Remote services management fault escalation

• US 6,757,850 B1
• Filed: 12/30/1998
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Lehner, Kenneth S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Myers, Paul R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHAN, RAYMOND NGAN
• Application Number:
  US09/223,015
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48, 714/43, 714/54, 714/57, 714/2, 714/49, 714/44, 714/25-28, 714/32, 714/39, 709/223, 709/224, 709/249, 709/250, 345/705
• US Class Current: 714/48
• 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 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information

Abstract

A remote services management (RSM) fault escalation mechanism is disclosed which provides the ability to send electronic mail to one or more preselected recipients (the selection based upon criteria such as the type of fault, type of machine and customer) on the occurrence of an escalatable fault on a customer computer. The fault and the e-mail routing data is stored in a relational database. If a recipient of the e-mail does not respond by entering an “incident number” in the database via a Web interface within a predetermined time interval, a daemon process which scans the database at preselected intervals sends a second piece of e-mail to one or more other recipients (with a copy to the primary e-mail recipient). If none of the recipients responds within another time interval, the daemon process inserts into another table an entry containing a paging phone number and predetermined (based on the selection criteria above) numeric value, and also logs the lack of response. A second daemon process examines this table at regular intervals, and processes each entry contained in the table.

Claims

1. A method of notifying at least one remote support person of a fault on a computer system on a computer network, comprising:

gathering configuration information for each computer system on the computer network and storing the information in a database;

determining a fault has occurred on a computer on the computer network;

providing fault information specific to the fault determined on the computer to a web page viewable on the computer network;

sending notification of the fault to a first remote support person;

if the remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval, sending notification to another remote support person.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising if the first remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval inserting an entry into a first database.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting recipients for sending notification of the fault.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the occurrence of the fault and e-mail routing data of the notification in a relational database.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising determining whether the fault is actionable.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network is the Internet.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the fault information includes a fault ID and a configuration of the computer system on which the fault occurred.

8. The method of claim 2, comprising if another remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval, inserting an entry into a second database.

9. The method of claim 3, comprising providing criteria for said selecting step including the type of fault, type of computer system and customer.

10. The method of claim 2, comprising scanning the first database and if neither of the remote support person responds within a predetermined time interval, inserting an entry into a table.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page is adapted to receive an incident number from the remote support person.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page includes raw configuration data of the computer system for off-line processing.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the entry includes a paging phone number, a numeric value and a log of the lack of response.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes hardware information, an inventory of installed software, and a time stamp for the stored information.

15. The method of claim 10, comprising sending a command to initiate said scanning step.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page includes fault information.

17. An article comprising:

at least one sequence of machine executable instructions;

a medium bearing the executable instructions in machine readable form, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to;

determine a fault has occurred on a computer on the computer network;

gather configuration information for each computer system on the computer network and storing the information in a database;

provide fault information specific to the fault determined on the computer to a web page viewable on the computer network, wherein the fault information includes a fault ID and a configuration of the computer system on which the fault occurred;

send notification of the fault to a first remote support person;

if the remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval, send notification to another remote support person.

18. A computer architecture, comprising:

means for gathering configuration information for each computer system on the computer network and storing the information in a database;

determining means for determining a fault has occurred on a computer on the computer network;

providing means for providing fault information specific to the fault determined on the computer to a web page viewable on the computer network, wherein the fault information includes a fault ID and a configuration of the computer system on which the fault occurred;

sending means for sending notification of the fault to a first remote support person; and

notification means for sending notification to another remote support person if the remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to said processor, the memory having stored therein sequences of instructions, which, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to perform the steps of;

gathering configuration information for each computer system on the computer network and storing the information in a database;

determining a fault has occurred on a computer on the computer network;

providing fault information specific to the fault determined on the computer to a web page viewable on the Internet, wherein the fault information includes a fault ID and a configuration of the computer system on which the fault occurred;

sending notification of the fault to a first remote support person; and

if the remote support person does not respond within a predetermined time interval, sending notification to another remote support person.