Failure recognition, notification, and prevention for learning and self-healing capabilities in a monitored system

• US 20070055915A1
• Filed: 09/07/2005
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Labadie, Eric, Kobylinski, Krzysztof
• Granted Patent: US 7,823,029 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence

Abstract

The present invention provides failure recognition, notification, and prevention for learning and self-healing capabilities in a monitored system. A system to collect monitoring data is monitored. A failure of the system is detected; A failure point for the detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data is identified and at least one predefined action with the identified failure point is associated. This process is repeated for a plurality of system failures. When a state of the system is determined to be approaching an identified failure point, the at least one predefined action associated with that identified failure point is performed.

Claims

1. A method for failure recognition, comprising:

monitoring a system to collect monitoring data;

detecting a failure of the system;

identifying a failure point for the detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data; and

associating at least one predefined action with the identified failure point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one predefined action comprises:

at least one of a preventive action or a notification.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a state of the system is approaching the identified failure point.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

performing the at least one predefined action if the state of the system is determined to be approaching the identified failure point.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically avoiding the identified failure point during operation of the system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting at least one additional failure of the system; and

repeating the detecting, identifying, and associating steps for each additional detected failure, wherein a plurality of identified failure points are identified, and wherein at least one predefined action is associated with each of the plurality of identified failure points.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining if a state of the system is approaching any of the plurality of identified failure points.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

if the state of the system is approaching any of the identified failure points, performing the at least one predefined action associated with that failure point.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

automatically avoiding any of the plurality of identified failure points during operation of the system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data space defined by the monitoring data comprises a multi-dimensional data space.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying values of the monitoring data in a neighborhood of the identified failure point.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

dividing the neighborhood of the identified failure point into pre-failure data and post-failure data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the pre-failure data and post-failure data identify pre- and post-failure states of the system, respectively.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

dividing the pre-failure data into a plurality of ranges.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining if a state of the system reaches a point within a space defined by one of the plurality of ranges; and

performing at least one predefined action when a state of the system reaches a point within the space defined by that range.

16. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer usable code into a computing system, wherein the computer useable code, in combination with the computing system is capable of performing the following:

monitoring a system to collect monitoring data;

detecting a failure of the system;

identifying a failure point for the detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data; and

associating at least one predefined action with the identified failure point.

17. A system for failure recognition, comprising:

means for monitoring a system to collect monitoring data;

means for detecting at least one failure of the monitored system;

means for identifying a failure point for each detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data; and

means for associating at least one predefined action with each identified failure point.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one predefined action comprises:

at least one of a preventive action or a notification.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

means for determining if a state of the monitored system is approaching any of the identified failure points.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the monitored system automatically avoids any identified failure point during its operation.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the data space defined by the monitoring data comprises a multi-dimensional data space.

22. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

means for identifying values of the monitoring data in a neighborhood of the identified failure point.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for dividing the neighborhood of the identified failure point into pre-failure data and post-failure data.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the pre-failure data and post-failure data identify pre- and post-failure states of the system, respectively.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

means for dividing the pre-failure data into a plurality of ranges.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

means for determining if a state of the system reaches a point within a space defined by one of the plurality of ranges; and

means for performing at least one predefined action when a state of the system reaches a point within the space defined by that range.

27. A computer program product for failure recognition, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer useable program code embodied therein, the computer useable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to monitor a system to collect monitoring data;

computer usable program code configured to detect a failure of the system;

computer usable program code configured to identify a failure point for the detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data; and

computer usable program code configured to associate at least one predefined action with the identified failure point.

28. A failure learning process, comprising:

monitoring a system to collect monitoring data;

detecting a failure of the system;

identifying a failure point for the detected failure in a data space defined by the monitoring data;

associating at least one predefined action with the identified failure point;

storing information regarding the identified failure point and each predefined action associated therewith; and

repeating each of the above steps to learn additional failure points.

29. The process of claim 28, further comprising:

modifying an operation of the system based on the stored information to avoid any of the failure points.