Method and system for assessing availability of complex electronic systems, including computer systems
First Claim
1. A method for determining an availability of a complex system, the method comprising:
- receiving information related to system-hardware components and operating-system components and configuration and compiling a first, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the system-hardware components and operating-system components;
receiving information related to non-operating-system software components and configurations and compiling a second, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the non-operating-system software components and configurations;
receiving information related to planned system downtimes and compiling a third, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the planned system downtimes;
combining the first, second, and third intermediate system-availability-related results to produce a combined availability result; and
determining the availability of the complex system by calculating the availability of the complex system from the combined availability result.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A semi-automated availability-assessment system and methodology. A comprehensive questionnaire providing detailed information about the hardware and operating-system components and configuration of a system, application-and-database-software components and configuration of the system, data related to other potential sources of unplanned downtime, and data related to potential sources of planned downtime is received. The information contained in the received questionnaire is processed in several steps. First, hardware and operating-system-component-and-configuration information is extracted in order to conduct a Markov-chain availability analysis of the overall system hardware and operating system to provide a first intermediate result. Application-and-database-software component and configuration information, along with data and estimates related to software component failure and recovery rates, as well as relevant data for other potential sources of unplanned downtime, are extracted from the questionnaire and compiled together to form a second intermediate result. Information related to maintenance and other planned activities that result in planned system downtime are extracted from the questionnaire and compiled together as a third intermediate result. Finally, the intermediate result sets are combined in a deterministic manner to produce a final availability assessment for the system.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for determining an availability of a complex system, the method comprising:
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receiving information related to system-hardware components and operating-system components and configuration and compiling a first, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the system-hardware components and operating-system components;
receiving information related to non-operating-system software components and configurations and compiling a second, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the non-operating-system software components and configurations;
receiving information related to planned system downtimes and compiling a third, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the planned system downtimes;
combining the first, second, and third intermediate system-availability-related results to produce a combined availability result; and
determining the availability of the complex system by calculating the availability of the complex system from the combined availability result. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A set of computer instructions, encoded in a computer-readable medium, that direct a computer to:
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receiving information related to system-hardware components and operating-system components and configuration and compiling a first, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the system-hardware components and operating-system components;
receiving information related to non-operating-system software components and configurations and compiling a second, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the non-operating-system software components and configurations;
receiving information related to planned system downtimes and compiling a third, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the planned system downtimes;
combining the first, second, and third intermediate system-availability-related results to produce a combined availability result; and
determining the availability of the complex system by calculating the availability of the complex system from the combined availability result.
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13. A complex-system availability, encoded in a computer readable or human-readable medium, determined by:
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receiving information related to system-hardware components and operating-system components and configuration and compiling a first, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the system-hardware components and operating-system components;
receiving information related to non-operating-system software components and configurations and compiling a second, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the non-operating-system software components and configurations;
receiving information related to planned system downtimes and compiling a third, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the planned system downtimes;
combining the first, second, and third intermediate system-availability-related results to produce a combined availability result; and
determining the availability of the complex system by calculating the availability of the complex system from the combined availability result.
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14. A first system for determining an availability of a second, complex system, the first system comprising:
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a means for soliciting and receiving information related to system-hardware components and operating-system components and configuration, non-operating-system software components and configurations, and planned system downtimes for the second, complex system;
a means for computing a first, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the system-hardware components and operating-system components, a second, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the non-operating-system software components and configurations, and a third, intermediate, system-availability-related result with respect to the planned system downtimes;
a means for combining the first, second, and third intermediate system-availability-related results to produce a combined availability result; and
a means for determining the availability of the second, complex system by calculating the availability of the second, complex system from the combined availability result. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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Specification