Methods, systems, and media to correlate errors associated with a cluster

• US 20040230873A1
• Filed: 05/15/2003
• Published: 11/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ward, Calvin Dean
• Granted Patent: US 7,287,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/39
• 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 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

Methods, systems, and media for correlating error events of a cluster are disclosed. Embodiments may identify systems of a cluster potentially impacted by an error and identify one or more error events associated with those systems. Then, embodiments may select one of the identified error events based upon data associated with the identified error event, disregarding other identified error events generated for the same error or errors symptomatic of the error, to report the error to a maintenance provider via a single error event. Many embodiments may identify one or more error events potentially resulting from the same error by identifying error events within a specified time period of the event that triggered the correlation. Several embodiments correlate the error events in an environment that is substantially independent of the cluster. Further embodiments obtain data that describes system interconnections of the cluster and generate a topology based upon the data.

Claims

1. A method for correlating error events of a cluster, the method comprising:

identifying systems of the cluster potentially impacted by an error based upon a topology of the cluster;

identifying an error event associated with the systems, from the error events; and

selecting the error event based upon error identification data associated with the error event, to report the error to a maintenance provider.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining loop data from the systems of the cluster to describe an interconnection between the systems and the cluster and

determining the topology for the cluster based upon the loop data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining loop data comprises receiving a loop designation assigned by a first system of the systems to identify a loop of the cluster and a system designation to identify a second system of the systems coupled with the loop.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the topology comprises storing the loop data in a data structure to associate the loop designation with a second loop designation for the loop, wherein the second loop designation is associated with the loop based upon loop data received from the second system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising forwarding the error events from the systems of the cluster to an environment substantially independent of the cluster to correlate the error events.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the systems of the cluster comprises identifying the systems coupled with sibling loops of the cluster.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the error event comprises identifying error events that associate a loop with a source of the error, the loop being associated with the error event.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the error event comprises identifying error events received within a time period of receipt of the error event.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a redundant error event of the error events, the redundant error event having error identification data that describes the error, wherein the error event and the redundant error event are associated with a first system of the systems and a loop.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a duplicate error event of the error events, the duplicate error event having error identification data that describes the error, wherein the error event is associated with a first system of the systems and a loop and the second error event is associated with a second system of the systems and the loop.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a symptomatic error event of the error events, the symptomatic error event having error identification data that describes a second error, wherein the second error results from the error.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a second error event of the error events having error identification data associated with a lower priority than a priority for the error identification data associated with the error event.

13. An apparatus for correlating error events of a cluster, the apparatus comprising:

a system identifier coupled with the cluster to identify systems of the cluster potentially mpacted by an error based upon a topology of the cluster;

an event identifier coupled with the system identifier to identify an error event associated with the systems, from the error events; and

an event selector coupled with the event identifier to select the error event based upon error identification data associated with the error event, to report the error to a maintenance provider.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising

a loop determiner to obtain loop data from the systems of the cluster to describe an interconnection between the systems and the cluster and

a topology determiner coupled with the loop identifier to determine the topology for the cluster based upon the loop data.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the system identifier comprises a sibling identifier to identify the systems coupled with sibling loops of the cluster.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the event identifier comprises loop circuitry to identify error events that associates a loop with a source of the error, the loop being associated with the error event.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the event identifier comprises a time correlator to identify error events received within a time period of receipt of the error event.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the event selector comprises repetition circuitry to identify a second error event of the error events, wherein the second error event has error identification data that describes the error.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the event selector comprises causation circuitry to identify a second error event of the error events, the second error event having error identification data that describes a symptom of the error.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the event selector comprises priority circuitry to identify a second error event of the error events having error identification data associated with a lower priority than a priority for the error identification data associated with the error event.

21. A computer readable medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation, comprising:

identifying systems of a cluster potentially impacted by an error based upon a topology of the cluster;

identifying an error event associated with the systems, from error events generated by the cluster; and

selecting the error event based upon error identification data associated with the error event, to report the error to a maintenance provider.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the operation further comprises:

obtaining loop data from the systems of the cluster to describe an interconnection between the systems and the cluster and

determining the topology for the cluster based upon the loop data.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the operation further comprises forwarding the error events from the systems of the cluster to an environment substantially independent of the cluster to correlate the error events.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein identifying the error event comprises identifying error events received within a time period of receipt of the error event and error events that associates a loop with a source of the error, the loop being associated with the error event.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a second error event of the error events, wherein the second error event has error identification data that describes the error.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a second error event of the error events, the second error event having error identification data that describes a symptom of the error.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein selecting the error event comprises identifying a second error event of the error events having error identification data associated with a lower priority than a priority for the error identification data associated with the error event.