Time Based Correlation Of Time Series For Root Cause Analysis

A computer-implemented method for identifying occurrence of an event in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

• a) providing a reference time series indicative of a reference computing event in the distributed computing environment;
• b) receiving a candidate time series comprised of data captured in the distributed computing environment;
• c) calculating a first correlation coefficient between the candidate time series and the reference time series;
• d) differentiating at least one of the candidate time series to form a differentiated candidate time series, or the reference time series to form a differentiated reference time series;
• e) calculating a second correlation coefficient between the candidate time series and the differentiated reference time series, between the differentiated candidate time series and the reference time series, or between the differentiated candidate time series and the differentiated reference time series;
• f) shifting data points in time for at least one of the reference time series or the differentiated reference time series to form a shifted time series;
• g) calculating a third correlation coefficient between the shifted time series and the candidate time series, or between the shifted time series and the differentiated candidate time series;
• h) smoothing at least one of the candidate time series, the differentiated candidate time series, or the shifted time series using a smoothing function to form a smoothed candidate time series;
• i) smoothing at least one of the reference time series, the differentiated time series, or the shifted time series using the smoothing function to form a smoothed reference time series;
• j) calculating a fourth correlation coefficient between the smoothed candidate time series and the reference time series, or between the smoothed reference time series and the candidate time series;
• and
• k) reporting an occurrence of the computing event in the distributed computing environment in response to absolute value of at least one of the first correlation coefficient, the second correlation coefficient, the third correlation coefficient or the fourth correlation coefficient exceeding a threshold.