TECHNIQUES TO PROVIDE UNIFIED LOGGING SERVICES

• US 20100145978A1
• Filed: 12/08/2008
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Beish, Phillip I., Eagan, Shaun P., Forsythe, Thomas K., Anashkin, Oleg N.
• Application Number:
  US12/330,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20100145978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27

Abstract

Techniques to provide unified logging services are described. An apparatus may comprise a memory to store a diagnostic manager component. A processor may be coupled to the memory, the processor operative to execute instructions for the diagnostic manager component. The diagnostic manager component may be operative to receive diagnostic messages for a diagnostic activity spanning multiple threads within a process, multiple processes or multiple devices, annotate the diagnostic messages with context information to form annotated diagnostic messages, and store the annotated diagnostic messages in a diagnostic log data file. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving diagnostic messages for a diagnostic activity spanning multiple threads within a process, multiple processes or multiple devices;

retrieving an activity identifier for the diagnostic activity;

retrieving metadata associated with the activity identifier; and

storing the diagnostic messages as annotated diagnostic messages with the activity identifier and associated metadata in a diagnostic log data file.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising defining the metadata as a set of key-value pairs, where the key represents a name or identifier for the metadata to be stored in the diagnostic log data file, and the value represents a metadata value.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising filtering a set of annotated diagnostic messages stored in the diagnostic log data file based on the associated metadata to form a set of filtered diagnostic messages.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving diagnostic messages for the diagnostic activity, with some of the diagnostic messages representing a diagnostic sub-activity nested within the diagnostic activity.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising generating a hierarchical structure for the annotated diagnostic messages based on different activity identifiers for the annotated diagnostic messages stored in the diagnostic log data file.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising controlling a level of description for the diagnostic messages based on the associated metadata.

7. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

receiving diagnostic messages for a diagnostic activity spanning multiple threads within a process, multiple processes or multiple devices;

annotating the diagnostic messages with context information to form annotated diagnostic messages; and

storing the annotated diagnostic messages in a diagnostic log data file.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising annotating the diagnostic messages with context information, the context information comprising an activity identifier for the diagnostic activity, and metadata associated with the activity identifier.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising annotating the diagnostic messages with context information, the context information comprising metadata associated with the activity identifier, the metadata comprising a set of key-value pairs, where the key represents a name or identifier for the metadata to be stored in the diagnostic log data file, and the value represents a metadata value.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising receiving diagnostic messages for the diagnostic activity, the diagnostic messages representing a diagnostic sub-activity nested within the diagnostic activity.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising generating a hierarchical structure for the diagnostic messages based on the context information.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising controlling a level of description for the diagnostic messages based on the context information.

13. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising filtering a set of diagnostic messages stored in the diagnostic log data file based on the context information to form a set of filtered diagnostic messages.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory to store a diagnostic manager component; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor operative to execute instructions for the diagnostic manager component, the diagnostic manager component operative to receive diagnostic messages for a diagnostic activity spanning multiple threads within a process, multiple processes or multiple devices, annotate the diagnostic messages with context information to form annotated diagnostic messages, and store the annotated diagnostic messages in a diagnostic log data file.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the diagnostic manager component operative to annotate the diagnostic messages with context information, the context information comprising an activity identifier for the diagnostic activity, and metadata associated with the activity identifier.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, the diagnostic manager component operative to annotate the diagnostic messages with context information, the context information comprising metadata associated with the activity identifier, the metadata comprising a set of key-value pairs, where the key represents a name or identifier for the metadata to be stored in the diagnostic log data file, and the value represents a metadata value.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, the diagnostic manager component operative to receive diagnostic messages for the diagnostic activity, the diagnostic messages representing a diagnostic sub-activity nested within the diagnostic activity.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, the memory to store a diagnostic reporting component, the processor operative to execute instructions for the diagnostic reporting component, the diagnostic reporting component operative to generate a report view of diagnostic messages stored in the diagnostic log data file based on the context information.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, the memory to store a filter component, the processor operative to execute instructions for the filter component, the filter component operative to filter a set of diagnostic messages stored in the diagnostic log data file based on the context information to form a set of filtered diagnostic messages.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, the memory to store a hierarchy generator component, the processor operative to execute instructions for the hierarchy generator component, the hierarchy generator component operative to generate a hierarchical structure for the diagnostic messages based on the context information.