Automated analysis tasks of complex computer system

• US 7,917,904 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2006
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Weiguo, Bowden, Paul John, Bennetto, John, Chase, Kevin C., Allen, Nicole Annette, Avner, Jon B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente; Emerson C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee; Adam
• Application Number:
  US11/327,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20070159643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,908 Days
• Field of Search: 718/101, 718/102, 718/106, 718/108, 705/80, 709/238, 715/200, 715/700, 707/1, 707/100, 707/200
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence

Abstract

Automated multiple step tasks are executed on a computing device to analyze a computer system. A step engine performs a complex task such as troubleshooting, performance analysis, or disaster recovery as defined by an input file. The step engine parses the input file into individual steps and dispatches actions of the steps to another device for execution. The device returns a file with the results of the action. The step engine progresses through the list of steps and generates a log file representative of the actions taken and data collected during performance of the task.

Claims

1. A computer executable method of a step engine for automating execution of a task of a computing system, said task including a plurality of steps, said method comprising:

retrieving an available update of an input file;

receiving the input file defining a task to be executed;

parsing the task in the received input file into a plurality of steps of the task;

defining a set of configuration files from the received input file, each of said configuration files specifying at least one action and data relating to the computing system, said at least one action being defined by one of the parsed plurality of steps of the task;

dispatching at least one of the configuration files to a data engine for executing the action specified by the dispatched configuration file, wherein dispatching the at least one of the configuration files includes dispatching a driver to the data engine, said driver being associated with the action specified by the dispatched configuration file;

dispatching the data engine to gather the data specified by the configuration files;

receiving an output file from the data engine, said output file representing a result of the data engine executing the action specified by the dispatched configuration file;

generating a log file in response to receiving the output file, said log file representing the action and the result of executing the action;

updating the log file as the data engine executes each of the configuration files and provides the output file; and

generating a next configuration file specifying at least one more action of a step of the task as a function of the received output file and the input file and dispatching the next configuration file to the data engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dispatching the configuration file comprises dispatching a first configuration file and further comprising defining and dispatching a second configuration file after the data engine executes the action specified in the first configuration file.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the data engine, a user interface defined by the configuration file to gather the specified data from a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the task of the computing system comprises one or more of the following:

a disaster recovery task, a performance analysis task, a task for determining what disk capacity is needed to deploy a unified-messaging environment, a mail-flow analyzing task, a task for determining if a mail program is properly installed on a client computing device, a task for determining why memory usage is relatively high for a computing device, and a troubleshooting task.

5. A computer-implemented system for automating execution of a task, said task including a plurality of steps, said system comprising a processor executing computer executable instructions for implementing:

a step engine for retrieving an available update to an input file, parsing the input file defining the task into the plurality of steps of the task and for defining and dispatching a plurality of configuration files corresponding to the input file, each configuration file specifying at least one action corresponding to the parsed plurality of steps in the task; and

a data engine receiving, and responsive to, each of the dispatched configuration files for executing the at least one action specified by the received configuration file, wherein the data engine is configured to gather data specified by the configuration files, and for transmitting an output file to the step engine, said output file representing an analysis of a result of executing the action, wherein the step engine;

dispatches a driver that is associated with the at least one action specified by the configuration files to the data engine,

generates a log file in response to receiving and reading the output file, said log file representing each of the actions executed by the data engine and the result of executing the actions in each of the configuration files,

updates the log file as the data engine executes each of the configuration files and provides the output file, and

generates a next configuration file specifying another action of a step of the task as a function of the received output file and the input file and dispatching the next configuration file to the data engine.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the step engine dispatches a first configuration file according to a step in the set of steps and subsequently dispatching a second configuration file according to a step in the set of steps after the data engine executes the action specified in the first configuration file.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the input file comprises an extensible markup language file.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the configuration files each comprise an extensible markup language file.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the actions specified by the configuration files defines data to be retrieved from a user, said data relating to the task, and further comprising a user interface component defined by at least one of the configuration files to gather the defined data from the user.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the task comprises one or more of the following:

a disaster recovery task, a performance analysis task, a task for determining what disk capacity is needed to deploy a unified-messaging environment, a mail-flow analyzing task, a task for determining if a mail program is properly installed on a client computing device, a task for determining why memory usage is relatively high for a computing device, and a troubleshooting task.