Method and system for enabling automated log analysis with controllable resource requirements

1. A computer-implemented method for enabling automated log analysis with controllable resource requirements, comprising:

generating, by a processor operatively coupled to a memory, a training set for log pattern learning based on heterogeneous logs generated by a computer system;

implementing, by the processor, an incremental learning process to generate a set of log patterns from the training set, wherein implementing the incremental learning process comprises:

defining a first set as the training set, a second set as a set of log patterns that have been generated, and a third set as a set of logs of the training set that lack a matching pattern in the second set;

sampling the third set to generate a fourth set having a size corresponding to a parameter controlling a maximum resource requirement for the incremental learning process; and

performing automatic log pattern recognition to generate a fifth set;

parsing, by the processor, the heterogeneous logs using the set of log patterns; and

applying, by the processor, a set of applications to the parsed logs.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising performing, by the processor, a log filtering process based on the fifth set.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein performing the log filter process comprises determining if the fifth set is empty.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein, in response to determining that the fifth set includes at least one log pattern, performing the log filtering process further comprises:

updating the second set by adding the fifth set to the second set;

updating the third set with logs identified in the third set that lack a matching pattern in the second set;

in response to determining that the updated third set is empty, outputting the updated second set; and

in response to determining that the updated third set includes at least one log, updating the fourth set by sampling the updated third set, and updating the fifth set by performing automatic pattern recognition using the updated fourth set.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , further comprising using a log parser to identify the logs in the third set that lack a matching pattern in the second set.

6. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein, in response to determining that the fifth set is empty, performing the log filtering process further comprises:

updating the third set by subtracting the fourth set from the third set;

in response to determining that the updated third set is empty, outputting the second set; and

in response to determining that the updated third set includes at least one log, updating the fourth set by sampling the updated third set, and updating the fifth set by performing automatic pattern recognition using the updated fourth set.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein performing the automatic log pattern recognition further comprises:

tokenizing logs of the fourth set to generate tokens from the logs of the fourth set;

applying a similarity measurement on the logs to capture similarities among the logs of the fourth set;

implementing a hierarchical clustering algorithm to generate a log cluster hierarchy for the logs of the fourth set;

aligning the logs of the fourth set within each cluster associated with a given level of the log cluster hierarchy;

conducting log motif discovery on the aligned logs to find log motifs; and

performing pattern recognition from the log motifs by recognizing one or more log fields.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the one or more log fields include one or more of time stamps, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and universal resource locators (URLs).

9. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising backpropagating, by the processor, information to higher levels of the log cluster hierarchy.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the heterogeneous logs from the computer system.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the set of applications include a log-based fault management application to detect abnormal logs that do not match any log pattern of the set of the log patterns.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein each pattern of the set of log patterns is in terms of regular expression.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method for enabling automated log analysis with controllable resource requirements comprising:

generating a training set for log pattern learning based on heterogeneous logs generated by a computer system;

implementing an incremental learning process to generate a set of log patterns from the training set, wherein implementing the incremental learning process comprises:

defining a first set as the training set, a second set as a set of log patterns that have been generated, and a third set as a set of logs of the training set that lack a matching pattern in the second set;

sampling the third set to generate a fourth set having a size corresponding to a parameter controlling a maximum resource requirement for the incremental learning process; and

performing automatic log pattern recognition to generate a fifth set;

parsing the heterogeneous logs using the set of log patterns; and

applying a set of applications to the parsed logs.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 13 , wherein performing the automatic log pattern recognition further comprises:

tokenizing logs of the fourth set to generate tokens from the logs of the fourth set;

applying a similarity measurement on the logs to capture similarities among the logs of the fourth set;

implementing a hierarchical clustering algorithm to generate a log cluster hierarchy for the logs of the fourth set;

aligning the logs of the fourth set within each cluster associated with a given level of the log cluster hierarchy;

conducting log motif discovery on the aligned logs to find log motifs; and

performing pattern recognition from the log motifs by recognizing one or more log fields.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , further comprising performing a log filtering process based on the fifth set.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein performing the log filtering process comprises determining if the fifth set is empty.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein, in response to determining that the fifth set includes at least one log pattern, performing the log filtering process further comprises:

updating the second set by adding the fifth set to the second set;

updating the third set with logs identified in the third set that lack a matching pattern in the second set;

in response to determining that the updated third set is empty, outputting the updated second set; and

in response to determining that the updated third set includes at least one log, updating the fourth set by sampling the updated third set, and updating the fifth set by performing automatic pattern recognition using the updated fourth set.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 17 , further comprising using a log parser to identify the logs in the third set that lack a matching pattern in the second set.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein, in response to determining that the fifth set is empty, performing the log filtering process further comprises:

updating the third set by subtracting the fourth set from the third set;

in response to determining that the updated third set is empty, outputting the second set; and

in response to determining that the updated third set includes at least one log, updating the fourth set by sampling the updated third set, and updating the fifth set by performing automatic pattern recognition using the updated fourth set.

20. A system for enabling automated log analysis with controllable resource requirements, comprising:

a computer system configured to generate heterogeneous logs; and

at least one processor operatively coupled to a memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

obtain the heterogeneous logs from the computer system, and generate a training set for log pattern learning based on the obtained logs;

implement an incremental learning process to generate a set of log patterns from the training set by:

defining a first set as the training set, a second set as a set of log patterns that have been generated, and a third set as a set of logs of the training set that lack a matching pattern in the second set;

sampling the third set to generate a fourth set having a size corresponding to a parameter controlling a maximum resource requirement for the incremental learning process; and

performing automatic log pattern recognition to generate a fifth set;

parse the heterogeneous logs using the set of log patterns; and

apply a set of applications to the parsed logs.