is required to be implemented at least partially in the second component. For example, where a first component provides a frontend for data visualization and a second component provides a backend for data processing, new visualizations may be added by modification of the first component, but new data processing may require modification of the second component. As another example, where a first component provides data analysis and a second component provides an API to retrieve data for analysis, new types of data analysis may be added by modification of the first component, but only where the API of the second component enables the first component to retrieve the necessary data. In some instances, modification of the second component may occur independently of modification of a first component. For example, while a developer may modify versions of a first component by interaction with the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, the second component may be administered by a separate entity (e.g., an administrator of a private environment, an administrator of a cloud-based data intake and query system 1006, etc.). As such, various different private environments may implement various different versions of a second component. It may therefore be desirable to adjust functionality of a first component to maintain compatibility with a second component, enabling agile modification of the first component without requiring modification of the second component.
Illustrative interactions for adjusting functionality of a first component (illustratively a cloud-provided component) to maintain compatibility with a second component (illustratively an on-premises component) are displayed in
The interactions of
At (3), the on-premises component 4922 retrieves its version information, and returns that information to the on-premises network object 5304 (e.g., over the HTTP connection). The network object 5304, at (4), returns the information to the cloud-provided component 5302 (e.g., by use of client-side scripting).
Thereafter, at (5), the cloud-provided component 5302 may adjust its functionality based on the version of the on-premises component 4922. For example, the code of the cloud-provided component 5302 may designate certain functionalities of the component 4922 as requiring a minimum version of the on-premises component 4922. Thus, if the detected version of the component 4922 does not meet the minimum version, these functionalities may be disabled. In some instances, use of these functionalities may result in a notification to the end user that the functionality is disabled, and an invitation to update the on-premises component 4922 to a more recent version. An example of such an invitation is depicted, for example, in
After initialization (e.g., including obtaining a security token, loading metadata from the cloud-based component hosting system 4910, adjusting functionality to maintain compatibility with the on-premises component 4922, etc.), the cloud-provided component 5302 and the on-premises component 4922 can interoperate to provide the multi-component application to an end user. Illustrative interactions for operation of the cloud-provided component 5302 and the on-premises component 4922 to provide the multi-component application to an end user are depicted in
The interactions of
At (2), the cloud-provided component 5302 transmits a data request to the on-premises network object 5304, requesting data from the on-premises component 4922 to be used to satisfy the user request. The data request may correspond to the obtained request from the user. For example, the data request may include an SPL-formatted query input by the user, a data request corresponding to a first step of a workflow, or the like. As noted above, transmission of the data between the cloud-provided component 5302 and the on-premises network object 5304 may occur via operation of client-side scripting (e.g., JavaScript). The on-premises network object 5304, at (3), forwards the request to the on-premises component 4922. Because the on-premises network object has an existing connection to the on-premises component 4922, transmission of the request may generally not require the component 4922 to be publicly accessible, thus maintaining security of the component 4922.
In one embodiment, the on-premises component 4922 may provide an interface, such as an API, with a known structure. As such, the cloud-provided component 5302 may transmit a data request formatted for that interface, and the request may be forwarded by the on-premises network object 5304. In another embodiment, the on-premises network object 5304 may act to “translate” requests between the cloud-provided component 5302 and the on-premises component 4922, such as by modifying a format of the request to comply with an interface of the on-premises component 4922.
On receiving the request, the on-premises component 4922 processes the request by accessing its available data or functionality (e.g., within the data intake and query system 108) and determining results of the request. For example, where the request specified a certain query be run against a dataset, the on-premises component 4922 may execute the query and return results. The results may then, at (5), be returned to the on-premises network object 5304, and at (6) to the cloud-provided component 5302. The cloud-provided component may then, at (7), display the results (or information derived from the results, such as a visualization, summarization, or other graphical or textual display) to an end user.
While
5.4 Example Routines to Provide a Multi-Component Application
The illustrative routines of
With reference to
At block 5604, the client device 102 transmits a request for the first component, including a specified version indicator for the first component. Illustratively, the version indicator may indicate a particular version type for the first component, such as a “latest” or “stable” version. In one embodiment, the user may specify a version type within their request to access the application. For example, when executing one version of a first component, a user may select a hyperlink to another version of the first component. In another embodiment, the client device 102 may maintain a record of an end user's preferred version. For example, an access program may maintain a record (e.g., a cookie of a web browser) indicating a preferred content indicator, and append the request of block 5604 with the indicator. In still other embodiments, the version indicator may be added to the request based on instructions from an external device. For example, where a user attempts to access the second component directly (e.g., as if the second component were a single component application), the second component may instruct the client device 102 to obtain the first component, and further specify a version indicator of the first component (e.g., as a default version indicator). In one embodiment, the request of block 5604 is an HTTP-formatted request, such as a GET request. The request is illustratively transmitted over a network to a device maintaining one or more versions of the first component. For example, the request may be transmitted over the network 104 to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910. In one embodiment, the request is transmitted over a public portion of the network 104 (e.g., the public Internet), which may itself be considered a network.
At block 5606, the client device 102 receives program code executable to implement the first component. In one embodiment, the program code may include client-side scripting executable within a network access program of the client device 102, such as a web browser. The code may be received in conjunction with markup language, such as HTML, renderable to present an interface of the first component on the client device 102. For example, where the request of block 5604 is an HTTP request, block 5606 may correspond to receiving an HTTP response including an HTML document and client-side scripting. As discussed above, the first component may enable use of the second component (e.g., on a remote system), and the first and second component, in conjunction, provide the application. For example, the first component may provide a frontend through which the second component—a backend—may be accessed. In one embodiment, the first component and second component communicate over a private network (e.g., a private portion of the network 104). Thus, while the first component may be provided by a remote system (e.g., the cloud-based component hosting system 4910), that remote system is not required in some embodiments to have the capability of accessing the second component.
With reference to
The routine 5700 begins at block 5702, where the client device 102 receives a request to access an application. The request may correspond, for example, to end user input to the client device 102 (e.g., accessing an access program, such as a web browser or dedicated program, typing a URL or selecting a hyperlink to the application, etc.).
At block 5704, the client device 102 requests the application from a server, in a manner similar to a request for a single component application. For example, the client device 102 may request a web page from the server that is associated with the application. In one embodiment, the server is associated with data or functionality of the application. For example, the server may provide a second component of the multi-component application. The server may correspond, for example, to a device hosting the on-premises component 4922 of
Accordingly, at block 5706, the client devices 102 obtains instructions to access a first component from a second network location. In one embodiment, the instructions may included in an HTTP response from the server. For example, the instructions may be included in an HTML document provided by the server. In one instance, the instructions are an HTML element, such as an iframe element, that references the second network location. The second network location may, for example, a device of the cloud-based component hosting system 4910 (e.g., the cloud component interface 4912).
At block 5708, the client device 102 requests code for the first component from the second network location, in accordance with the instructions. For example, the client device 102 may process an HTML element and, based on such processing, transmit an HTTP request to a second network location for a network object (e.g., an HTML document) including code for the first component.
At block 5710, the client device 102 obtains the code responsive to the request, and execute the code to implement the first component. The first component illustratively enables use of the second component, thereby providing the multi-component application to an end user of the client device 102. As discussed above, code for the first component may include client-side scripting executable within a network access program of the client device 102, such as a web browser. The code may be provided in conjunction with markup language, such as HTML, renderable to present an interface of the first component on the client device 102. Thus, block 5710 may include, for example, obtaining a web page responsive to the request of block 5708 and rendering the webpage to provide the first component.
In one embodiment, blocks 5704 through 5710 of the routine 5700 occur programmatically, without requiring input from and end user. Thus, from the point of view of an end user, the user may request access to an application at block 5702, and that application may be provided at block 5710. In this way, a multi-component application can be implemented in a manner that, from the point of view of an end user, provides a similar experience to accessing a single component application.
With reference to
The routine 5800 begins at block 5802, where the client device 102 receives a request to access a multi-component application, the application including first and second components. . The request may correspond, for example, to end user input to the client device 102 (e.g., accessing an access program, such as a web browser or dedicated program, typing a URL or selecting a hyperlink to the application, etc.). As discussed above, the first component may be remotely hosted (e.g., at a cloud-based component hosting system 4910), and executable locally on the client device. The second component may be remote to the client device 102, such as within a private environment 4920 or a cloud-based data intake and query system 1006.
At block 5804, the client device 102 transmits a request for the first component. In one embodiment, the request of block 5804 is an HTTP-formatted request, such as a GET request. The request is illustratively transmitted over a network to a device maintaining the first component. For example, the request may be transmitted over the network 104 to the cloud-based component hosting system 4910. In one embodiment, the request is transmitted over a public portion of the network 104 (e.g., the public Internet), which may itself be considered a network.
At block 5806, the client device 102 receives program code executable to implement the first component. In one embodiment, the program code may include client-side scripting executable within a network access program of the client device 102, such as a web browser. The code may be provided in conjunction with markup language, such as HTML, renderable to present an interface of the first component on the client device 102. For example, where the request of block 5804 is an HTTP request, block 5806 may correspond to receiving an HTTP response including an HTML document and client-side scripting. As discussed above, the first component may enable use of the second component (e.g., on a remote system), and the first and second component, in conjunction, provide the application. For example, the first component may provide a frontend through which the second component—a backend—may be accessed. In one embodiment, the first component and second component communicate over a private network (e.g., a private portion of the network 104). Thus, while the first component may be provided by a remote system (e.g., the cloud-based component hosting system 4910), that remote system is not required in some embodiments to have the capability of accessing the second component.
At block 5808, the first component (e.g., during execution on the client device 102) determines a version of a second component. In one embodiment, the first component may query the second component for version information of the second component. For example, the first component may transmit an HTTP request to the second component to return version information of the second component, and receive in response an indication of a version of the second component. The information received from the second component may additionally include versioning information for other elements used by the second component. For example, where the second component is an on-premises component 4922, the versioning information may include a version of the data intake and query system 108.
In some instances, querying of the second component may be facilitated by a pre-existing connection between the client device 102 and the second component. For example, the client device 102 may have attempted to access the second component directly, and have been instructed to obtain and execute the first component (e.g., by loading an embedded element in a web page). Where a connection to the second component is maintained (e.g., as a parent window to an iframe element), the first component may transmit a query to the second component through that connection. For example, the first component may utilize client-side scripting to submit the request to a parent window of an iframe element. Utilization of a pre-existing connection may beneficially enable querying of the second component without requiring modification of network security for the second component (e.g., modification of firewall rules). In addition, utilization of a pre-existing connection may beneficially negate the need for a first component to obtain addressing information for the second component. Specifically, because the first component may address the second component through a pre-existing connection of the client device 102, the first component may not be required to locate a network address of the second component. In this manner, the first component is not required to “discover” the second component on the network.
At block 5810, the first component adjusts its functionality to maintain compatibility with the second component, based on the versioning information obtained regarding a version of the second component (and potentially other elements used by the second component in providing functionality of the application). Illustratively, code of the first component may include one or more functions that are designated as requiring at least a minimum version of the second component (or other elements used by the second component). Thus, the first component may identify these functions and, if the second component (or other element) does not meet the minimum version requirement, disable the corresponding functionality to maintain compatibility with the second component. In some instances, the functionality may be replaced with a notification that the functionality has been disabled, and/or an invitation to update the second component to a newer version. Accordingly, by operation of the routine 5800, functionality of the application may be modified by providing different versions of a first component, while maintaining compatibility with various versions of a second component that may be available to operate in conjunction with the first component.
Various example embodiments of the disclosure can be described by the following clauses:
Any or all of the features and functions described above can be combined with each other, except to the extent it may be otherwise stated above or to the extent that any such embodiments may be incompatible by virtue of their function or structure, as will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art. Unless contrary to physical possibility, it is envisioned that (i) the methods/steps described herein may be performed in any sequence and/or in any combination, and (ii) the components of respective embodiments may be combined in any manner.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as examples of implementing the claims, and other equivalent features and acts are intended to be within the scope of the claims.
Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense, i.e., in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling or connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list. Likewise the term “and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.
Conjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y and Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to convey that an item, term, etc. may be either X, Y or Z, or any combination thereof. Thus, such conjunctive language is not generally intended to imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y and at least one of Z to each be present. Further, use of the phrase “at least one of X, Y or Z” as used in general is to convey that an item, term, etc. may be either X, Y or Z, or any combination thereof.
In some embodiments, certain operations, acts, events, or functions of any of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a different sequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not all are necessary for the practice of the algorithms). In certain embodiments, operations, acts, functions, or events can be performed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on other parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.
Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware, hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardware suitable for the purposes described. Software and other modules may reside and execute on servers, workstations, personal computers, computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices suitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modules may be accessible via local computer memory, via a network, via a browser, or via other means suitable for the purposes described herein. Data structures described herein may comprise computer files, variables, programming arrays, programming structures, or any electronic information storage schemes or methods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. User interface elements described herein may comprise elements from graphical user interfaces, interactive voice response, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.
Further, processing of the various components of the illustrated systems can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and other computing resources. Two or more components of a system can be combined into fewer components. Various components of the illustrated systems can be implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather than in dedicated computer hardware systems and/or computing devices. Likewise, the data repositories shown can represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, e.g., storage area networks or other distributed storage systems. Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the components shown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than actual connections between hardware. While some examples of possible connections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown can communicate with any other subset of components in various implementations.
Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computer program instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, specially-equipped computer (e.g., comprising a high-performance database server, a graphics subsystem, etc.) or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor(s) of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded to a computing device or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause operations to be performed on the computing device or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computing device or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further implementations of the invention. These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of the above Detailed Description. While the above description describes certain examples of the invention, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may vary considerably in its specific implementation, while still being encompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific examples disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under the claims.
To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplates other aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as a means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C sec. 112(f) (AIA), other aspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. Any claims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) will begin with the words “means for,” but use of the term “for” in any other context is not intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims after filing this application, in either this application or in a continuing application.
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