System and method for using root cause analysis to generate a representation of resource dependencies

• US 20050278273A1
• Filed: 05/26/2004
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Uthe, Robert Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,552,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for using event management root cause analysis to depict resource dependencies are provided. With the system and method, since the root cause analysis of known event management systems provides a mechanism for defining interactions of enterprise components for root cause analysis purposes, this information is used as a basis for obtaining enterprise component relationship information that may be used by other management applications. That is, the system and method monitor the application of correlation rules to event notifications from various enterprise components and determine relationships of the various enterprise components based on the results of the application of the correlation rules. These relationships may then be stored in a data structure representing the system environment and may be used by other management systems or displayed to the user in a graphical format that graphically represents the system environment.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for determining system resource dependencies, comprising:

receiving a first event notification from a first system resource;

performing root cause analysis on the first event notification from the first system resource, wherein performing root cause analysis on the first event notification includes applying one or more correlation rules to information in the first event notification;

identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources based on the application of the one or more correlation rules to the information in the first event notification; and

generating an output based on the identified one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and the other system resources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources includes determining whether the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein if the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification from a second system resource, identifying one or more dependency relationships includes generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the first system resource as being dependent upon the second system resource.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources includes determining whether the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second even notification, identifying one or more dependency relationships includes generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the second system resource as being dependent upon the first system resource.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the first system resource to at least one service description based on the identified one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the output is a graphical representation of the one or more dependency relationships.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources is recursively performed until a predetermined level of dependency of system resources is achieved.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a resource dependency data structure associated with the first system resource;

determining if a dependency relationship in the resource dependency data structure is not present within the identified one or more dependency relationships; and

removing the dependency relationship in the resource dependency data structure if it is not present within the identified one or more dependency relationships.

10. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for determining system resource dependencies, comprising:

first instructions for receiving a first event notification from a first system resource;

second instructions for performing root cause analysis on the first event notification from the first system resource, wherein performing root cause analysis on the first event notification includes applying one or more correlation rules to information in the first event notification;

third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources based on the application of the one or more correlation rules to the information in the first event notification; and

fourth instructions for generating an output based on the identified one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and the other system resources.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources include instructions for determining whether the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein if the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification from a second system resource, the third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships include instructions for generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the first system resource as being dependent upon the second system resource.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources include instructions for determining whether the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein if the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second even notification, the third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships include instructions for generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the second system resource as being dependent upon the first system resource.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

fifth instructions for adding the first system resource to at least one service description based on the identified one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the output is a graphical representation of the one or more dependency relationships.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the third instructions for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources are recursively executed until a predetermined level of dependency of system resources is achieved.

18. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

fifth instructions for identifying a resource dependency data structure associated with the first system resource;

sixth instructions for determining if a dependency relationship in the resource dependency data structure is not present within the identified one or more dependency relationships; and

seventh instructions for removing the dependency relationship in the resource dependency data structure if it is not present within the identified one or more dependency relationships.

19. A system for determining system resource dependencies, comprising:

means for receiving a first event notification from a first system resource;

means for performing root cause analysis on the first event notification from the first system resource, wherein performing root cause analysis on the first event notification includes applying one or more correlation rules to information in the first event notification;

means for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources based on the application of the one or more correlation rules to the information in the first event notification; and

means for generating an output based on the identified one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and the other system resources.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources includes means for determining whether the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the means for identifying one or more dependency relationships includes means for generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the first system resource as being dependent upon the second system resource, if the first event notification is a symptom of an event associated with a second event notification from a second system resource.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for identifying one or more dependency relationships between the first system resource and other system resources includes means for determining whether the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second event notification received from a second system resource.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for identifying one or more dependency relationships includes means for generating a dependency relationship representation in a dependency data structure, wherein the dependency relationship representation identifies the second system resource as being dependent upon the first system resource, if the first event notification is associated with an event that is a root cause of another event associated with a second even notification.