Automated defect diagnosis from machine diagnostic data

• US 9,274,874 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Chamness, Mark, Schnegelberger, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Kudirka, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/042,491
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/026 using e-messaging for transporting management information, e.g. email, instant messaging or chat
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications

Abstract

Diagnosis of defect(s) in a system is disclosed. A defect signature-based query is performed against system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records. It is determined that a defect signature is associated with a system based at least in part on the query. Remediation information generated based at least in part on the defect signature and the system diagnostic data may be output.

Claims

1. A method of defect diagnosis, comprising:

performing, by a processor, a defect signature-based query against system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records;

determining that a defect signature stored in memory is associated with a system based at least in part on the query;

determining whether the defect signature association results in a false positive; and

in response to the determined false positive, modifying the defect signature by adding additional qualifiers and storing the modified defect signature.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to performing the defect signature-based query, receiving diagnostic data from the system; and

generating system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records based at least in part on the diagnostic data, wherein the structured records are generated by processing the received diagnostic data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the defect signature-based query based at least in part on the defect signature and one or more parameters associated with the system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the parameters include one or more of a number of occurrences of an event, a frequency of occurrence, a code level associated with a defect symptom, a period of time, and a product version.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the defect signature comprises one or more defect symptoms indicative of a defect.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the defect signature-based query includes one or more logical operators.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the defect signature-based query includes a regular expression.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting remediation information generated based at least in part on the defect signature and the system diagnostic data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting defect identification information associated with one or more of a representation of system diagnostic data that includes the defect, a defect identifier associated with the defect signature, and a defect symptom summary.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the defect signature comprises a bug signature.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that a defect signature stored in memory is associated with a system based at least in part on the query step comprises determining that the system is not compliant with a health signature.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that a defect signature stored in memory is associated with a system based at least in part on the query step comprises determining that the defect signature is not associated with the system based at least in part on the query.

13. A system for defect diagnosis, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to;

perform a defect signature-based query against system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records;

determine that a defect signature is associated with a serviced system based at least in part on the query;

determine whether the defect signature association results in a false positive; and

in response to the determined false positive, modifying the defect signature by adding additional qualifiers and storing the modified defect signature.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory is further configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to:

prior to performing the defect signature-based query, receive diagnostic data from the serviced system; and

generate system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records based at least in part on the diagnostic data, wherein the structured records are generated by processing the received diagnostic data.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory is further configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to generate the defect signature-based query based at least in part on the defect signature and one or more parameters associated with the serviced system.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the defect signature comprises one or more defect symptoms indicative of a defect.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the parameters include one or more of a number of occurrences of an event, a frequency of occurrence, a code level associated with a defect symptom, a period of time, and a product version.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory is further configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to:

output defect identification information associated with one or more of a representation of system diagnostic data that includes the defect, a defect identifier associated with the defect signature, and a defect symptom summary.

19. A computer program product for defect diagnosis, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

performing a defect signature-based query against system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records;

determining that a defect signature is associated with a system based at least in part on the query;

determining whether the defect signature association results in a false positive; and

in response to the determined false positive, modifying the defect signature by adding additional qualifiers and storing the modified defect signature.

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

prior to performing the defect signature-based query, receiving diagnostic data from the system; and

generating system diagnostic data stored in one or more structured records based at least in part on the diagnostic data, wherein the structured records are generated by processing the received diagnostic data.