US 12,008,392 B2
Application component identification and analysis in a virtualized computing system
Padmaja Vrudhula, Edmonds, WA (US); Timothy Michael Jones, Santa Barbara, CA (US); Matthew David Conger-Eldeen, Brighton, CO (US); and Nicholas Seemiller, Denver, CO (US)
Assigned to VMware LLC, Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed by VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 23, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/383,603.
Prior Publication US 2023/0022079 A1, Jan. 26, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 9/455 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 9/45558 (2013.01) [G06F 9/45545 (2013.01); G06F 2009/4557 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45595 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of application identification in a virtualized computing system having a cluster of hosts, the hosts including virtualization layers supporting virtual machines (VMs), the method comprising:
executing, by application analysis software, process discovery agents for the VMs, the process discovery agents installed in the VMs by the application analysis software;
receiving, at the application analysis software from the process discovery agents, process metadata describing processes executing on the VMs, the process discovery agents obtaining the process metadata by reading process data structures maintained by guest operating systems of the VMs;
generating signatures for the processes based on the process metadata; and
determining components of an application based on a comparison of the signatures against known signatures in a signature database.