Method for communicating diagnostic data

• US 20040088140A1
• Filed: 10/30/2002
• Published: 05/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Data Quill Limited
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Karkare, Ashish, OʼKonski, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 6,996,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/183
• 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 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• 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: H04L 41/0273 using web services for network management, e.g. simple object access protocol [SOAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0286 for search or classification or discovery of web services providing management functionalities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

The present invention is a method for communicating diagnostic data. In one embodiment, a platform specific characteristic of a computer is ascertained using a computer application that is compliant with a platform independent specification. A message is received requesting diagnostic information about the computer, and a reply is sent conveying diagnostic information about the computer.

Claims

1. A method for communicating diagnostic data comprising:

ascertaining a platform specific characteristic of a computer using a computer application that is compliant with a platform independent specification;

receiving a message requesting diagnostic information about said computer; and

sending a reply conveying said diagnostic information about said computer.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said ascertaining comprises using a Web Service application to ascertain said platform specific characteristic.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising installing a Web Service application upon said computer.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein said ascertaining comprises using said Web Service application to determine a computer operating system resident upon said computer.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein said Web Service application translates said message into a format compatible with said operating system resident upon said computer.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising collecting diagnostic data about said computer in response to said receiving of said message.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said message is compliant with the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising using said computer to collect diagnostic data from a second computer communicatively coupled with said computer.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein a Web Service application is resident upon said second computer and comprising conveying diagnostic information about said second computer to said computer using said Web Service application.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising utilizing said diagnostic information to estimate the probability of failure of said computer.

11. A computer system comprising:

a bus;

a memory coupled to said bus; and

a processor coupled to said bus, said processor for executing a method for communicating diagnostic data comprising;

ascertaining a platform specific characteristic of a computer using a computer application that is compliant with a platform independent specification;

receiving a message requesting diagnostic information about said computer; and

sending a reply conveying said diagnostic information about said computer.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein a Web Service application resident upon said computer system is used to ascertain said platform specific characteristic.

13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein said method further comprises installing a Web Service application upon said computer.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein said Web Service application is used to determine a computer operating system resident upon said computer.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein said Web Service application translates said message into a format compatible with said operating system resident upon said computer.

16. The computer system of claim 11, wherein said method further comprises collecting diagnostic data about said computer in response to said receiving of said message.

17. The computer system of claim 11, wherein said message is compliant with the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification.

18. The computer system of claim 11, wherein said method further comprises using said computer to collect diagnostic data from a second computer communicatively coupled with said computer.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein a Web Service application is resident upon said second computer and conveys diagnostic information about said second computer to said computer using said Web Service application.

20. The computer system of claim 11, wherein said method further comprises utilizing said diagnostic information to estimate the probability of failure of said computer.

21. A computer-usable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for causing a computer system to perform a method for communicating diagnostic data comprising:

ascertaining a platform specific characteristic of a computer using a computer application that is compliant with a platform independent specification;

receiving a message requesting diagnostic information about said computer; and

sending a reply conveying said diagnostic information about said computer.

22. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said ascertaining comprises using a Web Service application to ascertain said platform specific characteristic.

23. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said method further comprises installing a Web Service application upon said computer using said computer-usable medium.

24. The computer-usable medium of claim 23, wherein said Web Service application determines a computer operating system resident upon said computer.

25. The computer-usable medium of claim 24, wherein said Web Service application translates said message into a format compatible with said operating system resident upon said computer.

26. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said method further comprises collecting diagnostic data about said computer in response to said receiving of said message.

27. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said message is compliant with the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification.

28. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said method further comprises using said computer to collect diagnostic data from a second computer communicatively coupled with said computer.

29. The computer-usable medium of claim 28, wherein a Web Service application is resident upon said second computer and conveys diagnostic information about said second computer to said computer using said Web Service application.

30. The computer-usable medium of claim 21, wherein said method further comprises utilizing said diagnostic information to estimate the probability of failure of said computer.