Automatic core file upload

• US 8,086,909 B1
• Filed: 11/05/2008
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Inventors: Powers, Michael Eric, Varghese, Sam, Narayanan, Ganesh Ragavan, Ratty, Muthukumar, Liu, Joshua, Ulyanchenko, Sabina, Kaira, Pradeep, Kaplunov, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Arcos, Jeison C
• Application Number:
  US12/265,362
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: 714/27, 714/37, 714/39, 714/46
• US Class Current: 714/49
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• 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 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

Abstract

A support center receives an error message from a remote storage system indicating that an error, such as a kernel panic, has occurred on the remote storage system. The error message is processed to determine the type of error, whether the type of error is known and whether a solution is known for the type of error. If the type of error is unknown, a core file upload request is automatically generated and sent to the remote storage system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, an error message from a remote storage system in which an error occurred;

parsing the error message to determine a type of error and creating a case number for the error;

determining whether the type of error is known; and

if the type of error is unknown, sending a core upload request with the case number to the remote storage system to automatically request that a core file be sent from the remote storage system, wherein the core file is validated by the remote storage system and is renamed by the remote storage system to incorporate the case number into an existing core file name.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the core upload request comprises a system identification number, the case number and a core name.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying a service level of the remote storage system by checking entitlement information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the core file from the remote storage system; and

processing the core file to determine a cause of an error contained in the received core file and a solution for the error.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

if a transmission error occurs while receiving the core file, receiving an error message indicating the transmission error.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating a list of known errors with the solution for the error contained in the received core file.

7. A system, comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory, the memory storing

a case creation module to cause the processor to receive an error message in response to a storage system error from a remote storage system in which an error occurred, process the error message to determine an error type and create a case number for the storage system error, and

a remote support enterprise (RSE) module to cause the processor to automatically send a core file upload request with the case number to the remote storage system in response to the received error message, wherein the core file is validated by the remote storage system and is renamed by the remote storage system to incorporate the case number into an existing core file name.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the core file upload request comprises a system identification number, the case number and a core name.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the RSE module is configured to receive the core file from the remote storage system.

10. The system of claim 7, the memory further storing an error type analysis module to cause the processor to determine whether the error type is known.

11. The system of claim 10, the memory further storing a customer relationship manager (CRM) module to cause the processor to maintain a case record for the storage system error.

12. The system of claim 11, the memory further storing a core file analysis module to cause the processor to process the received core file and determine a solution for the storage system error.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the core file analysis module updates the CRM module once the solution has been determined and the CRM module updates a list of known errors in the error type analysis module.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor unit; and

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor unit, cause the system to

receive an error message from a remote storage system in which an error occurred,

parse the error message to determine a type of error and create a case number for the error,

determine whether the type of error is known, and

if the type of error is unknown, sending a core upload request with the case number to the remote storage system to automatically request that a core file be sent from the remote storage system, wherein the core file is validated by the remote storage system and is renamed by the remote storage system to incorporate the case number into an existing core file name.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the core upload request comprises a system identification number, the case number and a core name.

16. The system of claim 14, the instructions further to cause the system to verify a service level of the remote storage system by checking entitlement information.

17. The system of claim 14, the instructions further to cause the system to receive the core file from the remote storage system and process the core file to determine a cause of an error contained in the received core file and a solution for the error.

18. The system of claim 17, the instructions further to cause the system to update a list of known errors with the solution for the error.

19. The system of claim 14, the instructions further to cause the system to determine if a transmission error occurs while receiving the core file and receive an error message indicating the transmission error.

20. The system of claim 14, the instructions further to cause the system to maintain a case record for the received error message.

21. A method to automatically request a core file upload for execution by a support center system, the method comprising:

receiving an error message from a remote storage system in which an error occurred at a case creation module of the support center system;

parsing the error message to determine a type of error and creating a case number for the error by the case creation module;

determining whether the type of error is known by an error type analysis module of the support center system; and

if the type of error is unknown, sending a core upload request with the case number from a remote support enterprise (RSE) module of the support center system to the remote storage system to automatically request that a core file be sent from the remote storage system to the support center system, wherein the core file is validated by the remote storage system and is renamed by the remote storage system to incorporate the case number into an existing core file name.