Method, system and program product for analyzing demographical factors of a computer system to address error conditions

• US 7,743,286 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Madsen, Robert G., Bangel, Matthew J., Murray, Douglas G., Martin, James A. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott T
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, KAMINI B
• Application Number:
  US11/130,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,862 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47
• US Class Current: 714/47.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

Under the present invention, when an error condition for the computer system is identified, settings for a series of demographical factors of the computer system are determined. These settings are compared to settings for the demographical factors during at least one previous instance of the error condition to identify a similar error scenario. Then any corrective actions that were taken to address the at least one previous instance of the error conditions are determined and possibly used to resolve the current error condition.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing a computer system, the method comprising:

an analysis computer system obtaining an identification of an error condition for the computer system;

the analysis computer system comparing settings for a plurality of demographical factors of the computer system with information corresponding to settings for the plurality of demographical factors of at least one additional computer system previously having the identified error condition in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition for the computer system, the plurality of demographical factors including a plurality of system component demographical factors, each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system, and the setting of each system component demographical factor indicating at least one of;

an age or a capability of the corresponding hardware or software component of the computer system; and

the analysis computer system determining a set of previous corrective actions taken to address the error condition for at least one additional computer system having similar demographical factors based on the comparison of the settings.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the analysis computer system acquiring the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system from current settings of the computer system in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the analysis computer system providing the set of previous corrective actions for use by a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the corrective action is selected from a group consisting of:

upgrading at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system and replacing the computer system.

5. The method of claim 1, the plurality of demographical factors further including at least one user demographical factor, the setting of the at least one user demographical factor corresponding to types of operations expected of the computer system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each setting of the plurality of demographical factors is a numeric value, the comparing including:

generating a composite score for the computer system by combining the settings of the plurality of demographical factors; and

identifying a record corresponding to each of the at least one additional computer system using the composite score for the computer system and a composite score corresponding to the at least one additional computer system when it had the identified error condition.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the generating includes:

applying a relative weight to each of the settings of the plurality of demographical factors; and

combining the weighted values of each of the settings of the plurality of demographical factors.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the identifying includes identifying each of the at least one additional computer system having a composite score that is within a threshold above or below the composite score of the computer system.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the analysis computer system receiving a corrective action taken to address the error condition on the computer system; and

the analysis computer system generating and storing a record including;

information corresponding to the identified error condition, information corresponding to the corrective action taken, and information corresponding to the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system.

10. A method for analyzing a computer system, the method comprising:

an analysis computer system obtaining settings for a plurality of demographical factors of the computer system based on current settings of the computer system in response to an identification of an error condition for the computer system, wherein each setting of the plurality of demographical factors is a numeric value, and wherein the plurality of demographical factors includes a plurality of system component demographical factors, each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system, and the setting of each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

an age or a capability of the corresponding hardware or software component of the computer system;

the analysis computer system generating a composite score for the computer system by combining the settings of the plurality of demographical factors;

the analysis computer system identifying a record corresponding to each of at least one additional computer system previously having the identified error condition using the composite score for the computer system and a composite score corresponding to the at least one additional computer system when it had the identified error condition; and

the analysis computer system determining a set of previous corrective actions taken to address the error condition for at least one additional computer system having similar demographical factors based on the identified at least one record.

11. A system comprising:

at least one computing device configured to analyze a computer system by performing a method including;

obtaining an identification of an error condition for the computer system;

comparing settings for a plurality of demographical factors of the computer system with information corresponding to settings for the plurality of demographical factors of at least one additional computer system previously having the identified error condition in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition for the computer system, the plurality of demographical factors including a plurality of system component demographical factors, each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system, and the setting of each system component demographical factor indicating at least one of;

an age or a capability of the corresponding hardware or software component of the computer system; and

determining a set of previous corrective actions taken to address the error condition for at least one additional computer system having similar demographical factors based on the comparison of the settings.

12. The system of claim 11, the method further including acquiring the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system from current settings of the computer system in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition.

13. The system of claim 11, the method further including providing the set of previous corrective actions for use by a user.

14. The system of claim 11, the plurality of demographical factors further including at least one user demographical factor, the setting of the at least one user demographical factor corresponding to types of operations expected of the computer system.

15. The system of claim 11, the method further including:

receiving a corrective action taken to address the error condition on the computer system; and

generating and storing a record including;

information corresponding to the identified error condition, information corresponding to the corrective action taken, and information corresponding to the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system.

16. A program product stored on at least one computer readable storage medium, the program product including program code, which when executed by a computing device, implements a method for analyzing a computer system, the method including:

obtaining an identification of an error condition for the computer system;

comparing settings for a plurality of demographical factors of the computer system with information corresponding to settings for the plurality of demographical factors of at least one additional computer system previously having the identified error condition in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition for the computer system, the plurality of demographical factors including a plurality of system component demographical factors, each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system, and the setting of each system component demographical factor indicating at least one of;

an age or a capability of the corresponding hardware or software component of the computer system; and

determining a set of previous corrective actions taken to address the error condition for at least one additional computer system having similar demographical factors based on the comparison of the settings.

17. The program product of claim 16, the method further including acquiring the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system from current settings of the computer system in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition.

18. The program product of claim 16, the method further including providing the set of previous corrective actions for use by a user.

19. The program product of claim 16, the plurality of demographical factors further including at least one user demographical factor, the setting of the at least one user demographical factor corresponding to types of operations expected of the computer system.

20. The program product of claim 16, wherein each setting of the plurality of demographical factors is a numeric value, the comparing including:

generating a composite score for the computer system by combining the settings of the plurality of demographical factors; and

identifying a record corresponding to each of the at least one additional computer system using the composite score for the computer system and a composite score corresponding to the at least one additional computer system when it had the identified error condition.

21. The program product of claim 16, the method further including:

receiving a corrective action taken to address the error condition on the computer system; and

generating and storing a record including;

information corresponding to the identified error condition, information corresponding to the corrective action taken, and information corresponding to the settings for the plurality of demographical factors of the computer system.

22. A method of configuring a computer infrastructure, the method comprising:

configuring at least one computing device in the computer infrastructure to analyze a computer system by performing a method including;

obtaining an identification of an error condition for the computer system;

comparing settings for a plurality of demographical factors of the computer system with information corresponding to settings for the plurality of demographical factors of at least one additional computer system previously having the identified error condition in response to obtaining the identification of the error condition for the computer system, the plurality of demographical factors including a plurality of system component demographical factors, each system component demographical factor corresponding to at least one of;

a hardware component or a software component of the computer system, and the setting of each system component demographical factor indicating at least one of;

an age or a capability of the corresponding hardware or software component of the computer system; and

determining a set of previous corrective actions taken to address the error condition for at least one additional computer system having similar demographical factors based on the comparison of the settings.