Systems and methods for fetching troubleshooting data

• US 8,806,277 B1
• Filed: 02/01/2012
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Mullangath, Sinoj
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US13/364,277
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26, 714/37, 714/57
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• 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: H04L 41/065 involving logical or physical relationship, e.g. grouping and hierarchies

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for fetching troubleshooting data may include 1) receiving a request for information describing at least one potential cause of a failure within a computing environment, and, in response to the request, 2) identifying a set of relationships between a plurality of subsystems within the computing environment, 3) identifying a plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships, and 4) responding to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for fetching troubleshooting data, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving a request for information describing at least one potential cause of a failure within a computing environment;

in response to the request;

identifying a set of relationships between a plurality of subsystems within the computing environment;

identifying a plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships;

responding to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure by;

selecting a subset of the plurality of subsystems comprising subsystems within the plurality of subsystems implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

selecting a subset of the set of relationships comprising relationships within the set of relationships implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

transmitting the subset of the plurality of subsystems and the subset of the set of relationships without transmitting the plurality of subsystems and the set of relationships.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships comprises iteratively generating a dependency tree starting from the failure by identifying each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems with a potential direct causal relationship to at least one of the failure and a previously identified subsystem within the dependency tree.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein iteratively generating the dependency tree comprises:

for each node of the dependency tree;

identifying a potential fault in the node relating to the failure;

identifying each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems capable of contributing to the potential fault.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the plurality of potential causes comprises providing a dependency tree starting from the failure and tracing a plurality of potential causal paths of the failure across a subset of the plurality of subsystems.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein responding to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure comprises providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure in a single message.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving the request comprises receiving the request from a mobile computing device;

responding to the request comprises responding to the mobile computing device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein responding to the request comprises providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure to the mobile computing device in a format configured to display subsystems within the plurality of subsystems that are implicated in one or more of the potential causes of failure within the plurality of potential causes of failure instead of each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems.

8. A system for fetching troubleshooting data, the system comprising:

a receiving module programmed to receive a request for information describing at least one potential cause of a failure within a computing environment;

an identification module programmed to, in response to the request, identify a set of relationships between a plurality of subsystems within the computing environment;

an analysis module programmed to identify a plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships;

a response module programmed to respond to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure by;

selecting a subset of the plurality of subsystems comprising subsystems within the plurality of subsystems implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

selecting a subset of the set of relationships comprising relationships within the set of relationships implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

transmitting the subset of the plurality of subsystems and the subset of the set of relationships without transmitting the plurality of subsystems and the set of relationships;

at least one processor configured to execute the receiving module, the identification module, the analysis module, and the response module.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the analysis module is programmed to identify the plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships by iteratively generating a dependency tree starting from the failure by identifying each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems with a potential direct causal relationship to at least one of the failure and a previously identified subsystem within the dependency tree.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the analysis module is programmed to iteratively generate the dependency tree by, for each node of the dependency tree:

identifying a potential fault in the node relating to the failure;

identifying each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems capable of contributing to the potential fault.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the response module is programmed to provide the plurality of potential causes by providing a dependency tree starting from the failure and tracing a plurality of potential causal paths of the failure across a subset of the plurality of subsystems.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the response module is programmed to respond to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure comprises providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure in a single message.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the receiving module is programmed to receive the request from a mobile computing device;

the response module is programmed to respond to the request by responding to the mobile computing device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the response module is programmed to respond to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure to the mobile computing device in a format configured to display subsystems within the plurality of subsystems that are implicated in one or more of the potential causes of failure within the plurality of potential causes of failure instead of each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive a request for information describing at least one potential cause of a failure within a computing environment;

in response to the request;

identify a set of relationships between a plurality of subsystems within the computing environment;

identify a plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships;

respond to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure by;

selecting a subset of the plurality of subsystems comprising subsystems within the plurality of subsystems implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

selecting a subset of the set of relationships comprising relationships within the set of relationships implicated in at least one potential cause within the plurality of potential causes;

transmitting the subset of the plurality of subsystems and the subset of the set of relationships without transmitting the plurality of subsystems and the set of relationships.

16. The computer-readable-storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions cause the computing device to identify the plurality of potential causes of the failure based on the set of relationships by causing the computing device to iteratively generate a dependency tree starting from the failure by identifying each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems with a potential direct causal relationship to at least one of the failure and a previously identified subsystem within the dependency tree.

17. The computer-readable-storage medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions cause the computing device to iteratively generate the dependency tree by causing the computing device to, for each node of the dependency tree:

identify a potential fault in the node relating to the failure;

identify each subsystem within the plurality of subsystems capable of contributing to the potential fault.

18. The computer-readable-storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions cause the computing device to provide the plurality of potential causes by causing the computing device to provide a dependency tree starting from the failure and tracing a plurality of potential causal paths of the failure across a subset of the plurality of subsystems.

19. The computer-readable-storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions cause the computing device to respond to the request by providing the plurality of potential causes of the failure by causing the computing device to provide the plurality of potential causes of the failure in a single message.

20. The computer-readable-storage medium of claim 15, wherein:

receiving the request comprises receiving the request from a mobile computing device;

responding to the request comprises responding to the mobile computing device.