Appliance for Storing, Managing and Analyzing Problem Determination Artifacts

• US 20110271150A1
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bourne, Donald A., Wallace, Thomas S., Norton, Carolyn H., Wamboldt, Michael L., Meli, Roger M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,943,364 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47.3
• 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 11/0748 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 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data

Abstract

Systems and methods of managing problem determination (PD) data provide for obtaining PD data from a plurality of data sources via an input/output (I/O) interface of a data management device and storing the PD data to a memory of the data management device. In addition, an automated diagnostic analysis of the PD data may be conducted on the data management device. An automated discovery manager may provide the ability to find new sources of PD data and to either reconfigure remote systems to send data to the data management device or to automatically retrieve data from remote systems on a configurable schedule. Dynamically updateable database of symptom information can also be used, wherein the data management device may include a dynamically updateable set of analysis modules with which to conduct analysis on the PD data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

downloading an analysis policy from a symptom database server;

identifying a data source, wherein the data source includes at least one of an application, a network device, a storage device, a database and a server;

obtaining problem determination data from the data source via an input/output (I/O) interface of a data management device;

storing the problem determination data to a computer readable storage medium of the data management device;

updating a discovery database based on the data source if the discovery database does not contain the data source;

conducting an automated diagnostic analysis of the problem determination data on the data management device based on the analysis policy;

generating at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis; and

repeating the identifying, obtaining, storing, updating, conducting and generating for a plurality of data sources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the data source includes at least one of querying an agent residing on a target machine and executing a remote command on a target machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the problem determination data includes transmitting configuration data to at least one data source, wherein the configuration data instructs the at least one data source to transmit problem determination data to the data management device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the problem determination data includes retrieving problem determination data from at least one data source.

5. A data management device comprising:

a processor;

an input/output (I/O) interface; and

a computer readable storage medium having computer usable code stored thereon, where, if executed by the processor, the computer usable code causes the data management device to;

obtain problem determination data from a plurality of data sources via the I/O interface,

store the problem determination data to the computer readable storage medium, and

conduct an automated diagnostic analysis of the problem determination data.

6. The data management device of claim 5, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to,

download an analysis policy from a symptom database server, wherein the automated diagnostic analysis is to be conducted based on the analysis policy, and

generate at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

7. The data management device of claim 5, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to,

download computer usable code to implement an analysis module,

install the analysis module in an analysis engine of the data management device, and

use the analysis module to conduct the automated diagnostic analysis and generate at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

8. The data management device of claim 5, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to,

identify a data source, wherein the data source is to include at least one of an application, a network device, a storage device, a database and a server,

update a discovery database based on the data source if the discovery database does not contain the data source, and

repeat the identifying and updating for the plurality of data sources.

9. The data management device of claim 8, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to at least one of query an agent residing on a target machine to identify the data source and execute a remote command on a target machine to identify the data source.

10. The data management device of claim 5, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to transmit configuration data to at least one data source, wherein the configuration data is to instruct the at least one data source to transmit problem determination data to the data management device based on a scheduling policy.

11. The data management device of claim 5, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to retrieve problem determination data from at least one data source.

12. A method comprising:

obtaining problem determination data from a plurality of data sources via an input/output (I/O) interface of a data management device;

storing the problem determination data to a memory of the data management device; and

conducting an automated diagnostic analysis of the problem determination data on the data management device.

13. The method of claim 12, further including:

downloading an analysis policy from a symptom database server, wherein the automated diagnostic analysis is conducted based on the analysis policy; and

generating at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

14. The method of claim 12, further including:

download computer usable code to implement an analysis module;

install the analysis module in an analysis engine of the data management device; and

use the analysis module to conduct the automated diagnostic analysis and generate at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

15. The method of claim 12, further including:

identifying a data source, wherein the data source includes at least one of an application, a network device, a storage device, a database and a server;

updating a discovery database based on the data source if the discovery database does not contain the data source; and

repeating the identifying and updating for the plurality of data sources.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying the data source includes at least one of querying an agent residing on a target machine and executing a remote command on a target machine.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining the problem determination data includes transmitting configuration data to at least one data source, wherein the configuration data instructs the at least one data source to transmit problem determination data to the data management device based on a scheduling policy.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining the problem determination data includes retrieving problem determination data from at least one data source.

19. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium; and

computer usable code stored on the computer readable storage medium, where, if executed by a processor, the computer usable code causes a data management device to;

obtain problem determination data from a plurality of data sources,

store the problem determination data to a memory, and

conduct an automated diagnostic analysis of the problem determination data.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable code, if executed, causes the data management device to,

download an analysis policy from a symptom database server, wherein the automated diagnostic analysis is to be conducted based on the analysis policy, and

generate at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable code, if executed by the processor, causes the data management device to,

download computer usable code to implement an analysis module,

install the analysis module in an analysis engine of the data management device, and

use the analysis module to conduct the automated diagnostic analysis and generate at least one of an event and a report based on the automated diagnostic analysis.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable code, if executed, causes the data management device to,

identify a data source, wherein the data source is to include at least one of an application, a network device, a storage device, a database and a server,

update a discovery database based on the data source if the discovery database does not contain the data source, and

repeat the identifying and updating for the plurality of data sources.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the computer usable code, if executed, causes the data management device to at least one of query an agent residing on a target machine to identify the data source and execute a remote command on a target machine to identify the data source.

24. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable code, if executed, causes the data management device to transmit configuration data to at least one data source, wherein the configuration data is to instruct the at least one data source to transmit problem determination data to the data management device based on a scheduling policy.

25. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable code, if executed, causes the data management device to retrieve problem determination data from at least one data source.