OPEN ERROR-HANDLING SYSTEM

• US 20100313073A1
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leeb, Gunter, Roberts, Scott M., Franky Lam, Shung Lai, Naveh-Benjamin, Yitzchak, Abbas, Samar, Avital, Noaa
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/37
• 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: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification

Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein extend to methods, systems, and computer program products for error resolution in a computing system that includes a health module. The health module monitors components of the system for runtime errors and provides error resolution templates. The error resolution templates include metadata that specifies actions that may resolve the error and error handlers corresponding to the actions that may correct the error. The system may be extended by the addition and/or modification of the error resolution templates. The error resolution templates may also be used to facilitate the correction of runtime errors in the system.

Claims

1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a health module, the health module including a plurality of existing error resolution templates that provide error resolution handlers for components of the system based on predefined error types, wherein one or more of the monitored components may define errors and error resolution handlers for addition to the plurality of existing error resolution templates, a method for a component to associate an error type with an error resolution template and to define additional error handlers for resolving error produced at the component, the method comprising:

an act of the one or more processors defining a first error type and a second error type;

an act of accessing a plurality of existing error resolution templates that are each associated with an error type, wherein the plurality of existing error resolution templates each include description metadata that specifies one or more actions that may resolve the specific error type and one or more error handlers corresponding to the one or more actions and configured to resolve the specific error type when executed;

an act of associating the first error type with a first existing error resolution template, wherein the first existing error resolution template includes an error handler configured to resolve the first error type;

an act of submitting a new error resolution template to the plurality of existing error resolution templates to thereby extend the error resolution capabilities of the health module; and

an act of associating the second error type with the new error resolution template, wherein the new error resolution template includes at least one error handler configured resolve the second error type.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first and second error types are one of a database error, a validation error, a commit error, or an operating system error.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of defining a third error type; and

an act of associating the third error type with the first existing error resolution template, wherein the first existing error resolution template includes an error handler configured to resolve the third error type.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of defining a third error type; and

an act of associating the third error type with the new error resolution template, wherein the new error resolution template includes an error handler configured to resolve the third error type.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of removing a second existing error resolution template from a listing of error resolution templates.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of defining a second new error handler configured to resolve the first error type; and

an act of associating the first existing error resolution template with the second new error handler.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the description metadata further includes one or more policies that define rules for error type removal.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the one or more error handlers include metadata specifying the name of the error handler, a description of the error handler, error resolution instructions, and context-specific parameters.

9. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the description metadata further includes a unique identifier for the error resolution template.

10. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a health module configured to include a plurality of error resolution templates that provide error resolution handlers for one or more components of the system based on predefined error types, wherein the one or more components may define errors and error resolution handlers, a method for providing error resolution to a system error, the method comprising:

an act of receiving an error generated by a component of the computing system;

an act of the one or more processors mapping the received error to an error resolution template corresponding to an error type of the received error, the error resolution template including description metadata that specifies one or more resolution actions that may resolve the error and one or more error handlers associated with the one or more actions that are configured to resolve the error when executed;

an act of providing at a user interface at least one possible resolution action for resolving the error, the at least one resolution action including at least a part of the description metadata such that a user may implement the resolution action;

an act of receiving an indication that the user desires to implement the at least one resolution action to cause the execution of the one or more error handlers associated with the error resolution template;

an act of executing the one or more error handlers in response to receiving the indication to thereby correct the error.

11. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the act of receiving an indication that the user desires to implement the at least one resolution action comprises an act of a user activating a button user interface element that causes the execution of the one or more error handlers when activated.

12. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the act of executing the one or more error handlers occurs at the health module.

13. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the act of executing the one or more error handlers occurs at the component.

14. The method in accordance with claim 10, further comprising:

an act of providing at a user interface a second possible resolution action for resolving the error, the second resolution action including at least a part of the description metadata such that a user may implement the second resolution action.

15. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the error is one of a database error, a validation error, a commit error, or an operating system error.

16. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the description metadata further includes one or more policies that define rules for error type removal.

17. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the one or more error handlers include metadata specifying the name of the error handler, a description of the error handler, error resolution instructions, and context-specific parameters.

18. The method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the description metadata further includes a unique identifier for the error resolution template.

19. A computing system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for the computing system to provide error resolution, the method comprising the following;

an act of defining a first error type and a second error type;

an act of accessing a plurality of existing error resolution templates that are each associated with a specific error type, wherein the plurality of existing error resolution templates each include description metadata that specifies one or more actions that may resolve the specific error type and one or more error handlers corresponding to the one or more actions and configured to resolve the specific error type when executed;

an act of associating the first error type a first existing error resolution template, wherein the first existing error template includes an error handler configured to resolve the first error type;

an act of submitting a new error resolution template to the plurality of existing error resolution templates to thereby extend the error resolution capabilities of the health module;

an act of associating the second error type with a new error resolution template, wherein the new error resolution template includes at least one error handler configured resolve the second error type;

an act of receiving an error type generated by a component of the computing system, the received error type corresponding to either the first or the second error type;

an act of mapping the received error type to the one of the first existing error resolution template or the new resolution template that correspond to the received error type;

an act of providing at a user interface at least one possible resolution action for resolving the received error type, the at least one resolution action including at least a part of the description metadata of the one of the first existing error resolution template or the new resolution template that correspond to the received error type such that a user may implement the resolution action; and

an act of receiving an indication that the user desires to implement the at least one resolution action to cause the execution of the one or more error handlers associated with the one of the first existing error resolution template or the new resolution template that correspond to the received error type.

20. The computing system in accordance with claim 19, wherein the act of receiving an indication that the user desires to implement the at least one resolution action comprises an act of a user activating a button user interface element that causes the execution of the one or more error handlers when activated