METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIAGNOSIS AND RECOVERY OF SYSTEM PROBLEMS

• US 20140114613A1
• Filed: 10/21/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Tianqing, Guo, Feng, Chen, Qiyan, Chen, Tao, Wan, Lintao, Xiang, Dong
• Granted Patent: US 10,719,072 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/185
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0205 by means of a monitoring system capable of detecting and responding to faults
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0703 Error or fault processing not based on redundancy, i.e. by taking additional measures to deal with the error or fault not making use of redundancy in operation, in hardware, or in data representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• 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

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to method and apparatus for system problem diagnosis and recovery. According to embodiments of the present invention, problem symptom information in a system can be automatically monitored and collected BY a monitoring apparatus (or referred as to “agent”) deployed at the system side. Upon after receiving such information, the diagnosis apparatus, for example, may automatically determine a root cause of the problem by querying a backend knowledge repository, and possibly generate an executable software package for recovering the problem. If the diagnosis apparatus determines that the currently available information is insufficient to determine a creditable enough root cause and/or is insufficient to generate the software package for recovering the problem, the diagnosis apparatus may interactively control the monitoring apparatus to collect desired additional information. In this way, the efficiency and accuracy of problem diagnosis and recovery may be improved.

Claims

1. A monitoring apparatus for monitoring a problem in a system, the monitoring apparatus comprising:

a collecting unit configured to collect information on a symptom of the problem in the system;

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the collected information to a diagnosis apparatus; and

a receiving unit configured to receive from the diagnosis apparatus a command of collecting additional information on the problem and to cause the collecting unit to collect the additional information responsively.

2. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the collecting unit comprises at least one of:

a first collecting unit configured to collect information on a further symptom of the problem in response to the command received by the receiving unit from the diagnosis apparatus;

a second collecting unit configured to collect user input relevant to the problem in response to the command received by the receiving unit from the diagnosis apparatus; and

a third collecting unit configured to execute, in response to the command received by the receiving unit from the diagnosis apparatus, at least one action associated with the system and collect information on a consequence induced by the action.

3. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the collecting unit comprises:

a fourth collecting unit configured to collect, in response to the command received by the receiving unit from the diagnosis apparatus, additional information required to generate an executable software package for recovering the problem for transmission to the diagnosis apparatus by the transmitting unit.

4. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a recovery package executing unit configured to execute an executable software package for recovering the problem, the executable software package being received from the diagnosis apparatus.

5. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a recovery feedback unit configured to transmit a recovery success message or a recovery failure message to the diagnosis apparatus based on whether the problem is recovered by executing the executable software package.

6. A diagnosis apparatus for diagnosing a problem in a system, the diagnosis apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive information on a symptom of the problem in the system from a monitoring apparatus deployed at the system;

an analyzing unit configured to analyze the received information to determine a root cause of the problem; and

a control unit configured to communicate with the monitoring apparatus to control the monitoring apparatus to collect additional information on the problem in response to being unable to determine the root cause or a confidence of the determined root cause below a predetermined threshold.

7. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control unit comprises at least one of:

a first control unit configured to control the monitoring apparatus to collect information on a further symptom of the problem;

a second control unit configured to control the monitoring apparatus to collect user input relevant to the problem; and

a third control unit configured to control the monitoring apparatus to execute at least one action associated with the system and collect information on a consequence induced by the action.

8. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the analyzing unit comprises:

a knowledge repository query unit configured to query a knowledge repository using the received information to determine the root cause of the problem, the knowledge repository storing information on at least one previous problem.

9. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a knowledge repository updating unit configured to add information on the problem into the knowledge repository in response to the determined root cause being not present in the knowledge repository.

10. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control unit comprises:

a fourth control unit configured to communicate with the monitoring apparatus to control the monitoring apparatus to collect additional information required to generate an executable software package for recovering the problem in response to the received information being insufficient to generate the executable software package.

11. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a recovery package generating unit configured to generate an executable software package for recovering the problem based on the determined root cause and to transmit the executable software package to the monitoring apparatus for execution.

12. The diagnosis apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control unit comprises:

a fifth control unit configured to communicate with the monitoring apparatus to control the monitoring apparatus to collect additional information on the problem in response to receiving a recovery failure message from the monitoring apparatus.

13. A method for monitoring a problem in a system, the method comprising:

collecting information on a symptom of the problem in the system;

transmitting the collected information to a diagnosis apparatus; and

receiving from the diagnosis apparatus a command of collecting additional information on the problem and collecting the additional information responsively.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein collecting the additional information comprises at least one of:

collecting information on a further symptom of the problem in response to the command received from the diagnosis apparatus;

collecting user input relevant to the problem in response to the command received from the diagnosis apparatus; and

executing, in response to the command received from the diagnosis apparatus, at least one action associated with the system and collecting information on a consequence induced by the action.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

collecting, in response to the command received from the diagnosis apparatus, additional information required to generate an executable software package for recovering the problem for transmission to the diagnosis apparatus.

16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

executing an executable software package for recovering the problem, the executable software package being received from the diagnosis apparatus.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

transmitting a recovery success message or a recovery failure message to the diagnosis apparatus based on whether the problem is recovered by executing the executable software package.