FAILURE RESPONSE SUPPORT APPARATUS AND FAILURE RESPONSE SUPPORT METHOD

• US 20090183022A1
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Watanabe, Yukihiro, Matsumoto, Yasuhide, Oguro, Keiichi, Shimada, Kuniaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,422 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• 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 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• 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 recording medium stores a program which causes a computer to execute a process for responding to failure of a management subject apparatus, based on incident information. The program causes the computer to execute a management procedure. The procedure manages steps of the response to the failure with the incident information. A response knowledge acquisition procedure referring to failure response information in which is described response knowledge corresponding to each step of the response to the failure, and acquires response knowledge for the failure in accordance with the step of the response to the failure managed by the failure response step management procedure with the incident information. A response knowledge process execution procedure executes a process in accordance with the response knowledge for the failure acquired by the response knowledge acquisition procedure.

Claims

1. A recording medium on which is stored a failure response support program which causes a computer apparatus to execute a failure response support process supporting a failure response carried out based on incident information in accordance with a failure of a management subject apparatus, the program causing the computer to execute:

a failure response step management procedure which manages steps of the response to the failure with the incident information;

a response knowledge acquisition procedure which, referring to failure response information in which is described response knowledge corresponding to each step of the response to the failure, acquires response knowledge for the failure in accordance with the steps of the response to the failure managed by the failure response step management procedure with the incident information, and

a response knowledge process execution procedure which executes a process in accordance with the response knowledge for the failure.

2. The recording medium on which is stored the failure response support program according to claim 1, wherein

the steps of the response to the failure comprising a material collection step which collects material necessary for an identification of a cause of the failure from the management subject apparatus, as a first step, a cause identification step which identifies the cause of the failure based on the material collected from the management subject apparatus, as a step following the material collection step, a response determination step which decides on a response to the cause of the failure based on the cause of the failure, as a step following the cause identification step, and a response method acquisition step which acquires a specific response method for the cause of the failure based on the response to the cause of the failure, as a step following the response determination step,

material collection knowledge, cause identification knowledge, response determination knowledge, and response method knowledge act as the response knowledge in the material collection step, the cause identification step, the response determination step, and the response method acquisition step respectively in the failure response method information, and

the failure response step management procedure, on response knowledge appropriate for the failure being acquired by the response knowledge acquisition procedure at each step of the response to the failure, shifts the step of the response to the failure to the following step.

3. The recording medium on which is stored the failure response support program according to claim 1, wherein

the program further causes the computer apparatus to execute an incident information addition procedure which adds a result of a process by the response knowledge process execution procedure, based on the response knowledge for the failure acquired by the response knowledge acquisition procedure at each step of the response to the failure, to the incident information, and

the response knowledge acquisition procedure, referring to the failure response method information based on the incident information of each step of the response to the failure, acquires response knowledge for the failure.

4. The recording medium on which is stored the failure response support program according to claim 1, wherein

the response knowledge process execution procedure, as a process according to the response method knowledge acquired at the response method acquisition step, presents the response method knowledge to an operator who carries out the failure response, and

the failure response step management procedure, on the response method knowledge being presented to the operator who carries out the failure response by the response knowledge process execution procedure, closes the incident information.

5. A recording medium on which is stored a failure response support program which causes a computer apparatus to execute a failure response support process supporting a failure response carried out based on incident information in accordance with a failure of a management subject apparatus, the program causing the computer to execute:

an incident information generation procedure which generates incident information based on failure information output from the management subject apparatus, in which a failure has occurred;

a material collection procedure which, based on a symptom of the failure included in the incident information generated by the incident information generation procedure, refers to a material collection knowledge database in which (a) the symptom of the failure, and (b) distinguishing information of material necessary for identifying a cause of the failure which brings about the symptom, are stored and correlated, acquires the distinguishing information of the material necessary for identifying the cause of the failure, and collects material corresponding to the acquired material distinguishing information from the management subject apparatus;

a failure cause identification procedure which, based on the symptom of the failure and information relating to the material collected by the material collection procedure, identifies the cause of the failure by referring to a failure cause identification knowledge database in which (a) the symptom of the failure, (b) the information relating to the material collected by the material collection procedure, and (c) the cause of the failure, are stored and correlated;

a response determination procedure which, based on the cause of the failure acquired by the failure cause identification procedure, refers to a response determination knowledge database in which (a) the cause of the failure and (b) a response to the cause of the failure, are stored and correlated, and decides on a response method for the cause of the failure, and

a response method acquisition procedure which, based on the response to the cause of the failure decided on by the response determination procedure, refers to a response method knowledge database in which the response to the cause of the failure and a specific response method for the cause of the failure are stored and correlated, and acquires the specific response method for the cause of the failure, wherein

in the event that the cause of the failure is not identified by the failure cause identification procedure, the program causes the computer apparatus to execute the material collection procedure again.

6. The recording medium on which is stored the failure response support program according to claim 5, wherein

the program further causes the computer apparatus to execute a cause identification subject failure evaluation procedure which, on the material being collected from the management subject apparatus by the material collection procedure, determines whether or not the failure of the management subject apparatus is a failure for which a cause should be identified, and

a failure cause extrapolation procedure which, in the event that it is determined by the cause identification subject failure evaluation procedure that the failure of the management subject apparatus is not a cause identification subject failure for which the cause should be identified, extrapolates the cause of the failure based on the material.

7. The recording medium on which is stored the failure response support program according to claim 5, wherein

the program further causes the computer apparatus to execute a specific response method presentation procedure which presents the specific response method for the cause of the failure acquired by the response method acquisition procedure, or a specific response method based on the cause of the failure extrapolated by the failure cause extrapolation procedure, to an operator who carries out the failure response.

8. A failure response support apparatus which supports a failure response carried out based on incident information in accordance with a failure of a management subject apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

an incident information generation unit which generates incident information based on failure information output from the management subject apparatus, in which a failure has occurred;

a material collection knowledge database in which a symptom of the failure, and distinguishing information of material necessary for identifying a cause of the failure which brings about the symptom, are stored and correlated;

a material collection unit which, based on a symptom of the failure included in the incident information generated by the incident information generation unit, refers to the material collection knowledge database, acquires the distinguishing information of the material necessary for identifying the cause of the failure, and collects material corresponding to the acquired material distinguishing information from the management subject apparatus;

a failure cause identification knowledge database in which the symptom of the failure, information relating to the material collected by the material collection unit, and the cause of the failure are stored and correlated;

a failure cause identification unit which, based on the symptom of the failure and the information relating to the material collected by the material collection unit, identifies the cause of the failure by referring to the failure cause identification knowledge database;

a response determination knowledge database in which the cause of the failure and a response to the cause of the failure are stored and correlated;

a response determination unit which, based on the cause of the failure acquired by the failure cause identification unit, refers to the response determination knowledge database, and decides on a response method for the cause of the failure;

a response method knowledge database in which the response to the cause of the failure and a specific response method for the cause of the failure are stored correlated; and

a response method acquisition unit which, based on the response to the cause of the failure decided on by the response determination unit, refers to the response method knowledge database, and acquires the specific response method for the cause of the failure.

9. The failure response support apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a cause identification subject failure evaluation unit which, on the material being collected from the management subject apparatus by the material collection unit, determines whether or not the failure of the management subject apparatus is a cause identification subject failure for which a cause should be identified, and

a failure cause extrapolation unit which, in the event that it is determined by the cause identification subject failure evaluation unit that the failure of the management subject apparatus is not a cause identification subject failure for which the cause should be identified, extrapolates the cause of the failure based on the material.

10. The failure response support apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a specific response method presentation unit which presents the specific response method for the cause of the failure acquired by the response method acquisition unit, or a specific response method based on the cause of the failure extrapolated by the failure cause extrapolation unit, to an operator who carries out the failure response.