Monitoring of an automated end-to-end crash analysis system

• US 10,268,563 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2017
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gadi, Sowgandh Sunil, Rao, Naveen Prakash
• Primary Examiner(s): Contino, Paul
• Application Number:
  US15/415,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20170371734A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/321 Display for diagnostics, e.g. diagnostic result display, self-test user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for monitoring a crash analysis system is disclosed. Log messages are accessed pertaining to the operation of a crash analysis system for analyzing a core dump. The log messages are analyzed, at a processor, in order to generate operation results data. A graphic user interface for display on a computer is generated. The graphic user interface includes a graphical representation of the operation results data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring a crash analysis system, said method comprising:

accessing log messages pertaining to the operation of said crash analysis system for analyzing a core dump, wherein said crash analysis system receives crash results and performs a process of analyzing said crash results, wherein said analyzing said crash results further comprises;

automatically determining a culprit module responsible for a crash of a computer system, said crash results corresponding to said crash; and

automatically generating a signature back trace, wherein said signature back trace pertains to a symptom of said crash of said computer system, and wherein said automatically determining a culprit module responsible for said crash of said computer system further comprises;

generating an essential stack of functions corresponding to said crash of said computer system;

determining a tag sequence and a tag depth corresponding to said essential stack of functions;

deriving a list of permissible tag permutations corresponding to said computer system; and

utilizing said tag sequence and said tag depth in combination with said list of permissible tag permutations to identify a culprit module responsible for said computer crash;

analyzing, at a processor, said log messages pertaining to the operation of said crash analysis system in order to generate operation results data; and

generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer, said graphic user interface including a graphical representation of said operation results data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a prefix to said log messages, wherein said prefix contains information identifying said core dump corresponding to said operation results data.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a prefix to said log messages, wherein said prefix contains information identifying a job identification number corresponding to said operation results data.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a prefix to said log messages, wherein said prefix contains information identifying an outcome of said analysis system for said core dump.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a prefix to said log messages, wherein said prefix contains information identifying an error source within said analysis system.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

displaying a graphical representation of said operation results indicating the identity of said core dump.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

displaying a graphical representation of said operation results indicating a source of failure within said analysis system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said generating a graphical a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

including at least a portion of said operations results in a selectable link format; and

displaying a complete log file on said graphic user interface when said user selects said operations results.

9. A method for monitoring the performance of a crash analysis system, said method comprising:

attaching a prefix to log messages generated by said crash analysis system, wherein said crash analysis system receives crash results and performs a process of analyzing said crash results, wherein said analyzing said crash results further comprises;

automatically determining a culprit module responsible for a crash of a computer system, said crash results corresponding to said crash; and

automatically generating a signature back trace, wherein said signature back trace pertains to a symptom of said crash of said computer system, and wherein said automatically determining a culprit module responsible for said crash of said computer system further comprises;

generating an essential stack of functions corresponding to said crash of said computer system;

determining a tag sequence and a tag depth corresponding to said essential stack of functions;

deriving a list of permissible tag permutations corresponding to said computer system; and

utilizing said tag sequence and said tag depth in combination with said list of permissible tag permutations to identify a culprit module responsible for said computer crash;

automatically accessing said log messages generated by said crash analysis system;

analyzing, at a processor, said log messages generated by said crash analysis system in order to generate operation results data; and

generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer, said graphic user interface including a graphical representation of said operation results data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said attaching a prefix to log messages further comprises:

attaching a prefix containing identifying information to said log messages, said identifying information identifies a core dump being analyzed by said crash analysis system when said log messages are generated.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said attaching a prefix to log messages further comprises:

attaching a prefix containing identifying information to said log messages, said identifying information identifies job being performed by said crash analysis system when said log messages are generated.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said attaching a prefix to log messages further comprises:

attaching a prefix containing identifying information to said log messages, said identifying information indicating a success or failure of an analysis being performed by said crash analysis system when said log messages are generated.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein said attaching a prefix to log messages further comprises:

attaching a prefix containing identifying information to said log messages, said identifying information indicating an error source within said analysis being performed by said crash analysis system when said log messages are generated.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein said generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

generating a graphical representation of said operation results indicating the identity of a core dump being analyzed by said crash analysis system when said log messages are generated by said crash analysis system.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

generating a graphical representation of said operation results indicating a source of failure within said crash analysis system.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein said generating a graphic user interface for display on a computer further comprises:

generating a graphical representation of said operation results wherein at least a portion of said operations results are presented in a selectable link format; and

presenting a complete log file corresponding to said operation results, on said graphic user interface, when said when said user selects said selectable link.