System and method for determining fault isolation in an enterprise computing system

• US 20040187048A1
• Filed: 03/20/2003
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products BV (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Cox, Robert V., Heracleous, Stephanos S., Angamuthu, Karthikeyan
• Granted Patent: US 7,340,649 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• 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 11/079 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 41/0645 by additionally acting on or stimulating the network after receiving notifications

Abstract

A system and method for determining fault isolation in an enterprise computing system is disclosed. A method includes automatically troubleshooting errors in an enterprise computing system that receives at an analyzer engine a status notification from a first component. In response to receiving the status notification, the method automatically selects a first analyzer policy file from a set of analyzer policy files based on the status notification received at the analyzer engine, wherein the analyzer policy file contains troubleshooting logic for determining root causes for errors. The method automatically attempts to communicate with a second component based on the troubleshooting logic within the first analyzer policy file. The method automatically determines a root cause for the status notification based on the troubleshooting logic in the selected analyzer policy file and based on information obtained in connection with the attempt to communicate with the second component.

Claims

1. A method for automatically troubleshooting errors in an enterprise computing system, the method comprising:

receiving at an analyzer engine a status notification from a first component within the enterprise computing system;

in response to receiving the status notification, automatically selecting a first analyzer policy file from a set of analyzer policy files based on the status notification received, wherein the analyzer policy files contain troubleshooting logic for determining root causes for errors in the enterprise computing system;

automatically attempting to communicate with a second component of the enterprise computing system based on the troubleshooting logic within the first analyzer policy file; and

automatically determining a root cause for the status notification based on the troubleshooting logic in the selected analyzer policy file and based on information obtained in connection with the attempt to communicate with the second component of the enterprise computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzer policy file includes an ordered list of enterprise computing system components to be contacted.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first component and the second component comprise the same component within the enterprise computing system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the status notification comprises simple network management protocol (SNMP) traps.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the status notification comprises network (NT) events.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing output for a user, wherein the output identifies the root cause for the status notification.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing output comprises automatically causing the enterprise system to notify an administrator in response to determining the root cause.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising based on the root cause for the status notification, identifying corrective steps for the enterprise computing system.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically selecting a second analyzer policy file from the set of analyzer policy files based on information obtained in connection with the attempt to communicate with the second component and the status notification until a root cause is determined.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

receiving an error notification at a fault isolation engine within an enterprise computing system;

based on the error notification, automatically retrieving troubleshooting logic from an analyzer policy file based on the error notification;

automatically selecting one or more analyzer modules from a set of analyzer modules based on the troubleshooting logic in the analyzer policy file, wherein the analyzer module contains a diagnosis protocol for testing a computer component or utility within the enterprise computing system;

automatically attempting to test the computer component or utility based on the diagnosis protocol contained in the analyzer module such that test data is received at the fault isolation engine; and

in response to receiving the test data, automatically determining a root cause for the error notification based on the test data.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to the test data not being able to determine the root cause, automatically retrieving additional troubleshooting logic from the analyzer policy file based on the test data and the error notification;

automatically selecting additional analyzer modules based on the additional troubleshooting logic; and

automatically attempting to test the computer component or utility in a listed order in the additional analyzer module such that test data is received at the fault isolation engine.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis protocol comprises a predefined set of instructions for testing the computer component or utility.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein automatically retrieving the troubleshooting logic from the analyzer policy file further comprising accessing a computer system outside of the enterprise computing system such that the computer system contains the troubleshooting logic.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising in response to determining the root cause for the error notification, automatically providing output to a user such that the output identifies the root cause for the error notification.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the output to the user further comprising identifying corrective steps for the enterprise computing system to prevent the error notification.

16. A fault isolation troubleshooting system, comprising:

an analyzer module selected from a set of analyzer modules, each analyzer module contains a diagnosis protocols operable to gather information from a computer component for determining a root cause of a fault, wherein the diagnosis protocol provides instructions to test one or more computer components;

an analyzer policy file selected from a set of analyzer policy files, each analyzer policy file contains troubleshooting logic for selecting the analyzer module; and

an analyzer engine operable to utilize a status notification for selecting the analyzer policy file, such that the analyzer engine utilizes the information from the computer component to either return a determination of the root cause of the fault or to select another analyzer policy file.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the analyzer modules comprises common analyzer modules and component analyzer modules.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the analyzer policy file comprises an object-based file including an extensible markup language (XML) metadata interchange format.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a analysis results file generated by the analyzer engine, the analysis results file operable to identify the root cause of the fault and provide corrective steps.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising an output device operable to display the analysis results file to a user.