Method and apparatus for providing network applications monitoring

An apparatus for providing network performance monitoring, comprising:

• a performance database manager (PDM), comprising:
• a PDM state manager;
• a communications server (COM server) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• a communications client (COM client) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• and,
• an application database (AppDB) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• the PDM configured to communicate with a network controller and a switch running a service monitoring (SERMON) client;
• the PDM further configured to:
• determine a list of one or more switches, one or more hosted services of each switch, and one or more applications of each switch;
• receive a request for SERMON data from an application running on the network controller, wherein the request comprises an application identifier, a datapath identifier (DPID), a host identifier (HostID), and actual data items;
• send the request to the SERMON client running on one of the one or more switches;
• receive a response from the SERMON client;
• and,
• send the response to the application running on the network controller upon receipt of the response from the SERMON client.

A performance database manager (PDM) for providing network performance monitoring, wherein the PDM is configured to communicate with a network controller and a switch running a service monitoring (SERMON) client, the PDM comprising:

• a PDM state manager;
• a communications server (COM server) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• a communications client (COM client) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• an application database (AppDB) coupled to the PDM state manager;
• the PDM configured to:
• query the centralized controller for a list of SERMON client identifier (CliID), SERMON server identifiers (ServIDs) and application identifiers (App IDs);
• periodically query the network controller for latest snapshot of the SERMON CliIDs, the SERMON ServIDs and the App IDs;
• the PDM state manager configured to:
• manage all states for metrics that are periodically collected from the SERMON client identified by the CliID, the ServID, and the AppID;
• store the states in the AppDB;
• formulate a message received from the network controller through the COM server and funnel the formulated message to the COM client, wherein the message received from the network controller comprise an application identifier, a datapath identifier (DPID), a host identifier (HostID), and actual data items;
• the COM server configured to:
• parse the message received from the network controller and send the parsed message to the PDM state manager;
• prepare a message to be sent to the network controller after the PDM receives a performance specific response from the SERMON client;
• and,
• the COM client configured to:
• enable communications between the PDM and the SERMON client;
• send a performance specific request to the SERMON client;
• and
• receive the performance specific response from the SERMON client.