System and method for proactive distributed agent based network diagnosis

• US 10,608,868 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2017
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Chia-Le, Chorley, Jason, Hill, Jevon J. C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehne, Charles
• Application Number:
  US15/825,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20190165991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 853 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• 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 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0618 based on the physical or logical position
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A method, system, and apparatus are provided for diagnosing network faults by distributing network test policies to remote devices that issue network tests and report network test results from a first remote device which attempts to access a first network resource over a first specified network path, where a central portal responds to a first network test result by issuing a command to one or more additional remote devices to issue one or more additional network tests for evaluating at least part of the first specified network path and report network verification test results having data which is aggregated with data from the first network test result report for use in proactively diagnosing the network fault in the first specified network path.

Claims

1. A method, in an information handling system comprising a processor and a memory, for proactively diagnosing a network fault in a distributed computer network, the method comprising:

distributing, by the system, a plurality of network test policies to a plurality of remote devices, each network test policy at a remote device comprising network test instructions for the remote device to issue network tests and report network test results;

receiving, by the system, a first network test result report from a first remote device which attempts to access a first network resource over a first specified network path, where the first network test result report identifies a first network issue with information identifying a first resource request to the first remote device, a received response from the first remote device, and information identifying one or more neighboring network components through which the first resource request was sent;

issuing, by the system, a command to at least a second remote device in response to the first network issue identified in the first network test result report, where the command instructs at least the second remote device to issue a network test for evaluating at least part of the first specified network path and report network verification test results pursuant to any network test policy stored at the second remote device, where the command is based on network test policies and device selection criteria specifying which remote devices perform what network tests in reaction to a reported network issue; and

aggregating, by the system, data from the first network test result report and network verification test results for use in proactively diagnosing the network fault in the first specified network path.

2. The method of claim 1, where the plurality of remote devices comprises a plurality of mobile devices that are managed by a mobile device management platform.

3. The method of claim 1, where each network test policy at a remote device specifies one or more network tests to be performed by the remote device in terms of network test content and frequency.

4. The method of claim 1, where the plurality of remote devices have authorized and secure access to the distributed computer network to issue network tests that can externally evaluate a location of the network fault in the distributed computer network.

5. The method of claim 1, where distributing the plurality of network test policies comprises periodically issuing network tests to the plurality of remote devices.

6. The method of claim 1, where receiving the first network test result report comprises receiving information specifying a first network component in the first specified network path that was successfully reached by the first remote device attempt to access the first network resource.

7. The method of claim 6, where issuing the command to at least the second remote device comprises instructing the second remote device to issue a second network test along a second specified network path which overlaps with the first specified network path at the first network component.

8. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors to proactively diagnose a network fault in a distributed computer network, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform actions of;

distributing, by the system, a plurality of network test policies to a plurality of remote devices, each network test policy at a remote device comprising network test instructions for the remote device to issue network tests and report network test results;

receiving, by the system, a first network test result report from a first remote device which attempts to access a first network resource over a first specified network path, where the first network test result report identifies a first network issue with information identifying a first resource request to the first remote device, a received response from the first remote device, and information identifying one or more neighboring network components through which the first resource request was sent;

issuing, by the system, a command to at least a second remote device in response to the first network issue identified in the first network test result report, where the command instructs at least the second remote device to issue a network test for evaluating at least part of the first specified network path and report network verification test results pursuant to any network test policy stored at the second remote device, where the command is based on network test policies and device selection criteria specifying which remote devices perform what network tests in reaction to a reported network issue; and

aggregating, by the system, data from the first network test result report and network verification test results for use in proactively diagnosing the network fault in the first specified network path.

9. The information handling system of claim 8, where the plurality of remote devices comprises a plurality of mobile devices that are managed by a mobile device management platform.

10. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to generate the plurality of network test policies such that each network test policy distributed to a remote device specifies one or more network tests to be performed by the remote device in terms of network test content and frequency.

11. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of remote devices have authorized and secure access to the distributed computer network to issue network tests that can externally evaluate a location of the network fault in the distributed computer network.

12. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to distribute the plurality of network test policies by periodically issuing network tests to the plurality of remote devices.

13. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to receive the first network test result report by receiving information specifying a first network component in the first specified network path that was successfully reached by the first remote device attempt to access the first network resource.

14. The information handling system of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions are executable to issue the command to at least the second remote device by instructing the second remote device to issue a second network test along a second specified network path which overlaps with the first specified network path at the first network component.

15. A computer program product stored in a computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the system to proactively diagnose a network fault in a distributed computer network by:

distributing, by the system, a plurality of network test policies to a plurality of remote devices that are managed by a mobile device management platform, each network test policy at a remote device comprising network test instructions for the remote device to issue network tests and report network test results;

receiving, by the system, a first network test result report from a first remote device which attempts to access a first network resource over a first specified network path;

issuing, by the system, a command to at least a second remote device in response to a first network issue identified in the first network test result report, where the command instructs at least the second remote device to issue a network test for evaluating at least part of the first specified network path and report network verification test results pursuant to any network test policy stored at the second remote device, where the command is based on network test policies and device selection criteria specifying which remote devices perform what network tests in reaction to a reported network issue; and

aggregating, by the system, data from the first network test result report and network verification test results for use in proactively diagnosing the network fault in the first specified network path.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the information handling system, causes the system to generate the plurality of network test policies such that each network test policy distributed to a remote device specifies one or more network tests to be performed by the remote device in terms of network test content and frequency.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, where the plurality of remote devices have authorized and secure access to the distributed computer network to issue network tests that can externally evaluate a location of the network fault in the distributed computer network.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the information handling system, causes the system to distribute the plurality of network test policies by periodically issuing network tests to the plurality of remote devices.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the information handling system, causes the system to receive the first network test result report by receiving information specifying a first network component in the first specified network path that was successfully reached by the first remote device attempt to access the first network resource.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the information handling system, causes the system to issue the command to at least the second remote device by instructing the second remote device to issue a second network test along a second specified network path which overlaps with the first specified network path at the first network component.