PROVISIONING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS BASED ON POLICIES FOR TROUBLESHOOTING PURPOSES

• US 20140201572A1
• Filed: 01/13/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dancy, Jerry A., Khatri, Pralhad M., Lubold, Geoffrey D., Maul, Christopher A., Topol, Brad B., Zala, Sahdev
• Granted Patent: US 9,218,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0712 in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems
• 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 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0645 by additionally acting on or stimulating the network after receiving notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A method for selecting a virtual machine (VM) for problem determination utilizes a policy-based process for receiving an authorized program analysis report (APAR) containing problem type, a client information handling system (IHS) environment, a configuration, and a program version. The method determines automatically that the problem according to a provisioning policy is a candidate for provisioning a VM for analyzing the problem and searches a provisioning database for an existing VM for a system environment and configuration according to a closeness criteria. The method applies required updates to the provisioned VM, and utilizes the provisioned VM with the required updates for problem analysis. The method also may automatically create a new baseline image in the database according to expected value policy criteria that exceeds predetermined criteria.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a file system tool in a provisioning IHS, a problem report that describes a problem in a client IHS;

determining without manual intervention, by the file system tool in the provisioning IHS, if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for the purpose of troubleshooting the problem in the client IHS;

accessing, by the file system tool in the provisioning IHS, a virtual machine image database that includes a plurality of virtual machine images to determine if a particular virtual machine image therein is a match for the problem in the problem report of the client IHS and in the event of such a match provisioning the particular virtual machine image to a memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image, and

testing the particular virtual machine image provisioned in the provisioning IHS to troubleshoot the problem in the client IHS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the problem report comprises an authorized program analysis report (APAR).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the problem report includes problem type information, customer information, system environment information, configuration information and program version of the client IHS.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step include considering, by the provisioning IHS, policies to determine without manual intervention if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for troubleshooting purposes.

5. The method of claim 1, in the event of no match between a virtual machine image of the virtual machine image database and the problem in the problem report, determining a particular virtual machine image in the virtual machine image database that most closely matches the problem in the problem report, thus providing a closest match virtual machine image, and provisioning the closest match virtual machine image to the memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the file system tool in the provisioning IHS, if it is worthwhile to create a new baseline image template for the particular virtual machine that was provisioned by considering predetermined policies.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined policies relate to the time required to install maintenance information on a provisioned virtual image, the number of maintenance fixes on the provisioned virtual image and the time required to apply configuration information to the provisioned virtual image.

8. A provisioning information handling system (IHS), comprising:

a processor;

a memory, coupled to the processor, the memory including a file system tool that is configured to;

receive a problem report that describes a problem in a client IHS;

determine without manual intervention if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for the purpose of troubleshooting the problem in the client IHS;

access a virtual machine image database that includes a plurality of virtual machine images to determine if a particular virtual machine image therein is a match for the problem in the problem report of the client IHS and in the event of such a match provisioning the particular virtual machine image to a memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image, and

test the particular virtual machine image provisioned in the provisioning IHS to troubleshoot the problem in the client IHS.

9. The provisioning IHS of claim 8, wherein the problem report comprises an authorized program analysis report (APAR).

10. The provisioning IHS of claim 8, wherein the problem report includes problem type information, customer information, system environment information, configuration information and program version of the client IHS.

11. The provisioning IHS of claim 8, wherein the provisioning IHS considers policies to determine without manual intervention if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for troubleshooting purposes.

12. The provisioning IHS of claim 8, wherein in the event of no match between a virtual machine image of the virtual machine image database and the problem in the problem report, the provisioning IHS determines if a particular virtual machine image in the virtual machine image database that most closely matches the problem in the problem report, thus providing a closest match virtual machine image, wherein the provisioning IHS provisions the closest match virtual machine image to the memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image.

13. The provisioning IHS of claim 8, wherein the provisioning IHS determines if it is worthwhile to create a new baseline image template for the particular virtual machine that was provisioned by considering predetermined policies.

14. The provisioning IHS of claim 13, wherein the predetermined policies relate to the time required to install maintenance information on a provisioned virtual image, the number of maintenance fixes on the provisioned virtual image and the time required to apply configuration information to the provisioned virtual image.

15. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for use in a provisioning information handling system (IHS);

first instructions that receive a problem report that describes a problem in a client IHS;

second instructions that determine without manual intervention if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for the purpose of troubleshooting the problem in the client IHS;

third instructions that access a virtual machine image database that includes a plurality of virtual machine images to determine if a particular virtual machine image therein is a match for the problem in the problem report of the client IHS and in the event of such a match provisioning the particular virtual machine image to a memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image, and

fourth instructions that test the particular virtual machine image provisioned in the provisioning IHS to troubleshoot the problem in the client IHS;

wherein the first, second, third and fourth instructions are stored on the a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the problem report comprises an authorized program analysis report (APAR).

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the problem report includes problem type information, customer information, system environment information, configuration information and program version of the client IHS.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the second instructions instruct the provisioning IHS to consider policies to determine without manual intervention if the problem is a candidate for provisioning locally in the provisioning IHS for troubleshooting purposes.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein in the event that the third instructions find no match between a virtual machine image of the virtual machine image database and the problem in the problem report, the computer program product includes fifth instructions that instruct the provisioning IHS to determine if a particular virtual machine image in the virtual machine image database that most closely matches the problem in the problem report, thus providing a closest match virtual machine image, wherein the provisioning IHS provisions the closest match virtual machine image to the memory of the provisioning IHS after application of maintenance information and configuration information to the particular virtual machine image.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

sixth instructions that instruct the provisioning IHS to determine if it is worthwhile to create a new baseline image template for the particular virtual machine that was provisioned by considering predetermined policies.