System and method for in-service diagnostics based on health signatures

• US 9,170,866 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Thornley, Bryan James, Cox, Claude Lano, Vichare, Nikhil Manohar, Makhija, Vinod
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US13/790,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20140257828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• 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 11/263 Generation of test inputs, e.g. test vectors, patterns or sequences ; with adaptation of the tested hardware for testability with external testers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis

Abstract

In accordance with the present disclosure, a system and method are herein disclosed for providing in-service diagnostics based on health signatures of an information handling system. In one embodiment, the health of an information handling system is periodically probed by a software agent running as a service. The service polls a set of probes from interfaces on the host system and tracks parameters indicative of system and component health and performance. An analytics engine processes the data to identify anomalies and outliers, and to detect signatures that are precursors to potential service incidents. A rule set matches signatures to potential actions. Based on the detected signatures and rule sets, the service is operable to select, schedule, and execute one or more diagnostic tests. If an information handling system or component thereof fails a diagnostic test, the results are archived to persistent storage and communicated to an administrator.

Claims

1. A method for providing in-service diagnostics in an information handling system having a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components;

storing, on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium, data related to the plurality of parameters;

detecting a health signature of the information handling system based on the data;

determining if the health signature is associated with an event based on a rule set, wherein the rule set comprises correlations between the health signature and one or more possible events;

matching, using the rule set, the health signature to one or more actions associated with the event;

selecting, based on the one or more actions matched to the health signature of the information handling system, a diagnostic test to execute;

scheduling the selected diagnostic test;

executing the selected diagnostic test; and

reporting the health signature and result of the selected diagnostic test to a system administrator upon detection of a failure or error.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting, based on the health signature of the information handling system, a diagnostic test to execute comprises consulting a rule set.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein diagnostic tests are stored in a diagnostic test repository.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein reporting the result of the selected diagnostic test comprises sending an alert including the result and the health signature of the information handling system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to memory in the information handling system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to a battery in the information handling system.

7. A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions to cause at least one processor coupled to the computer readable storage medium to:

monitor a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of an information handling system and its components;

store, on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium, data related to the plurality of parameters;

detect a health signature of the information handling system based on the data;

determine if the health signature is associated with an event based on a rule set, wherein the rule set comprises correlations between the health signature and one or more possible events;

match, using the rule set, the health signature to one or more actions associated with the event;

select, based on the one or more actions matched to the health signature of the information handling system, a diagnostic test to execute;

schedule the selected diagnostic test;

execute the selected diagnostic test; and

report the health signature and result of the selected diagnostic test to a system administrator upon detection of a failure or error.

8. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the selection of a diagnostic test to execute comprises consulting a rule set.

9. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein diagnostic tests are stored in a diagnostic test repository.

10. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the reporting the result of the selected diagnostic test comprises sending an alert including the result and the health signature of the information handling system.

11. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to memory in the information handling system.

12. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to a battery in the information handling system.

13. The non-transitory, computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to connections of components in the information handling system.

14. An information handling system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a non-transitory, computer readable storage medium coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the non-transitory, computer readable storage medium comprises instructions that cause the at least one processor to;

monitor a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components;

store, on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium, data related to the plurality of parameters;

detect a health signature of the information handling system based on the data;

determine if the health signature is associated with an event based on a rule set, wherein the rule set comprises correlations between the health signature and one or more possible events;

match, using the rule set, the health signature to one or more actions associated with the event;

select, based on the one or more actions matched to the health signature of the information handling system, a diagnostic test to execute;

schedule the selected diagnostic test;

execute the selected diagnostic test; and

report the health signature and result of the selected diagnostic test to a system administrator upon detection of a failure or error.

15. The information handling system of claim 14, wherein the selection of a diagnostic test to execute comprises consulting a rule set.

16. The information handling system of claim 15, wherein diagnostic tests are stored in a diagnostic test repository.

17. The information handling system of claim 16, wherein the reporting the result of the selected diagnostic test comprises sending an alert including the result and the health signature of the information handling system.

18. The information handling system of claim 14, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to memory in the information handling system.

19. The information handling system of claim 14, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to a battery in the information handling system.

20. The information handling system of claim 14, wherein the monitoring a plurality of parameters indicative of the health of the information handling system and its components comprises monitoring parameters related to connections of components in the information handling system.