LOG MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS WITH LOG MANAGEMENT APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20100083046A1
• Filed: 09/24/2009
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: TANAKA, Masao
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• 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: 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

Abstract

One system monitors components constituting an information apparatus and a program in execution. The system classifies logs outputted from the information processing apparatus for each monitor target, divides the monitor targets into categories of hardware and software, refers to relationship definition information indicating the combination of monitor targets in which an operational relationship exists between monitor targets belonging to different categories and specifies a combination indicated in the relationship definition information among monitor targets whose logs are classified. The system relates logs arranged for each monitor target on the basis of the specified combination and outputs the logs on a display device.

Claims

1. A log management method for managing logs outputted from an information processing apparatus by monitoring components, comprising:

classifying the logs for each of the monitor targets existing in the information processing apparatus;

dividing the monitor targets into categories of hardware and software, referring to relationship definition information indicating a combination of monitor targets, in which it is regarded that an operational relationship exists between monitor targets belonging to different categories and specifying a combination indicated in the relationship definition information among monitor targets whose logs are classified in the classification process;

relating the logs classified for each of the monitor targets in the classification process on the basis of the combination specified in the specification process; and

outputting the logs on a display device.

2. The log management method according to claim 1, further comprising

updating the relationship definition information by registering the combination as the relationship definition information on the basis of order of the monitor targets from which the logs are outputted and categories to which the monitor targets belong.

3. The log management method according to claim 2, wherein

the updating process registers a combination of a plurality of monitor targets from which logs constituting the same pattern as the relationship definition information by monitoring order of the monitor targets from which the logs are outputted when the same pattern in which logs of a plurality of monitor targets belonging to different categories continues is repeated a plurality of times.

4. The log management method according to claim 1, wherein

the outputting arranges, displays and outputs symbols indicating logs classified for each of the monitor targets in the classification process in time sequence for each of the combinations specified in the specification process.

5. The log management method according to claim 4, further comprising

analyzing logs outputted within a certain time for each of the monitor targets and determining a state of a monitor target from which the logs are outputted, wherein

the outputting also outputs a determination result in the analysis process.

6. The log management method according to claim 2, wherein

the classifying classifies logs by generating a table for storing logs outputted from the monitor targets for each of the monitor targets.

7. A log management apparatus for managing logs outputted from an information processing apparatus by monitoring components constituting the information processing apparatus and a program in execution as monitor targets, comprising:

a classification unit that classifies the logs for each of the monitor targets existing in the information processing apparatus;

an information storage unit that divides the monitor targets into categories of hardware and software and storing relationship definition information indicating a combination of monitor targets, in which it is regarded that an operational relationship exists between monitor targets belonging to different categories;

a specification unit that refers to the relationship definition information stored in the information storage unit and specifying a combination indicated in the relationship definition information among monitor targets whose logs are classified by the classification unit; and

an output unit that relates the logs classified for each of the monitor targets by the classification unit on the basis of the combination specified by the specification unit and outputs the logs on a display device.

8. A computer readable storage medium that stores a log management program for enabling a computer used as a log management apparatus for managing logs outputted from the information processing apparatus by monitoring components, the program comprising:

classifying the logs for each of the monitor targets existing in the information processing apparatus;

dividing the monitor targets stored in the storage unit into categories of hardware and software, referring to the relationship definition information stored in the information storage unit and specifying a combination indicated in the relationship definition information among monitor targets whose logs are classified by the classification function;

relating the logs classified for each of the monitor targets by the classification function on the basis of the combination specified by the specification function; and

outputting the logs on a display device.