System and method for searching error messages

• US 7,873,898 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2008
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mittal, Parul Alok, Bhamidipaty, Anuradha, Sinha, Vibha S.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAUDRY, MUJTABA M
• Application Number:
  US12/061,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20080183668A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 714/799, 714/49, 714/774
• US Class Current: 714/799
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• 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 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion

Abstract

A user interface component receives an input error message. A query enhancer component derives error messages from the input error messages using error pattern(s) representative of the input error message and error sub-pattern(s) of the error pattern(s). A result aggregator component inputs each error message to search engines, receives search results, aggregates the search results, and provides the search results to the user interface. The enhancer component may include a pattern composer component to locate error patterns representative of the input error message, and a sub-pattern generator component to derive error sub-patterns from the error patterns. The aggregator component may determine whether the search results are in agreement with a predetermined criterion. If not, the aggregator component may request the enhancer component to provide additional error messages to input to the search engines. This process can be iteratively repeated until the search results are in agreement with the predetermined criterion.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an input error message;

deriving a plurality of error messages from the input error message using one or more error patterns representative of the input error message and one or more error sub-patterns of the error patterns;

inputting the error messages derived from the input error message to one or more search engines;

receiving search results for the error messages; and

,

displaying the search results for the error messages.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, and prior to displaying the search results for the error messages, aggregating the search results for the error messages in an order from more specific to more generic with respect to the input error message.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after receiving the search results for the error messages,

repeating

determining whether the search results are in agreement with a predetermined criterion;

and

where the search results are in disagreement with the predetermined criterion,

generating one or more additional error messages;

inputting the additional error messages to the search engines;

receiving the search results for the additional error messages,

until the search results satisfy the predetermined criterion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving the error messages from the input error message comprises:

locating the error patterns representative of the input error message; and

,

deriving the error sub-patterns from the error patterns, each error sub-pattern being one of the error messages.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein deriving the error sub-patterns from the error patterns comprises constructing different combinations of sub-parts of the error patterns.

6. A data processing system comprising:

a receiver component to receive an input error message;

a query enhancer component coupled to the receiver component and configured to derive a plurality of error messages from the input error message using one or more error patterns representative of the input error message and one or more error sub-patterns of the error patterns; and

,

a result aggregator component coupled to the query enhancer component and configured to input each of the error messages to one or more search engines, to receive search results for each of the error messages, to aggregate the search results for the error messages, and to provide the search results back to the user interface.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the user interface component is configured to receive the search results from the result aggregator component and display the search results received to a user.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the query enhancer component comprises a pattern composer component to locate the patterns representative of the input error message.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a knowledge repository interfaced with the pattern composer component, the pattern composer component configured to locate the error patterns representative of the input error message using the knowledge base.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the pattern composer component is configured to perform regular expression matching against the knowledge repository to locate the error patterns representative of the input error message.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the query enhancer component further comprises a sub-pattern generator component to derive the error sub-patterns from the error patterns.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each error sub-pattern is one of the error messages input to the search engines.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the sub-pattern generator component derives the error sub-patterns from the error patterns by constructing different combinations of sub-parts of the error patterns.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein the result aggregator component is configured to request the query enhancer component to provide one or more additional error messages for input by the result aggregator component to the search engines.

15. The system of claim 6, wherein each of one or more times that the result aggregator component receives search results, the aggregator component is to determine whether the search results are in agreement with a predetermined criterion, and where the search results are in disagreement with the predetermined criterion, the aggregator component is to request the query enhancer component to provide one or more additional error messages for input by the result aggregator component to the search engines, until the search results are in agreement with the predetermined criterion.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

a tangible readable medium; and

,

means in the medium for deriving a plurality of error messages from an input error message using one or more error patterns representative of the input error message and one or more error sub-patterns of the error patterns, inputting the error messages to one or more search engines, receiving search results for the error messages, and displaying the search results for the error messages.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the means is further for:

repeatedly

determining whether the search results are in agreement with a predetermined criterion;

where the search results are in disagreement the predetermined criterion,

generating one or more additional error messages;

inputting the additional error messages to the search engines;

receiving the search results for the additional error messages,

until the search results satisfy the predetermined criterion.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the means is for deriving the error messages from the input error message by locating the error patterns representative of the input error message and deriving the error sub-patterns from the error patterns, each error sub-pattern being one of the error messages.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, wherein the means is for deriving the error sub-patterns from the error patterns by constructing different combinations of sub-parts of the error patterns.