US Patent 10177984 Isolation of problems in a virtual environment

Problem isolation in a virtual environment is described. In one example, a method (300) is provided for isolating problems in a virtual environment. The method includes maintaining (310) a topology of network devices in the virtual environment. The virtual environment can be monitored (320) using a performance module for network device operation irregularities exceeding a threshold. A network device operation irregularity can be identified (330) as well as a portion of the topology associated with the network device operation irregularity. Topology portions associated with network device operation irregularities can be grouped (340) together using a snapshot module to form a snapshot of a problem topology.