Open error-handling system

• US 8,078,914 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leeb, Gunter, Naveh-Benjamin, Yitzchak, Roberts, Scott M., Abbas, Samar, Franky Lam, Shung Lai, Avital, Noaa
• Primary Examiner(s): GUYTON, PHILIP A
• Application Number:
  US12/477,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20100313073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26, 714/47.1, 714/38.1
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification

Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein extend to methods, systems, and computer program products for error resolution in a computing system that includes a health module. The health module monitors components of the system for runtime errors and provides error resolution templates. The error resolution templates include metadata that specifies actions that may resolve the error and error handlers corresponding to the actions that may correct the error. The system may be extended by the addition and/or modification of the error resolution templates. The error resolution templates may also be used to facilitate the correction of runtime errors in the system.

Claims

1. In a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a method of providing unified and configurable error resolution for one or more components executing at the computer system, the method comprising:

storing a global list of errors of various types that may occur while any of the one or more components are executing;

storing a plurality of error handlers at an error handler module, each of which define operations configured to resolve error types stored in said global list;

storing a plurality of policies at a life time module, each policy specifying actions for error removal;

each of the one or more components performing the following;

defining its own error types and adding the defined error types to said global list;

defining its own error handlers and adding the defined error handlers to said error handler module;

defining one or more polices for its own defined error types and adding the defined policies to said life time module;

generating at a template generator a plurality of error resolution templates by performing the following;

accessing error types stored at said global list;

accessing error handlers from said error handler module;

accessing polices from said life time module;

associating at least one accessed policy and at least one error handler with each accessed error type, and then storing each accessed error type with the associated error handler and policy in a separate error resolution template;

during execution of the one or more components, identifying first and second error types;

identifying from the plurality of error resolution templates at the template generator a first error resolution template configured to resolve the first error type and associating the first error type with the first error resolution template;

in the event an error resolution template cannot be identified for the second error type, submitting a new error resolution template which includes at least one error handler configured to resolve the second error type to the template generator and adding it to the plurality of error resolution templates to thereby extend the error resolution capabilities of the template generator; and

thereafter associating the second error type with the new error resolution template, to resolve the second error type.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first and second error types are one of a database error, a validation error, a commit error, or an operating system error.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

defining a third error type; and

associating the third error type with the first error resolution template, wherein the first error resolution template includes an error handler configured to resolve the third error type.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

defining a third error type; and

associating the third error type with the new error resolution template, wherein the new error resolution template includes an error handler configured to resolve the third error type.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

removing a second existing error resolution template from a listing of error resolution templates.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

defining a new error handler configured to resolve the first error type; and

associating the first error resolution template with the error handler.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein each error handlers includes metadata specifying the name of the error handler, a description of the error handler, error resolution instructions, and context-specific parameters.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein each error resolution template further includes description metadata having a unique identifier for the error resolution template.

9. In a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a method of providing unified and configurable error resolution for one or more components executing at the computer system, the method comprising:

storing a global list of errors of various types that may occur while any of the one or more components are executing;

storing a plurality of error handlers at an error handler module, each of which define operations configured to resolve error types stored in said global list;

storing a plurality of policies at a life time module, each policy specifying actions for error removal;

each of the one or more components performing the following;

defining its own error types and adding the defined error types to said global list;

defining its own error handlers and adding the defined error handlers to said error handler module;

defining one or more polices for its own defined error types and adding the defined policies to said life time module;

removing at least one or more of (i) an error type from the global list, (ii) an error handler from the error handler module, or (iii) a policy from the life time module;

generating at a template generator a plurality of error resolution templates by performing the following;

accessing error types stored at said global list;

accessing error handlers from said error handler module;

accessing polices from said life time module;

associating at least one accessed policy and at least one error handler with each accessed error type, and then storing each accessed error type with the associated error handler and policy in a separate error resolution template, each error resolution template further including a unique identifier used when mapping an error type to the error resolution template, description metadata that defines the error type and resolution actions to be taken for the error type;

during execution of the one or more components, identifying an error type;

identifying from the plurality of error resolution templates at the template generator an error resolution template configured to resolve the error type and associating the error type with the error resolution template;

based on the error resolution template identified for the error type, providing at a user interface at least one possible resolution action for resolving the error, the at least one resolution action including at least a part of the description metadata for the error type such that a user may implement the resolution action; and

implement the resolution actions in the identified error resolution template to cause the execution of at least one error handlers associated with the identified error resolution template.

10. The method in accordance with claim 9, wherein executing the at least one error handlers occurs at one of the component.

11. The method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

providing at the user interface a second possible resolution action for resolving the error type, the second resolution action including at least a part of the description metadata for the error type such that a user may implement the second resolution action.

12. The method in accordance with claim 9, wherein the error is one of a database error, a validation error, a commit error, or an operating system error.

13. The method in accordance with claim 9, wherein each error handlers includes metadata specifying the name of the error handler, a description of the error handler, error resolution instructions, and context-specific parameters.

14. The method in accordance with claim 9, wherein each error resolution template further includes description metadata having a unique identifier for the error resolution template.

15. In a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a computer program product comprised of physical storage media containing computer-executable instructions for implementing at the computer system a method of providing unified and configurable error resolution for one or more components executing at the computer system, the method comprising:

storing a global list of errors of various types that may occur while any of the one or more components are executing;

storing a plurality of error handlers at an error handler module, each of which define operations configured to resolve error types stored in said global list;

storing a plurality of policies at a life time module, each policy specifying actions for error removal;

each of the one or more components performing the following;

defining its own error types and adding the defined error types to said global list,

defining its own error handlers and adding the defined error handlers to said error handler module;

defining one or more polices for its own defined error types and adding the defined policies to said life time module;

generating at a template generator a plurality of error resolution templates by performing the following;

accessing error types stored at said global list,

accessing error handlers from said error handler module,

accessing polices from said life time module;

associating at least one accessed policy and at least one error handler with each accessed error type, and then storing each accessed error type with the associated error handler and policy in a separate error resolution template;

during execution of the one or more components, identifying first and second error types;

identifying from the plurality of error resolution templates at the template generator a first error resolution template configured to resolve the first error type and associating the first error type with the first error resolution template;

in the event an error resolution template cannot be identified for the second error type, submitting a new error resolution template which includes at least one error handler configured to resolve the second error type to the template generator and adding it to the plurality of error resolution templates to thereby extend the error resolution capabilities of the template generator; and

thereafter associating the second error type with the new error resolution template, to resolve the second error type.