Diagnostic context

• US 7,359,831 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2005
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Inamdar, Rajendra, Shrivastava, Sandeep, Lindsay, R. Sean, Mousseau, Richard, LeCompte, Ryan, Hess, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Cosimano; Edward R
• Application Number:
  US11/133,568
• Publication Number:
  US 20050261879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 340/3.1, 340/3.43, 340/3.5, 340/3.51, 340/3.6, 340/3.61, 340/825, 340/500, 340/679, 340/870.01, 340/870.16, 700/11, 700/23, 700/26, 700/90, 700/108, 702/127, 702/182, 702/183, 702/185, 702/187, 707/1, 707/100, 707/101, 707/104.1, 714/25, 714/26, 717/124
• US Class Current: 702/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• 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 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence

Abstract

A diagnostic context can be associated with a request and the diagnostic context can be used for determining whether to do diagnosis functions at predetermined points.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request into server software;

creating a diagnostic context at the server software when the request enters the server software;

associating the diagnostic context with the request, wherein the diagnostic context captures contextual information for the request;

servicing the request by the server software;

at a later diagnosis point of the server software, using the diagnostic context to determine whether to execute a diagnosis function to diagnose the server software as the server software services the request; and

executing the diagnosis function to diagnose the server software servicing the request if it is determined that the diagnosis function should be executed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic context is compared to a mask to determine whether to execute the diagnosis function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic function is a counter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic function includes saving arguments.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic function is part of a delegated monitor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnostic context remains with the request across different servers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic context is associated with the request using a work area protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic context includes a dye vector.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the dye vector is ANDed with a mask and then compared to the mask to determine whether to execute the diagnosis function.

11. The software running on a computer of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic context is compared to a mask to determine whether to execute the diagnosis function.

10. Software running on a computer, comprising:

code to create a diagnostic context at a server software when a request enters server software;

code to associate the diagnostic context with the request received into the server software, wherein the diagnostic context captures contextual information for the request;

code to service the request by the server software;

code to use the diagnostic context to determine whether to execute a diagnosis function to diagnose the server software as the server software services the request at a later diagnosis point of the server software; and

code to execute the diagnosis function to diagnose the server software servicing the request if it is determined that the diagnosis function should be executed.

12. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic function is a counter.

13. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic function includes saving arguments.

14. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic function is part of a delegated monitor.

15. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein diagnostic context remains with the request across different servers.

16. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic context is associated with the request using a work area protocol.

17. The software running on a computer of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic context includes a dye vector.

18. The software running on a computer of claim 17, wherein the dye vector is ANDed with a mask and then compared to the mask to determine whether to execute the diagnosis function.