METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING IMMUNITY TO COMPUTERS

• US 20120317438A1
• Filed: 08/22/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yildiz, Mehmet
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/3
• 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 11/0781 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 11/0793 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

Abstract

A method and system for providing immunity to a computer system wherein the system includes an immunity module, a recovery module, a maintenance module, an assessment module, and a decision module, wherein the immunity module, the recovery module, the maintenance module and the assessment module are each linked to the decision module. The maintenance module monitors the system for errors and sends an error alert message to the assessment module, which determines the severity of the error and the type of package required to fix the error. The assessment module sends a request regarding the type of package required to fix the error to the recovery module. The recovery module sends the package required to fix the error to the maintenance module, which fixes the error in the system.

Claims

1. An automated method for providing immunization to a computer system, the automated method comprising:

automatically generating packages by an immunity module, wherein the packages are based on simulated errors created by an error creation component;

automatically storing said generated packages in an alternate recovery module;

automatically monitoring the system for errors by a maintenance module;

upon discovering an error by the maintenance module during its monitoring, automatically sending an error alert message from the maintenance module to an assessment module;

automatically determining the severity of the error by the assessment module;

automatically determining the type of package required to fix the error by the assessment module;

automatically sending a request regarding the type of required package from the assessment module to a recovery module, wherein the recovery module is the alternate recovery module if no other recovery module has the required package;

automatically sending the package required to fix the error from the recovery module to the maintenance module; and

automatically fixing the error in the system.

2. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the automated method further comprises the steps of:

categorizing the error as either severe or non-severe; and

sending the request regarding the package required to fix the error to an emergency recovery component of the recovery module if the error is severe, or sending the request regarding the package required to fix the error to a local recovery component of the recovery module if the error is not severe.

3. The automated method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

checking to see whether the emergency recovery component has the package; and

sending the package to the maintenance module if the emergency recovery component has the package, or sending the request regarding the type of package to the local recovery component if the emergency recovery component does not have the package, wherein the local recovery component sends the package to the maintenance module if the local recovery component has the package.

4. The automated method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

sending the request regarding the type of package to the global recovery component if the local recovery component does not have the package; and

sending the package from the global recovery component to the maintenance module if the global recovery component has the package.

5. The automated method of claim 4, further comprising the step of continuously updating the global recovery component with new packages from a plurality of members.

6. The automated method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

sending the request regarding the type of package to the alternate recovery component of the recovery module if the global recovery component does not have the package; and

sending the package from the alternate recovery component to the maintenance module if the alternate recovery component has the package.

7. The automated method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

sending the request regarding the type of package to the immunity module if the alternate recovery component does not have the package; and

creating the package to fix the error by the immunity module.

8. A system for providing immunity to a computer system comprising:

an immunity module, wherein said immunity module is configured to generate packages based on simulated errors created by an error creation component;

a recovery module;

a maintenance module, wherein the maintenance module is configured to monitor the system for errors and send an error alert message to the assessment module upon discovery of an error;

an assessment module, wherein the assessment module is configured to determine the severity of the error and the type of package required to fix the error, and further wherein the assessment module is configured to send a request regarding the type of required package to the recovery module;

a recovery module, wherein the recovery module is configured to send the package required to fix the error to the maintenance module; and

a decision module, wherein the immunity module, the recovery module, the maintenance module and the assessment module are each linked to the decision module.

9. The system of claim 8:

wherein the maintenance module is configured to monitor the system for errors and send an error alert message to the assessment module upon discovery of an error;

wherein the assessment module is configured to determine the severity of the error and the type of package required to fix the error;

wherein the assessment module is configured to send a request regarding the type of required package to the recovery module;

wherein the recovery module is configured to send the package required to fix the error to the maintenance module; and

wherein the maintenance module is further configured to fix the error in the system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the recovery module comprises a local recovery component, an emergency recovery component, a global recovery component and an alternative recovery component;

and

wherein the assessment module is configured to send the request regarding the package required to fix the error to the emergency recovery component if the error is severe or to the local recovery component if the error is not severe.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the emergency recovery component is configured to send the package to the maintenance module if the package is contained in the emergency recovery component;

and

wherein the emergency recovery component is configured to send the request regarding the type of package to the local recovery component if the package is not in the emergency recovery component, and further wherein the local recovery component is configured to send the package to the maintenance module if the package is contained in the local recovery component.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the local recovery component is configured to send the request regarding the type of package to the global recovery component if the package is not contained in the local recovery component;

wherein the global recovery component comprises packages from a plurality of members, wherein the members are configured to contribute packages to the global recovery component and wherein the global recovery component is configured to be updated with new packages continuously; and

wherein the global recovery component is configured to send the package to the maintenance module if the package is contained in the global recovery component.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the global recovery component is configured to send the request regarding the type of package to the alternate recovery component if the package is not contained in the global recovery component;

wherein the alternate recovery component comprises system generated packages created by the immunity module;

wherein the alternate recovery component is configured to send the package to the maintenance module if the package is in the alternate recovery component.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the alternate recovery component is configured to send the request regarding the type of package to the immunity module if the required package is not contained in the alternate recovery module;

wherein the immunity module comprises an error creation component and an error assimilation component; and

wherein the immunity module is configured to create the package to fix the error.

15. A computer program product encoded in a non-transitory computer readable medium for instructing a computer system to provide immunization thereto, the program code comprising:

means for automatically generating packages by an immunity module, wherein the packages are based on simulated errors created by an error creation component;

means for automatically storing said generated packages in an alternate recovery module;

means for automatically monitoring the system for errors by a maintenance module;

means for automatically sending an error alert message to an assessment module upon discovering an error by the maintenance module;

means for automatically determining the severity of the error by the assessment module;

means for automatically determining the type of package required to fix the error by the assessment module;

means for automatically sending a request regarding the type of required package from the assessment module to a recovery module, wherein the recovery module is the alternate recovery module if no other recovery module has the required package;

means for automatically sending the package required to fix the error from the recovery module to the maintenance module; and

means for automatically fixing the error in the system.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the program code further comprises:

means for categorizing the error as either severe or non-severe;

means for sending the request regarding the package required to fix the error to an emergency recovery component of the recovery module if the error is severe or to a local recovery component of the recovery module if the error is not severe; and

means for sending the request regarding the type of package to the local recovery component if the package is not in the emergency recovery component, wherein the local recovery component sends the package to the maintenance module if the local recovery component has the package.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, the program code further comprises:

means for sending the request regarding the type of package to the global recovery component if the package is not in the local recovery component;

means for continuously updating the global recovery component is updated with new packages from a plurality of members; and

means for sending the package to the maintenance module if the global recovery component has the package.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, the program code further comprises:

means for sending the request regarding the type of package to an alternate recovery component of the recovery module if the global recovery component does not have the package; and

means for generating packages by an immunity module;

means for storing generated packages in the alternate recovery component; and

means for sending the package generated by the immunity module from the alternate recovery component to the maintenance module if the alternate recovery component has the package.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, the program code further comprises:

means for sending the request regarding the type of package to the immunity module if the alternate recovery component does not have the package; and

means for creating the package to fix the error by the immunity module.