Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Data processing system error or fault handling – Reliability and availability
Patent
1998-04-23
2000-11-07
Hua, Ly V.
Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
Data processing system error or fault handling
Reliability and availability
714 15, G06F 1100
Patent
active
061450952
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to fault data collection in computer systems. More precisely, the invention relates to a method for solving problems leading to a restart of a computer controlling a process, such as transmission of calls.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Users of computers and their software are often faced with such annoying fault situations where a computer switches over to the initial state, i.e. it acts as if the power had just been switched on. In such a case, the data that was stored in the memory of the computer is usually lost. The operating system may give a short error message, such as "General Protection Fault". Such an error message gives the user or the support advisor hardly any information about the cause of the fault or advice on how to proceed so that the situation would not reoccur. The other extreme is represented by the manner in which software of a certain local area network (Novell.RTM. Netware) reports a fault situation. When an error occurs in the execution of the network server software, the support advisor is given the possibility to store the entire memory of the server on disks, dozens of which may be needed. It is clearly not easy to find the reason for the error if there is too much data. Also, the problem of known methods is that in these methods the reporting to the user takes place before the computer restart. If the error situation has confused the disk processing routines of the operating system, the situation preceding the error cannot be stored on a disk.
Computer restarts occur occasionally. For the sake of clarity, in the present application a "restart" refers specifically to a restart the causes of which are to be examined.
It is very important that in error situations maintenance operations can be directed in the correct manner at the correct places. For example PC Format, August 1995, p. 27, discloses in connection with computer software faults that on Jan. 15, 1990 as much as half of the AT&T's telephone network in the United States was out of use at times and that on that day 70 million calls were left uncompleted. The fault was traced to a maintenance operation that was directed to the software controlling AT&T exchanges and that did not work out as planned.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows a distributed computer system. At least some of the computers 10 and 20 (in this example computer 10) act as a server to the other computers 20. The server 10 comprises a disk drive 11 wherein the system software is stored. The computers are interconnected via a link 1 that may be a cable of a local area network or a remote connection, such as a reserved modem line, an ISDN connection, a radio link, or the like. For example the computer 20 is started in a manner known per se in such a way that support circuits 25 of the computer produce a start signal that makes the central processing unit 24 jump to a predetermined address comprising a read-only memory 22 that contains the initial load program. The execution of the initial load program by the central processing unit 24 guides for example a network interface 21 to load from the server 10 via the link 1 first the operating system that may comprise more advanced load programs. For execution, the operating system and the other programs are loaded into a RAM or random access memory 23, called hereinafter a main memory. After the loading of the operation system, the application programs are loaded and the execution of these programs makes the computer 20 carry out its actual task. As an alternative to the loading of the software via the link 1, the software could also be loaded via a disk drive controller 26 from a local disk drive 27 if the computer 20 contains one. The computer 20 may also comprise an output device 28.
FIG. 2 shows the parts that are essential to the invention in the operating system of the computer 20. In this exemplary case, the operating system OS comprises four basic functions OS2 to OS5, i.e. process control, memory management, transmission of messages, and exclusion of pr
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Hua Ly V.
Nokia Telecommunications Oy
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