Apparatus, system, and method to provide alert notification with reconcile actions

• US 8,291,268 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Graves, Jason James, Holdaway, Kevan D., Acuna, Jorge Daniel, Gee, Lourdes Magnally, Nguyen, Nhu Thanh
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, KAMINI B
• Application Number:
  US12/417,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20100257412A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48
• US Class Current: 714/48
• 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 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• 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 method to provide an alert notification and a reconcile action to a client computing system, the alert notification being responsive to an error condition in a target computing system, and the reconcile action being responsive to the alert notification, wherein the method supplies a client computing system and a target computing system, wherein the target computing system is in communication with the client computing system. The method further forms an alert notification responsive to an error condition detected in the target computing system, and generates a reconcile action responsive to the alert notification. The method provides the alert notification and the reconcile action to the client computing system. The client computing system returns a selected reconcile action, which is implemented by the target computing system, wherein that implementing step is performed without logging into said target computing system.

Claims

1. A method to provide an alert notification and a reconcile action, comprising:

supplying a client computing system and a target computing system comprising a storage controller in communication with a plurality of data storage drives, wherein;

said target computing system is in communication with said client computing system;

said target computing system comprises a communication module, and a management module;

said communication module comprises a first computer readable medium, and a plurality of notification messages encoded in said first computer readable medium;

said management module comprises a processor, a second computer readable medium, and a plurality of reconcile action encoded in said second computer readable medium;

providing by said target computing system to said client computing system an enclosure temperature warning alert notification responsive to an error condition and two reconcile actions responsive to the error condition, wherein one a first reconcile action comprises ignoring said error condition and wherein a second reconcile action comprises reducing drive activity;

selecting a reconcile action by said client computing system;

implementing said selected reconcile action by said target computing system;

wherein said implementing step is performed without logging into said target computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said error condition comprises an over-temperature condition detected in said target computing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said target computing system comprises a storage controller in communication with one or more data storage devices;

said error condition comprises a failure to read information from, or write information to, one or more of said plurality of data storage devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step comprises selecting a resolution action that differs from said reconcile action, said method further comprising updating said reconcile action to include to said resolution action.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a notification module comprising said communication module, wherein said notification module is in communication with said client computing system and with said target computing system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said notification module is integral with said target computing system.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising supplying a communication fabric comprising one or more switches;

wherein said client computing system communicates with said target computing system via said communication fabric; and

wherein said notification module communicates with said client computing system and with said target computing system via said communication fabric.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

submitting security information;

determining if said submitted security information matches stored security information;

operative if said submitted security information does not match said stored security information, not providing said reconcile action to said client computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

operative if said submitted security information matches said stored security information;

identifying a user associated with said submitted security information; and

determining if said user is authorized to implement said reconcile action;

operative if said user is not authorized to implement said reconcile action, not providing said reconcile action to said client computing device.

10. A system comprising a notification module in communication with a client computing system and disposed in a target computing system comprising a storage controller in communication with a plurality of data storage drives, and comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having computer readable program code disposed therein to generate and provide an alert notification responsive to an error condition and one or more reconcile actions responsive to the alert notification, wherein the target computing system comprises a management module comprising a plurality of reconcile actions encoded therein, the computer readable program code comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect:

forming an enclosure temperature warning alert notification responsive to an error condition in said target computing system;

generating two reconcile actions responsive to said error condition, wherein one a first reconcile action comprises ignoring said error condition and wherein a second reconcile action comprises reducing drive activity;

providing said alert notification and said reconcile actions to said client computing system;

receiving a selected reconcile action from said client computing system;

implementing said selected reconcile action by said target computing system;

wherein said implementing step is performed without logging into said target computing system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said error condition comprises an over-temperature condition detected in said target computing system.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein:

said target computing system comprises a storage controller in communication with one or more data storage devices;

said error condition comprises a failure to read information from, or write information to, one or more of said plurality of data storage devices.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said computer readable program code to received a selected action further comprises a series of computer readable program steps to effect receiving a resolution action that differs from said reconcile action, said computer readable program code further comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect updating said reconcile action to include to said resolution action.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an alert module and a communication module;

wherein said alert module comprises computer readable program code comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect forming said alert notification; and

wherein said communication module comprises computer readable program code comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect providing said alert notification and said reconcile action to said client computing system.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein said notification module is integral with said target computing system.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein said notification module communicates with said client computing system and with said target computing system via a communication fabric.

17. The system of claim 10, said computer readable program code further comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect:

receiving security information;

determining if said received security information matches stored security information;

operative if said received security information does not match said stored security information, not providing said reconcile action to said client computing device.

18. The system of claim 17, said computer readable program code further comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect:

operative if said received security information matches said stored security information;

identifying a user associated with said submitted security information; and

determining if said user is authorized to implement said reconcile action;

operative if said user is not authorized to implement said reconcile action, not providing said reconcile action to said client computing device.

19. A computer program product encoded in a non-transitory computer readable medium disposed in a notification module comprising a programmable processor and in communication with a client computing system and disposed in a target computing system comprising a storage controller in communication with a plurality of data storage drives, said computer program product being useable with said programmable processor to generate and provide an alert notification responsive to an error condition and one or more reconcile actions responsive to the alert notification, wherein the target computing system comprises a management module comprising a plurality of reconcile actions encoded therein, and wherein said computer readable medium is selected from the group consisting of a magnetic information storage medium, an optical information storage medium, an electronic information storage medium, comprising:

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to form an enclosure temperature warning alert notification responsive to an error condition in said target computing system;

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to generate two reconcile actions responsive to said error condition, wherein one a first reconcile action comprises ignoring said error condition and wherein a second reconcile action comprises reducing drive activity;

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to provide said alert notification and said two reconcile actions to said client computing system;

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to receive a selected reconcile action from said client computing system;

wherein said selected reconcile action is implemented by said target computing system without requiring that a user log into said target computing system.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein said error condition comprises an over-temperature condition detected in said target computing system.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein:

said target computing system comprises a storage controller in communication with one or more data storage devices;

said error condition comprises a failure to read information from, or write information to, one or more of said plurality of data storage devices.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein said notification module communicates with said client computing system and with said target computing system via a communication fabric.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein said notification module is integral with said target computing system.

24. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to receive security information;

computer readable program code which causes said programmable processor to determine if said received security information matches stored security information;

computer readable program code which, if said submitted security information does not match said stored security information, causes said programmable processor to not provide said reconcile action to said client computing device.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, said computer readable program code further comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect:

computer readable program code which, if said submitted security information matches said stored security information causes said programmable processor to;

identify a user associated with said submitted security information; and

determine if said user is authorized to implement said reconcile action;

computer readable program code which, if said user is not authorized to implement said reconcile action, causes said programmable processor to not provide said reconcile action to said client computing device.