Collecting data from a system in response to an event based on an identification in a file of the data to collect

• US 9,176,803 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Biberdorf, Terry S., Paruthi, Meghna
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil, Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Levitian, Karina
• Application Number:
  US11/464,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20080058961A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,368 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31166 Access data by name, object, stored in list, database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34355 List of failure events, list of actions, events, trigger actions
• 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 11/073 in a memory management context, e.g. virtual memory or cache management memory management G06F12/00; testing of static memory units G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems

Abstract

Embodiments may comprise a data identifier to identify data to collect in response to an event and a data collector to collect the identified data. The data collector may comprise firmware, code in ROM, a state machine, and/or other logic, and the data identifier may also comprise firmware, code in ROM, a state machine, and/or other logic that may access information and/or code in a file or other data storage to identify the data to collect. The data storage may comprise information and/or code to identify the location of data to collect and, in some embodiments, the sequence with which to collect the data.

Claims

1. A method to gather data from a system in response to an event of the system, the method comprising:

identifying, by an event identifier, the event;

accessing, by a data collector, a file to relate the event to data to collect in response to identifying the event, the file comprising more than one entry, each entry being associated with a different event in a plurality of events, each entry comprising a data identification specifying data to collect for a corresponding event, and a sequence by which to collect the data to collect for the corresponding event, wherein at least two entries in the file, corresponding to two different events, specify different data identifications and different sequences by which to collect the data to collect, such that different data is collected depending upon which event in the two different events is identified by the event identifier;

retrieving, by the data collector, from the file, an identified entry corresponding to the identified event, and a data identification identifying data to collect and an associated sequence by which to collect the data corresponding to the identified entry, wherein the data identification corresponding to the identified entry comprises at least one memory location from which to collect the data to collect related to the corresponding event; and

collecting, by the data collector, based upon the data identification corresponding to the identified entry, the data to collect related to the corresponding event from the at least one memory location in accordance with the sequence associated with the retrieved identified entry, wherein;

the associated sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect such that at least one of a first type of data is collected prior to a second type of data, or data at a first address is collected prior to data at a second address, based on the sequence,

the at least one memory location comprises an address range,

collecting the data to collect related to the event comprises parsing data in the address range to select data from the address range corresponding to the data to collect, and

not all of the data in the address range is collected.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing code of the data collector in response to a trigger, the code to collect the data related to a state of the system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the file comprises transmitting an indication of the event to the data identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the identified entry corresponding to the identified event comprises receiving an indication of the at least one memory location from the data identification based upon the association between the data identification and the event and receiving the associated sequence, wherein the at least one memory location is a memory location from which the data to collect is to be retrieved.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving the indication of the at least one memory location comprises receiving at least one memory address and descriptors to identify the data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the identified entry corresponding to the identified event comprises accessing a data storage device to determine the at least one memory location for the data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the identified entry corresponding to the identified event comprises receiving code to describe collection of the data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the identified entry corresponding to the identified event comprises receiving information to describe a condition precedent to collection of the data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting, based upon the data identification corresponding to the identified entry, the data comprises parsing data at one or more locations indicated by the identification to identify the data to collect.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein data of a particular data type or at a particular address that will become corrupted due to occurrence of the event is given a higher priority than other priorities in the one or more priorities associated with other data types or data at other addresses in the data to collect.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein data that is more important to collect due to its value in analyzing conditions of the system in relation to the particular event is given a higher priority than other priorities in the one or more priorities associated with other data in the data to collect.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically modifying the file in response to a change in a configuration of the system, wherein the change in configuration of the system comprises at least one of modifications to hardware deployed in the system, a modification to software deployed in the system, an addition of new hardware in the system, or an addition of new software in the system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of events are events associated with at least one of failures or errors occurring in the functioning of at least one of one or more software components or one or more hardware components of the system, or an alert event for initiating storing a state of the system.

14. An apparatus to collect data from a system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor;

an event identifier to identify, via the processor, an event as a trigger to collect the data;

a data collector to collect, via the processor, the data associated with the event in a specified sequence associated with the event specified via a data identification of the data related to the event; and

a data identifier in communication with the data collector to retrieve, from data storage, the data identification and an associated sequence by which to collect the data based upon an association between the data identification and the event, the data identification comprising one or more locations, associated with the data, from which to collect the data, and to communicate the identification to the data collector, wherein;

the data storage stores a plurality of data identifications of data to collect associated with corresponding events in a plurality of events,

at least two of the data identifications of data to collect associated with at least two different corresponding events are different from each other such that different data is collected depending upon which of the at least two events occurs and the different data is collected in accordance with different associated sequences,

the specified sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect such that at least one of a first type of data is collected prior to a second type of data, or data at a first address is collected prior to data at a second address, based on the sequence,

a first sequence associated with a first event in the plurality of events is different from a second sequence associated with a second event in the plurality of events,

the one or more locations comprises an address range,

collecting the data to collect related to the event comprises parsing data in the address range to select data from the address range corresponding to the data to collect, and

not all of the data in the address range is collected.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the data collector comprises a parsing module to parse the data at the one or more locations to locate the data to collect in response to the event.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the data identifier comprises a file in the data storage, wherein the file comprises the data identification, the data identification comprising information about data to collect related to the event.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, where the data identifier comprises an interface to modify the file.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the data identifier comprises a sequence identifier to identify the sequence associated with collection of the data in response to the event.

19. A system to collect data from a system in response to an event, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising a data collector to collect data associated with the event in a specified sequence associated with the event specified in a data identification that specifies the data related to the event and the specified sequence associated with the event; and

a service processor to identify an event as a trigger to collect the data, in communication with the data collector to retrieve, from data storage, the data identification comprising one or more locations related to the data, from which to collect the data, and the specified sequence with which to collect the data based upon an association between the data identification and the event, and to communicate the one or more locations to the data collector, wherein;

the data storage stores a plurality of data identifications of data to collect associated with corresponding events in a plurality of events,

at least two of the identifications of data to collect associated with at least two different corresponding events are different from each other such that different data is collected depending upon which of the at least two events occurs and the different data is collected in accordance with different associated sequences,

the specified sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect such that at least one of a first type of data is collected prior to a second type of data, or data at a first address is collected prior to data at a second address, based on the sequence,

a first sequence associated with a first event in the plurality of events is different from a second sequence associated with a second event in the plurality of events,

the one or more locations comprises an address range,

collecting the data to collect related to the event comprises parsing data in the address range to select data from the address range corresponding to the data to collect, and

not all of the data in the address range is collected.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a remote system interface to communicate with a remote system to collect the data from the remote system in response to the event.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the data collector comprises dump code, in non-volatile memory of the data storage of the computer system, to execute on a processor of the computer system.

22. A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

receive an indication of the event at a data identifier;

retrieve, by the data identifier, from a file, an identification of the data to collect from one or more locations, and an associated sequence by which to collect the data based upon an association between the identification and the event, to relate the event to the data to collect in response to the event, the file comprising more than one identifications, each identification being associated with a different event in a plurality of events and specifying data to collect for an associated event and a sequence by which to collect the specified data to collect, wherein at least two of the identifications of data to collect and at least two sequences associated with at least two different corresponding events are different from each other such that different data is collected in a different sequence depending upon which of the at least two events occurs; and

collect, by a data collector, the data to collect based upon the identification, to store the data to collect in an output file in accordance with the associated sequence, wherein;

the sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect such that at least one of a first type of data is collected prior to a second type of data, or data at a first address is collected prior to data at a second address, based on the sequence,

the one or more locations comprises an address range,

collecting the data to collect related to the event comprises parsing data in the address range to select data from the address range corresponding to the data to collect, and

not all of the data in the address range is collected.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the computer readable program causes the computer to retrieve, by the data identifier, from a file at least by parsing the file to locate the identification of the data based upon the event.

24. A method to gather data from a system in response to an event of the system, the method comprising:

identifying, by an event identifier, the event;

accessing, by a data collector via a data identifier, a file to relate the event to data to collect in response to the event, the file comprising more than one data identifications, each data identification being associated with a different event in a plurality of events and specifying data to collect for an associated event and a specified sequence by which to collect the specified data to collect, wherein the specified sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect associated with the event, wherein at least two of the data identifications of data to collect associated with at least two different corresponding events are different from each other such that different data is collected depending upon which of the at least two events occurs, and wherein a first sequence associated with a first event in the plurality of events is different from a second sequence associated with a second event in the plurality of events;

retrieving, by the data collector via the data identifier, from the file, a data identification of the data to collect and an associated specified sequence by which to collect the data based upon an association between the data identification and the identified event, wherein the data identification comprises at least one memory location from which to collect the data related to the identified event; and

collecting, by the data collector, based upon the retrieved data identification, the data to collect related to the event from the at least one memory location in accordance with the specified sequence associated with the retrieved data identification of the data to collect such that at least one of a first type of data is collected prior to a second type of data, or data at a first address is collected prior to data at a second address, based on the specified sequence, wherein the data identifier comprises a rule module, a binary file, an event identifier, a trigger list, and an output file, and wherein;

the event identifier compares events against the trigger list to determine whether the event should trigger collection of the data to collect;

in response to the event identifier determining that the event should trigger collection of data to collect, the rule module accesses the binary file to determine whether code in the binary file is associated with the event;

in response to the code in the binary file being associated with the event, the rule module communicates the code in the binary file to the data collector to thereby instruct the data collector to collect the data using the code;

the output file comprises a data structure to contain the data collected in response to the event,

the at least one memory location comprises an address range;

collecting the data to collect related to the event comprises parsing data in the address range to select data from the address range corresponding to the data to collect; and

not all of the data in the address range is collected.