Apparatuses for generation and collection of information, and computer-readable recording medium

• US 20060031487A1
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Noguchi, Mayumi, Chimoto, Tetsuo
• Application Number:
  US11/246,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031487A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0724 in a multiprocessor or a multi-core unit multiprocessors per se G06F15/80
• 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 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

This invention has a remote machine that collects local-machine logs via a network from a plurality of local machines, each of which has memory that stores local-machine logs generated due to its specific generation factor. This remote machine has a CPU that collects local-machine logs stored on the memory of a local machine only when the priority of the local machine is higher than the preset priority.

Claims

1. An information collection apparatus which collects information via transmission paths from a plurality of information generation apparatuses, wherein each of said information generation apparatuses has a generation-side information storage unit which stores the information generated by said information generation apparatuses due to a specific generation factor, said information collection apparatus comprising:

a table storage unit which stores a priority definition table in which respective priorities of said plurality of information generation apparatuses are defined;

an information collection unit which refers to the priority definition table upon reception of a notice from an information generation apparatus that is any of said information generation apparatuses and in which an amount of information stored on said generation-side information storage unit of said information generation apparatus has reached a predetermined amount, where if the priority of said information generation apparatus is higher than a preset priority the collection unit responds to the notice by collecting the information stored on the generation-side information storage unit of said information generation apparatus, and where if the priority of said information generation apparatus is lower than the preset priority then the collection unit disregards the notice and does not perform collection for the notice, said priority and said preset priority indicating whether data should be collected; and

a collection-side information storage unit which stores the information collected by said information collection unit.

2. An information collection apparatus which collects information via transmission paths from a plurality of information generation apparatuses, wherein each of said information generation apparatuses has a generation-side information storage unit which stores the information generated by said information generation apparatuses due to a specific generation factor, said information collection apparatus comprising:

an information collection unit which, upon reception of notices sent from corresponding information generation apparatuses based upon an amount of information stored on corresponding said generation-side information storage units, responds to notices from information generation apparatuses with priorities higher than a preset priority by collecting stored generated information from such information generation apparatuses, and responds to notices corresponding to information generation apparatuses with priorities lower than the preset priority by disregarding such notices by not collecting stored generated information from respective information generation apparatuses, wherein said priorities indicate whether data is collected; and

a collection-side information storage unit which stores the information collected by said information collection unit.

3. The information collection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the priorities are set separately for each of said information generation apparatuses.

4. An information collection apparatus which collects information via transmission paths from a plurality of information generation apparatuses, wherein each of said information generation apparatuses has a generation-side information storage unit which stores the information generated by said information generation apparatuses due to a specific generation factor, said information collection apparatus comprising:

an information collection unit which, upon reception of a notice sent from an information generation apparatus in which a given error has occurred and from which the notice has been sent responsive thereto, collects information stored on the generation-side information storage unit of said information generation apparatus if the priority of said information generation apparatus is higher than a preset priority and disregards the notice by not collecting the information stored if the priority of said information generation apparatus is lower than the preset priority, where the information generation apparatus may be any of the information storage apparatuses, said priority and said preset priority indicating whether data should be collected; and

a collection-side information storage unit which stores the information collected by said information collection unit.

5. An information generation apparatus which generates information to be collected by an information collection apparatus via a transmission path, said information generation apparatus comprising:

an information generation unit which generates information due to a specific generation factor of the information; and

an information storage unit which stores for collection the generated information if said information has a priority higher than a preset priority and which does not store for collection the generated information if said information has a priority lower than the preset priority, said priority and said preset priority indicating whether data should be collected.

6. A computer-readable recording medium where an information collecting program, with which information is collected via transmission paths from a plurality of information generation apparatuses each of which has a generation-side information storage unit that stores information generated by said information generation apparatuses due to a specific generation factor, is recorded, said program for making a computer execute a process, the process comprising:

storing a priority definition table in which respective priorities of said plurality of information generation apparatuses are defined in a table storage unit;

referring to the priority definition table upon reception of notification from an information generation apparatus that is any of said information generation apparatuses, in which the amount of information stored on said generation-side information storage unit of said information generation apparatus has reached a predetermined amount, where if the priority of said information generation apparatus is higher than a preset priority the notice is responded to by collecting the information stored on the generation-side information storage unit of said information generation apparatus, and where if the priority of said information generation apparatus is lower than a preset priority then the notice is disregarded by not collecting the stored information, said priority and said preset priority indicating whether data should be collected; and

storing the collected information in a collection-side information storage unit.

7. A computer-readable recording medium where an information generating program, with which information to be collected by the information collection apparatus via a transmission path is generated, is recorded, said program for making a computer execute a process, the process comprising:

generating information based on a specific generation factor of the information; and

storing for collection the generated information if said information has a priority higher than a preset priority and not storing for collection the generated information if said information has a priority lower than the preset priority, said priority and said preset priority indicating whether data should be collected.

8. An information collection method for centrally collecting log information from log generating computer systems, the method comprising:

at a collecting computer system, receiving notices from the log generating computer systems indicating that a respective log is available for collection, and responsive to the notices collecting logs from notice-sending log generating computer systems that the collecting computer system determines to have a priority that is higher than a preset priority and disregarding the notices from notice-sending log generating computer systems that the collecting computer system determines have a priority that is lower than the preset priority by not collecting logs from those systems, said priority and said preset priority determining whether data should be collected.

9. An information collection method according to claim 8, wherein a log of a given log generating computer is prioritized for collection relative to another log of the given log generating computer based on at least one of predefined priorities of the respective logs and categories of occurrences captured by the respective logs.

10. An information collection method according to claim 9, wherein a log comprises entries corresponding to occurrences on its respective log generating computer, and where some occurrences are errors on such log generating computer.

11. An information collection method according to claim 9, wherein a log becomes available for collection at a log generating computer system based on a size of the log.

12. An information collection method according to claim 10, wherein a log is collected or made available for collection based on a size of the log.

13. A method of collecting information on a network from a plurality of log generating computer systems, comprising:

on each of the log generating computer systems each having a plurality of different logs;

responsive to detection of occurrences of errors and other logged events, entering a log entry into one of the logs of a type corresponding to a type of the respective error or other logged event; and

based on a size and priority of one of the logs of the log generating computing system, causing the log to be available to be collected by a central collecting computer that collects logs from the log generating computer systems, said priority indicating whether data should be collected; and

on a log collecting computer system, storing a threshold collection priority, and determining whether or not to perform a collection of the respective logs available for collection by comparing the threshold collection priority to collection priorities of the log generating computer systems having the logs available for collection.