Methods and computer program products for carrying out fault diagnosis in an it network

• US 20040199627A1
• Filed: 03/03/2003
• Published: 10/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Frietsch, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,277,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of carrying out fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network. The IT network has a monitoring station arranged for monitoring the monitored device. A routing path between the monitoring station and the monitored device is traced and stored. In response to an apparent fault of the monitored device at least one request to a device or devices along the stored routing path is sent. The fault is located to within a subnetwork of the IT network based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested device or devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of carrying out fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network having a monitoring station, comprising:

tracing and storing a routing path between the monitoring station and the monitored device;

in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, sending at least one request to a device or devices along the stored routing path;

locating the fault to within a subnetwork of the IT network based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested device or devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of tracing, devices along the routing path are identified at a routing layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of tracing comprises sending a packet with a record-route functionality from the monitoring station to the monitored device or vice versa, which causes the routers along the routing path to identify themselves.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of tracing comprises using the Ping program.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of tracing comprises sending a series of packets with a varying time-to-leave or hop-count parameter which causes routers along the routing path in which the time-to-live or number of hops is exceeded to return a message including an identification of the respective router, thereby enabling identification of the routers along the routing path.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of tracing comprises using the Traceroute program.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request sent to a device along the stored routing path is an echo request, and the reply sent by a requested device is an echo reply.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, if more than one device has been found along the routing path in the tracing step, requests are sequentially sent to devices beginning with the device nearest to the monitoring station.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the fault is located in that subnetwork which lies beyond the device furthest from the monitoring station along the routing path that returns a reply or a reply indicating normal functioning.

10. A computer-implemented method of carrying out fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network, said IT network having a topology, and a monitoring station, comprising:

searching a data representation of the topology for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring station and the monitored device within at least a subnetwork of the IT network;

in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, sending at least one request to a device or devices along the interconnecting path;

locating the fault based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested device or devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of searching is also carried out in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the device or devices along the interconnecting path found in the searching step comprise devices at a switching layer.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein, in the step of searching, all interconnecting paths between the monitoring station and the monitored device within at least the subnetwork are searched.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of searching comprises applying a graph search algorithm to the data representation of the topology of at least the subnetwork.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the graph search is a depth-first search or a breadth-first search.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the request sent to a device along the interconnecting path is an echo request, and the reply sent by a requested device is an echo reply.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein, if more than one device is found along the interconnecting path in the step of searching, requests are sequentially sent to devices beginning with the device nearest to the monitoring station.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the fault is located in that device or a connection to that device which lies beyond the device furthest from the monitoring station along the interconnecting path that returns a reply or a reply indicating normal functioning.

19. A method of carrying out fault diagnosis in an IT network in response to an apparent fault of a monitored device, comprising the steps of:

sending at least one request to a routing layer device or devices of the network along a stored routing path, to locate the fault at the routing layer to within at least one subnetwork;

sending at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along an interconnecting path between the monitoring station and the monitored device within the at least one subnetwork; and

locating the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.

20. A method according to claim 19 further comprising the step of tracing and storing the routing path between the monitoring station and the monitored device at the routing layer.

21. A method according to claim 19 wherein the fault at the routing layer is located to within the at least one subnetwork based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested routing layer device or devices.

22. A method according to claim 19 further comprising the step of searching, at the switching layer, a data representation of the topology of at least the at least one located subnetwork for the interconnecting path.

23. A computer-implemented method of carrying out fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network, said IT network having a topology, a routing and a switching layer, at least one subnetwork, and a monitoring station, comprising:

tracing and storing a routing path between the monitoring station and the monitored device at the routing layer;

in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, sending at least one request to a routing layer device or devices along the stored routing path;

locating the fault at the routing layer to within one of the subnetworks based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested routing layer device or devices;

searching, at the switching layer, a data representation of the topology of at least the located subnetwork for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring station and the monitored device within at least the located subnetwork;

sending at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along the interconnecting path;

locating the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of tracing comprises sending a packet with a record-route functionality from the monitoring station to the monitored device or vice versa, which causes the routers along the routing path to identify themselves.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of tracing comprises using the Ping program.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of tracing comprises sending a series of packets with a varying time-to-leave or hop-count parameter which causes routers along the routing path in which the time-to-live or number of hops is exceeded to return a message including an identification of the respective router, thereby enabling identification of the routers along the routing path.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the request sent to a routing layer or switching layer device along the stored routing path or the interconnecting path is an echo request, and the reply sent by a requested device is an echo reply.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein, if more than one routing layer device has been found along the routing path in the tracing step, requests are sequentially sent to routing layer devices beginning with the routing layer device nearest to the monitoring station.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the fault is located to be in that subnetwork which lies beyond the routing layer device furthest from the monitoring station along the routing path that returns a reply or a reply indicating normal functioning.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein in the step of searching all interconnecting paths between the monitoring station and the monitored device within at least the subnetwork are searched.

32. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of searching comprises applying a graph search algorithm to the to the data representation of the topology.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the graph search algorithm is a depth-first search or a breadth-first search.

34. The method of claim 23, wherein, if more than one switching layer device is found along the interconnecting path in the step of searching, requests are sequentially sent to switching layer devices beginning with the switching layer device nearest to the monitoring station.

35. The method of claim 23, wherein the fault is located to be in that switching layer or routing layer device or a connection to that device which lies beyond the device furthest from the monitoring station along the interconnecting and routing path that returns a reply or a reply indicating normal functioning.

27. The method of claim 27, wherein the step of tracing comprises using the Traceroute program.

36. A computer-implemented method of carrying out fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network, said IT network having a topology, a routing and a switching layer, at least one subnetwork, and a monitoring station, comprising:

tracing and storing a routing path between the monitoring station and the monitored device at the routing layer;

searching, at the switching layer, a data representation of the topology for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring station and the monitored device;

in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, sending at least one request to a routing layer device or devices along the stored routing path;

locating the fault at the routing layer to within one of the subnetworks based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested routing layer device or devices;

sending at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along the interconnecting path within the located subnetwork;

locating the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.

37. A computer program product including program code for performing, when executed on a monitoring computer system, fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network;

said program code enables, when executed, a routing path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device to be traced and stored;

the program code is arranged to send, in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, at least one request to a device or devices along the stored routing path;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault to within a subnetwork of the IT network based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested device or devices.

38. A computer program product including program code for performing, when executed on a monitoring computer system, fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network having a topology;

said program code enables, when executed, a data representation of the topology to be searched for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device within at least a subnetwork of the IT network;

the program code is arranged to send, in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, at least one request to a device or devices along the interconnecting path;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested device or devices.

39. A computer program product including program code for performing, when executed on a monitoring computer system, fault diagnosis in an IT network in response to an apparent fault of a monitored device;

the program code is arranged to send at least one request to a routing layer device or devices of the network along a stored routing path, to locate the fault at the routing layer to within at least one subnetwork;

the program code is arranged to send at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along an interconnecting path between the monitoring station and the monitored device within the at least one subnetwork; and

the program code is arranged to locate the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.

40. A computer program product including program code for performing, when executed on a monitoring computer system, fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network having a topology, a routing and a switching layer, and at least one subnetwork;

said program code enables, when executed, a routing path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device at the routing layer to be traced and stored;

the program code is arranged to send, in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, at least one request to a routing layer device or devices along the stored routing path;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault at the routing layer to within one of the subnetworks based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested routing layer device or devices;

the program code enables a data representation of the topology of at least the located subnetwork to be searched, at the switching layer, for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device within at least the located subnetwork;

the program code is arranged to send at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along the interconnecting path;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.

41. A computer program product including program code for performing, when executed on a monitoring computer system, fault diagnosis of a monitored device in an IT network having a topology, a routing and a switching layer, and at least one subnetwork;

said program code enables, when executed, a routing path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device at the routing layer to be traced and stored;

the program code enables a data representation of the topology to be searched, at the switching layer, for at least one interconnecting path between the monitoring computer system and the monitored device;

the program code is arranged to send, in response to an apparent fault of the monitored device, at least one request to a routing layer device or devices along the stored routing path;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault at the routing layer to within one of the subnetworks based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested routing layer device or devices;

the program code is arranged to send at least one request to a switching layer device or devices along the interconnecting path within the located subnetwork;

the program code is arranged to locate the fault at the switching layer based on whether or what sort of a reply to the request is received from the requested switching layer device or devices.