Streamlined transaction and dimension data collection

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, apparatuses and systems for collecting transactional and dimensional data. One implementation includes a configuration management database, a first data collection agent operating on a first monitored server to collect metadata associated with the first monitored server from the configuration management database using the first data collection agent, collect metric data from the first monitored server regarding operation of the first monitored server, wherein the metric data includes at least one metric collected from at least one application executing on the first monitored server; and assemble the collected metric data and at least part of the collected metadata into a packet for transmission from the first monitored server to a message bus; and a distributed database configured to receive the packet from the message bus and to store the collected metric data and metadata included in the packet.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more memories comprising instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement a data collection agent configured to:
 collect metadata and metric data associated with a monitored server; and 
 assemble at least a portion of the collected metric data and at least a portion of the collected metadata into a packet for transmission to a message bus using a single pipeline, wherein the single pipeline comprises a singular communications path such that the packet and other packets transmitted via the single pipeline are transmitted and received in sequential order. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more memories comprise further instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement an aggregation service configured to:
 receive from the message bus, via the single pipeline, the packet; and   aggregate the portion of the collected metadata and the portion of the collected metric data of the packet and at least one other packet from the message bus based at least in part on a feature associated with both the packet and the at least one other packet.   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the metric data comprises:
 operational characteristics of one or more applications running on the monitored server;   memory usage of the monitored server;   processor usage of the monitored server;   operating time of the monitored server; or   any combination thereof.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises an attribute of one or more configuration items associated with the monitored server. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the attribute comprises a dependency between the one or more configuration items and the monitored server. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the one or more configuration items comprises a virtual machine application running on the monitored server. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more memories comprises further instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement an additional data collection agent configured to:
 collect second metadata associated with a second monitored server;   collect second metric data associated with the second monitored server; and   assemble the collected second metric data and at least part of the collected second metadata into a second packet for transmission to the message bus using the single pipeline, wherein the packet and the second packet are transmitted to the message bus sequentially via the single pipeline.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the monitored server comprises at least one processor of the one or more processors, wherein the data collection agent is executed on the monitored server via the at least one processor. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises dimensional data and the metric data comprises fact data. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the data collection agent is configured to transmit the packet to the message bus. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein collecting the metadata associated with the monitored server comprises:
 sending a subscription request to a configuration management database, wherein the subscription request includes an identification of the monitored server; and   receiving, from the configuration management database, the metadata associated with the monitored server.   
     
     
         12 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more memories comprising instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement an aggregation service configured to:
 receive, from a message bus and via a single pipeline, a packet comprising metadata and metric data associated with a monitored server, wherein the single pipeline comprises a singular communications path such that the packet and at least one other packet communicated via the single pipeline are transmitted and received in sequential order; and 
 aggregate the metadata and the metric data of the packet and the at least one other packet from the message bus based at least in part on a feature associated with both the packet and the at least one other packet. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more memories comprise further instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement a data collection agent configured to:
 collect the metadata and the metric data associated with the monitored server; and   assemble the metric data and the metadata into the packet; and   transmit the packet to the message bus via the single pipeline.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more memories comprise further instructions executable by the one or more processors perform operations comprising:
 comparing the aggregated metadata and metric data of the packet and the at least one other packet; and   generating an indication of a system performance of the monitored server based at least in part on the comparison.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein comparing the aggregated metadata and metric data of the packet and the at least one other packet and generating the indication of the system performance comprises applying a machine learning model to the aggregated metadata and metric data of the packet and the at least one other packet. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the operations comprise re-generating the machine learning model on a periodic basis based at least in part on a performance ontology indicating known performance characteristics of the monitored server. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the metadata comprises one or more attributes of an application running on the monitored server, wherein the one or more attributes comprise:
 a software version of the application;   an instance type of the application;   a scheduler state of the application;   a node status of the application;   a deployment model of the application; or   any combination thereof.   
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 collecting metadata and metric data associated with a monitored server, wherein the metadata comprises attributes of one or more configuration items associated with the monitored server;   assembling a packet comprising the collected metric data and the collected metadata; and   transmitting, via a single pipeline, the packet to a message bus, wherein the single pipeline comprises a singular communications path such that the packet and other packets transmitted via the single pipeline are transmitted and received in sequential order.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the collected metadata excludes other metadata not associated with the monitored server. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , comprising subscribing, via a configuration management database (CMDB), to changes in the attributes of one or more configuration items.