System and method for efficiently obtaining a summary from and locating data in a log file

• US 7,519,572 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2005
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: West, Dean Merritt II, Parvin, William Augustus, Meyer, Joel Peter, Qiao, Wenjian
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang; Thanh-Ha
• Application Number:
  US10/906,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184498A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/200, 707/1, 707/100
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2474 Sequence data queries, e.g. querying versioned data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

Systems and methods for efficiently obtaining a summary from and locating data in a log file allow a user to efficiently obtain summary information and locate specific data records even in large log files. The system includes a configuration program, a log writing program, and a log reading program. The configuration program allows the user to control the duration of monitoring and the frequency of summary record creation by the log writing program. The log writing program writes data records, summary records, and summary information to a log file in response to monitored events. The log reading program retrieves summary records and data records from the log file using summary information in response to user requests.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for displaying a data record within a log file, comprising:

using a computer, configuring a first criteria for a number of data records per summary record and a second criteria for a duration of monitoring;

monitoring a process;

when an event occurs in the process requiring a data record, writing the data record to the log file;

when the first criteria is satisfied, writing a summary record to the log file;

when the second criteria is satisfied, checking to see if a last record in the log file is a summary record, and when the last record is the summary record, writing a summary information to an end of the log file, and when the last record is not the summary record, writing the summary record to the log file and then writing the summary information to the end of the log file;

responsive to a request for the data record from a user, identifying a matching summary record within the summary information in the log file;

locating the data record using the summary information at the end of the log file based on an offset of the summary record and based on a range of time of data records covered by the summary record; and

displaying data from the data record to the user;

wherein the data record comprises;

an indication of an event type of the data record;

an indication of a start time;

an indication of an end time; and

an event detail;

wherein the summary record comprises;

an indication of the number of events for each event type covered by the summary record;

an indication of a total number of events covered by the summary record;

an indication of a start time of a first data record covered by the summary record, and

an indication of an end time of a last data record covered by the summary record; and

wherein the summary information is written after a last summary record of the log file and comprises;

an indication of the number of summary records within the log file; and

for the summary record within the log file, the summary information comprises;

an indication of a name of the summary record;

an indication of the offset of the summary record in the log file;

an indication of a start time of a first data record covered by the summary record;

an indication of an end time of a last data record covered by the summary record; and

an indication of a number of data records covered by the summary record.