Customizable system for the automatic gathering of software service information

• US 20070294593A1
• Filed: 06/05/2006
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ruggles, Jeffrey Ralph, Farber, Joel Frank, Haller, Daniel Michael, Dreher, Brian S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and systems for a customizable collector application, which automates multiple diagnostic techniques to obtain sets of diagnostic information. The collector application is easily customizable for use by different products, and may reduce the diagnostic information gathering to a single session. This includes gathering all of the required sets of information about a product problem, the hardware environment, the maintenance levels of the operating system environment, and the involved middleware, both local and distributed. In addition, the collector application has a reusable framework designed to have minor external customization for each product that requires its'"'"' service. The output of the collector application may be provided in a format, such as XML, that is viewable by another application, such as browser.

Claims

1. A method of gathering diagnostic information in a customized manner for a target running on a computer, said method comprising:

receiving a specification file that identifies sets of diagnostic information requested by the target to be collected from the computer;

gathering the sets of diagnostic information automatically based on the specification file, and

providing the diagnostic information in a format that is specified in the specification file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the specification file comprises receiving the specification file from a source external to the computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the specification file comprises receiving the specification file from an application running on the computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the sets of diagnostic information comprises gathering diagnostic information about a hardware environment of the computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the sets of diagnostic information comprises gathering diagnostic information about an operating system running on the computer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the sets of diagnostic information comprises gathering diagnostic information about a middleware environment of the computer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the sets of diagnostic information comprises executing commands specified by the target in the specification file.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein executing commands specified in the specification file comprises executing middleware commands specified in the specification file.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the diagnostic information in the format that is specified in the specification file comprises providing the diagnostic information in an extensible markup language format that is specified in the specification file.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the diagnostic information in the format that is specified in the specification file comprises providing the diagnostic information in an extensible markup language format that is specified in the specification file.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the diagnostic information in the format that is specified in the specification file comprises transmitting the diagnostic information to another computer over a network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the diagnostic information in the format that is specified in the specification file comprises providing the diagnostic information to a browser application running on the computer.

13. A computer comprising means configured to perform the method of claim 1.

14. A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

15. A computer configured to gather diagnostic information for a target that is running on the computer, said computer comprising:

a memory comprising a specification file that identifies sets of diagnostic information requested by the target to be collected from the computer and customizes a collector application for the target; and

a processor running the collector application that reads the specification file, automatically collects the sets of diagnostic information requested by the target, and formats the diagnostic information into an output based on the specification file.

16. The computer of claim 15, wherein the specification file is external to the collector application.

17. The computer of claim 15, wherein the specification file requests information about a hardware environment of the computer.

18. The computer of claim 15, wherein the specification file requests information about a middleware environment of the computer.

19. The computer of claim 15, wherein the specification file comprises executable commands to be performed by the processor.

20. The computer of claim 15, wherein the collector application is configured to collect the diagnostic information within a single session.

21. The computer of claim 15, wherein the collector application is configured to format the diagnostic information into an extensible markup language file.

22. The computer of claim 21, wherein the collector application is configured to send the extensible markup language file to another computer.

23. A diagnostic system that can be customized for a target running on a first computer, said system comprising:

a collector application, running on the first computer, that is customized by an external specification file specifying sets of diagnostic information requested by the target, automatically collects the diagnostic information requested by the target, and formats the diagnostic information into an output based on the specification file; and

a viewer application configured to receive the diagnostic information output from the collector application and provide a view of the diagnostic information.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the collector application runs as a service for another application running on the first computer.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the viewer application runs on the first computer.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the viewer application runs on another computer remote from the first computer.