Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Data processing system error or fault handling – Reliability and availability
Reexamination Certificate
1997-05-12
2001-01-30
Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W. (Department: 2785)
Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
Data processing system error or fault handling
Reliability and availability
C714S057000, C714S037000, C714S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182249
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to monitoring of computer systems and more particularly to monitoring the state of a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems such as mainframes, minicomputers, workstations and personal computers, experience hardware and software failures that degrade system performance or render the system inoperative. In order to diagnose such failures computer systems include diagnostic capability which provides various types of system diagnostic information.
Computer systems are typically serviced when a failure is noticed either by system diagnostics or by users of the system when the system become partially or completely inoperative. Since computer systems are frequently located at some distance from the support engineers, when problems do occur, a support engineer may access the computer system remotely through a modem in an interactive manner to evaluate the state of the computer system. That remote dial-in approach does allow the support engineer to provide assistance to a remote customer without the delay of traveling to the computer system site. Once connected to the remote computer system, the support engineer can perform such tasks as analyzing hardware and software faults by checking patch status, analyzing messages file, checking configurations of add-on hardware, unbundled software, and networking products, uploading patches to the customer system in emergency situations, helping with problematic installs of additional software, running on-line diagnostics to help analyze hardware failures, copying files to or from customer system as needed.
However, there are limitations to such support. For instance, the data size transfer may be limited at the time of failure, due to such factors as modem speed and thus a complete picture of a system may be unavailable. Running diagnostic software during the remote session, if necessary, may adversely impact system performance. Where a system is part of a network, which is commonplace today, the running of diagnostic tests may impact network performance. Where computer systems are being used in a production or other realtime environment, such degradation of system performance is obviously undesirable.
Further, historical data on system performance is not be available in such scenarios. It is therefore impossible to analyze trends or compare system performance, e.g., before and after a new hardware of software change was made to the system. The support engineer is limited to the snapshot of the system based on the diagnostic information available when the support engineer dials in to the system.
It would be advantageous if a support engineer had available complete diagnostic information rather than just a snapshot, However, system diagnostic tests typically generate a significant amount of data and it can be difficult for a support engineer to analyze such data in a raw form. Additionally, service centers typically support a number of different computer systems. Each computer system has its own hardware and software components and thus have unique problems. For example, it is not uncommon for failures to be caused by incorrect or incompatible configuration of the various hardware and/or software components of the particular system. It would be advantageous to provide a remote monitoring diagnostic system that could process, present and manipulate diagnostic data in a structure and organized form and also monitor a number of different computer systems without having prior knowledge of the particular hardware or software configuration of each system being monitored. In order to provide better diagnostic support to computer systems, it would also be advantageous to provide the ability to detect problems in the diagnostic data and to provide proactive monitoring of the diagnostic data in order to better detect and/or predict system problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer program products to generate alerts indicating predetermined conditions exist in a computer system. In one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, the method includes providing a host state representing a state of the computer system, comparing alert definitions to the host state to determine if conditions defined in the alert definitions exist in the host state; and generating alerts in response to the comparing of alert definitions. The host state is a static tree structure including elements in a fixed hierarchical relationship, the elements being given value by associated tokens, the elements and associated tokens representing the hardware and software components of the computer system. The alert definitions generate alerts according to the values of at least one token, at least one alert or a combination of various tokens and/or alerts. The host state is created by providing a static tree structure representing a general computer system. Component information indicating hardware and software components of the computer system is extracted from diagnostic data of the computer system. The host state is generated according to the static tree structure and the component information. The static tree structure includes element types in a fixed hierarchical relationship and the element types represent the hardware and software components of the computer system.
In another embodiment in accordance with the present invention, a monitoring computer system apparatus for generating alerts indicating predetermined conditions exist in a monitored computer system, includes a first data storage area storing a plurality of alert definitions defining respective predetermined conditions in the monitored computer system. A second data storage area stores at least a first host state of the monitored computer system, the first host state having associated token values indicating respective of software and hardware components of the monitored computer system. A monitoring computer is coupled to the first and second data storage areas and the monitoring computer generates alerts when a condition defined in one of the alert definitions is determined to be present in the first host state.
The method, apparatus and computer program products of the present invention provide a component based data structure for the diagnostic data that facilitates problem detection as well as proactive monitoring of the monitored computer system. Further, the present invention can build a representation of a monitored computer system without having any prior knowledge of the hardware and software details of the monitored computer system. Further, the invention can provide support for new computer systems and products in a manner that is more responsive than was previously available.
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Sun Microsystems, “Sun VTS 2.1 User's Guide”, USA, Aug. 1997, Revision A.
“Remote Systems Diagnostics Installation & User Guide, Remote Systems
Chu Kevin L.
Wookey Michael J.
Baderman Scott T.
Beausoliel, Jr. Robert W.
Skjerven Morrill & MacPherson LLP
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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