Detecting unresponsiveness of a process

• US 10,061,631 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2016
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Xufeng, Yang, Oliver Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): Lottich, Joshua P
• Application Number:
  US15/176,656
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method for detecting unresponsiveness of a process, wherein for each target process in a plurality of target processes, creating and activating a timer on a system kernel side, so as to time the target process; and when timing of the corresponding timer exceeds a predetermined time threshold, determining the target process to be unresponsive, and performing a predetermined associated action.

Claims

1. A method for detecting unresponsiveness of a process, the method comprising:

for each target process in a plurality of target processes, creating and activating a timer on a system kernel side to time the target process; and

when timing of the timer exceeds a predetermined time threshold, determining the target process to be unresponsive, and performing a predetermined associated action;

wherein the predetermined time threshold and the predetermined associated action are set in response to a setting command from the target process.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the target process is a user space process.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving a heartbeat message from the target process, resetting the timer to retime the target process.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the timer records a flag indicating receipt of a predetermined character from the target process.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein in response to receiving a heartbeat message from the target process, resetting the timer to retime the target process comprises:

obtaining a character written by the target process from the heartbeat message; and

in response to determining that the character is the predetermined character, setting the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

in response to receiving a close message from the target process, performing a corresponding operation based on the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein in response to receiving a close message from the target process, performing a corresponding operation based on the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process comprises:

stopping the timer when the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process; and

keeping the timer running when the flag is not indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating a real-time kernel thread on the system kernel side to periodically transmit a heartbeat message to a hardware watchdog; and

when a fatal problem occurs, stopping transmission of the heartbeat message to the hardware watchdog, wherein the hardware watchdog resets the system.

9. An apparatus for detecting unresponsiveness of a process, the apparatus comprising computer-executable logic operating in a memory, wherein the computer-executable program logic is configured to enable execution across one or more processors:

for each target process in a plurality of target processes, create and activate a timer on a system kernel side to time the target process; and

when timing of the timer exceeds a predetermined time threshold, determine the target process to be unresponsive, and perform a predetermined associated action;

wherein the predetermined time threshold and the predetermined associated action are set in response to a setting command from the target process.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the target process is a user space process.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a heartbeat response module configured to, in response to receiving a heartbeat message from the target process, reset the timer to retime the target process.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the timer records a flag indicating receipt of a predetermined character from the target process.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further configured to:

obtain a character written by the target process from the heartbeat message; and

in response to determining that the character is the predetermined character, set the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

in response to receiving a close message from the target process, perform a corresponding operation based on the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further configured to:

stop the corresponding timer when the flag indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process; and

keep the corresponding timer running when the flag is not indicating receipt of the predetermined character from the target process.

16. The apparatus according to claim 9, further configured to:

create a real-time kernel thread on the system kernel side to periodically transmit a heartbeat message to a hardware watchdog; and

when a fatal problem occurs, stop transmission of the heartbeat message to the hardware watchdog, wherein the hardware watchdog resets the system.

17. A computer program product for detecting process unresponsiveness, the computer program product being tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and including computer executable instructions that, when being executed, cause the computer to

for each target process in a plurality of target processes, creating and activating a timer on a system kernel side to time the target process;

and

when timing of the timer exceeds a predetermined time threshold, determining the target process to be unresponsive, and performing a predetermined associated action;

wherein the predetermined time threshold and the predetermined associated action are set in response to a setting command from the target process.