System and method for fault identification in an electronic system based on context-based alarm analysis

• US 20060149990A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tech Mahindra Limited
• Original Assignee: Satyam Computer Services Limited (Tech Mahindra Limited)
• Inventors: Sridhar, V., S., Veena, Sridhar, G., Rao, K. Kalyana
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability

Abstract

A fault identification system analyzes alarm information and the associated contextual information to identify the occurred faults. The contextual information is based on usecases, transactions, and functions associated with the electronic system under consideration. Multiple detectors that form part of knowledge repositories are used in the process of fault identification.

Claims

1. A fault identification system, for efficiently identifying the faults occurring in a core electronic system based on the analysis of the observed alarm information and the state of hardware and software subsystems, comprising means for reducing the ambiguity and complexity arising due to the enormity of a plurality of alarms generated by said core electronic system and further comprising:

(a) an online subsystem, TRE, for analyzing said core electronic system for a plurality of transactions;

(b) an online subsystem, ERE, for analyzing said core electronic system for a plurality of execution snapshots with respect to said plurality of alarms;

(c) an online subsystem, FRE, for analyzing said core electronic system with respect to a plurality of functions of said core electronic system based on said plurality of alarms;

(d) an online subsystem, SRE, for analyzing said core electronic system with respect to a plurality of hard-variables;

(e) an online subsystem, MRE, for analyzing said core electronic system with respect to a plurality of soft-variables;

(f) an online subsystem, CIC, for collecting said plurality of alarms and for generating contextual space information associated with said plurality of alarms;

(g) an online subsystem, GRE, for identifying and localizing faults based on said plurality of alarms and a contextual information associated with said plurality of alarms; and

(h) an offline subsystem, SS, for analyzing said core electronic system with respect to a plurality of usecases and a plurality of transactions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said TRE subsystem comprises a procedure to modify a designated function of said core electronic system to indicate the beginning of an epoch and to modify said core electronic system to indicate the end of said epoch on satisfying of a plurality of conditions comprising:

completion of said designated function, completion of a plurality of threads created by said designated function and a plurality of functions invoked by said designated function, and completion of processing of a plurality of messages posted by said designated function and a plurality of functions invoked by said designated function.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said FRE subsystem comprises a procedure to determine a function associated with each of said plurality of alarms using said plurality of execution snapshots.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said SRE subsystem, comprises a procedure to collect a plurality of data values related to each of a plurality of hard-variables with respect to a plurality of epoch cycles of a plurality of epochs.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said SRE subsystem further comprises a procedure to obtain a plurality of data values associated with each of a plurality of hard-variables with respect to a plurality of epoch cycles of an epoch and cluster said plurality of data values into a predefined number of clusters.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said MRE subsystem, comprises a procedure to collect a plurality of data values related to each of a plurality of soft-variables with respect to a plurality of epoch cycles of a plurality of epochs.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said MRE subsystem further comprises a procedure to obtain a plurality of data values associated with each of a plurality of soft-variables with respect to a plurality of epoch cycles of an epoch and cluster said plurality of data values into a predefined number of clusters.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said CIC subsystem comprises a procedure to identify usecase related information associated with a usecase, wherein said identification is based on determination of a plurality of soft-variables of monitor space associated with said usecase and determination of a plurality of hard-variables of signal space associated with said usecase.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said CIC subsystem further comprises a procedure to identify transaction related information associated with a transaction, wherein said identification is based on determination of a plurality of soft-variables of monitor space associated with said transaction and determination of a plurality of hard-variables of signal space associated with said transaction.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said CIC subsystem further comprises a procedure to identify a context <

usecase, transaction, function>

associated with an alarm raised in an epoch cycle of an epoch, wherein said identification of <

usecase>

of said context using a U-Detector associated with said epoch, a plurality of usecase related soft-variables associated with said epoch, and a plurality of usecase related hard-variables associated with said epoch, said identification of <

transaction>

of said context using a T-Detector associated with said epoch, a plurality of transaction related soft-variables associated with said epoch, and a plurality of transaction related hard-variables associated with said epoch, and said identification of <

function>

of said context using execution space information associated with said alarm.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein said GRE subsystem comprises a procedure to identify a plurality of occurred faults during an epoch cycle of an epoch, wherein said identification is based on determining of a plurality of alarms raised during said epoch cycle, determining of a context <

usecase, transaction, a plurality of <

functions>

>

associated with said epoch and said plurality of alarms, determining of a plurality of symptom detectors associated with said epoch, and determining of a fault detector associated with said epoch.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said GRE subsystem further comprises a procedure to localize an identified fault, wherein said localization is based on determining of a context <

usecase, transaction, a plurality of <

functions>

>

associated with said identified fault, determining of a plurality of usecase related software components associated with <

usecase>

of said context, determining of a plurality of usecase related hardware blocks associated with <

usecase>

of said context, determining of a plurality of transaction related software components associated with <

transaction>

of said context, determining of a plurality of transaction related hardware blocks associated with <

transaction>

of said context, determining of a plurality of function related software components associated with said plurality of <

functions>

of said context, determining of a plurality of function related hardware blocks associated with said plurality of <

functions>

of said context, computation of intersection comprising of;

said plurality of usecase related software components, said plurality of transaction related software components, and said plurality of function related software components, and computation of intersection comprising of;

said plurality of usecase related hardware blocks, said plurality of transaction related hardware blocks, and said plurality of function related hardware blocks.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said SS subsystem comprises a procedure to train a usecase detector associated with an epoch and a usecase, said training comprises computation of centroid of values of each of a plurality of soft-variables associated with said epoch and said usecase over a plurality of epoch cycles associated with said epoch, and computation of centroid of values of each of a plurality of hard-variables associated with said epoch and said usecase over a plurality of epoch cycles associated with said epoch.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said SS subsystem further comprises a procedure to train a transaction detector associated with an epoch and a transaction, said training comprises computation of centroid of values of each of a plurality of soft-variables associated with said epoch and said transaction over a plurality of epoch cycles associated with said epoch, and computation of centroid of values of each of a plurality of hard-variables associated with said epoch and said transaction over a plurality of epoch cycles associated with said epoch.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein said SS subsystem further comprises a procedure to train an S-Detector associated with an epoch and an alarm to detect a symptom, wherein said training comprises setting up of hardware and software conditions to observe said symptom with respect to said epoch during execution of said core electronic system, executing of said core electronic system, and determining of a context <

usecase, transaction, function>

associated with said epoch and said alarm on observing said symptom.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein said SS subsystem further comprises a procedure to train a B-Detector associated with an epoch to detect a fault, wherein said training comprises setting up of hardware and software conditions to observe said fault with respect to said epoch during execution of said core electronic system, executing of said core electronic system, observing of a plurality of alarms raised during execution of said core electronic system, determining of a plurality of symptoms on occurrence of said fault, and determining of a context <

usecase, transaction, a plurality of <

functions>

>

associated with said epoch on observing said fault.