Auto-snapshot manager analysis tool

• US 9,396,200 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2014
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Jacoby, Robert B., Manfield, Jill Leslie
• Primary Examiner(s): Riad, Amine
• Application Number:
  US14/180,742
• Publication Number:
  US 20150074055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 714/37
• 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 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• 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 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16

Abstract

The invention pertains to a method and information handling system (IHS) for analyzing snapshot operation data of one or more snapshot operations associated with at least one storage device and at least one host computer. An embodiment of a method of the present invention begins by locating the snapshot operation data. Next, configuration information is assembled from the snapshot operation data. Further, debug data associated with the one or more snapshot operations is stored. An analysis is performed including the snapshot operation data, the configuration information, and the stored debug data. Next, the method identifies one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis. Finally, the method provides a report to one or more users including the configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more action plans.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing snapshot operation data of one or more snapshot operations associated with at least one storage device and at least one host computer, the computer-implemented method comprising:

configuring to a quiescent state, the at least one host computer, the at least one storage device, and a tunneling interface positioned between the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

based upon the configured quiescent state, performing the one or more snapshot operations to retrieve the snapshot operation data from (i) the tunneling interface positioned between the host computer and the at least one storage device and (ii) zero or more of;

the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

locating the snapshot operation data associated with the one or more performed snapshot operations;

assembling configuration information from the snapshot operation data;

storing debug data associated with the one or more performed snapshot operations;

performing an analysis including the snapshot operation data, the assembled configuration information, and the stored debug data;

identifying one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis; and

providing a report to one or more users including the assembled configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more identified action plans.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a vendor type of a vendor that provided the one or more performed snapshot operations, and performing the analysis including the snapshot operation data based upon the vendor type.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the snapshot operation data includes one or more log files with one or more hardware, software, or configuration characteristics of the one or more performed snapshot operations.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more identified issues include one or more issues at the at least one host computer, one or more issues at the at least one storage device, or one or more issues at the tunneling interface between the host computer and the storage device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more identified issues include one or more hardware, configuration, or software issues.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more identified issues include one or more potential issues.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:

the configuration information includes at least one hardware characteristic, software characteristic, environmental characteristic, configuration characteristic, or network characteristic;

the one or more identified issues include an issue with at least one of;

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, configuration condition, firmware, firmware version, software, software version, software configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, multipath input/output (MPIO) configuration, or performance characteristic; and

the one or more identified action plans include an action plan to correct or update at least one of;

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, configuration condition, firmware, firmware version, software, software version, software configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, multipath input/output (MPIO) configuration, or performance characteristic.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising analyzing the snapshot operation data from two or more performed snapshot operations, the computer-implemented method comprising:

locating the snapshot operation data associated with the two or more performed snapshot operations;

assembling configuration information from the snapshot operation data;

storing debug data associated with the two or more performed snapshot operations;

performing an analysis including the snapshot operation data, the assembled configuration information, and the stored debug data;

identifying one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis; and

providing a report to one or more users including the assembled configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more identified action plans.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more performed snapshot operations retrieve the snapshot operation data from:

the at least one host computer, the at least one storage device, and the tunneling interface between the host computer and the at least one storage device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the snapshot operation data includes log file data comprising multipathing logs, and zero or more of remote installation logs, multipathing installation logs, debug tracing output for components, host installation toolkit (HIT) installation logs, application logs, system logs, logs collecting Multipath Input-Output (MPIO) failures, logs collecting Medium-Scale Integration (MSI) installs, logs collecting service states, logs collecting virtual disk service or disk manager information, logs used for target mapping, logs for Volume Snapshot Service (VSS), logs for VSS administration commands, cluster logs, logs for installation components, logs that capture registry changes for MPIO, logs that capture registry changes for VSS, logs that capture install of remote setup, and logs for application programming interface (API) setup.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored debug data includes system data that is indirectly associated with the snapshot operation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the host computer is a virtual machine.

13. An Information Handling System (IHS) comprising:

a processor; and

a memory with non-transitory computer code instructions stored therein, the memory operatively coupled to said processor such that the computer code instructions configure the processor to implement;

a data module configured to configure to a quiescent state, at least one host computer, at least one storage device, and a tunneling interface positioned between the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

the data module being further configured to perform one or more snapshot operations to retrieve snapshot operation data from (i) the tunneling interface positioned between the host computer and the at least one storage device and (ii) zero or more of;

the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

the data module configured to locate the snapshot operation data associated with the one or more performed snapshot operations;

the data module further configured to assemble configuration information from the snapshot operation data;

the data module further configured to store debug data associated with the one or more performed snapshot operations;

a computing module configured to perform an analysis including the snapshot operation data, the assembled configuration information, and the stored debug data;

the computing module further configured to identify one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis; and

a reporting module configured to provide a report to one or more users including the assembled configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more identified action plans.

14. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the computing module is further configured to determine a vendor type of a vendor that provided the one or more performed snapshot operations, and the computing module is further configured to perform the analysis including the snapshot operation data based upon the vendor type.

15. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the snapshot operation data includes one or more log files with one or more hardware, software, or configuration characteristics of the one or more performed snapshot operations.

16. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the one or more identified issues include one or more issues at the at least one host computer, one or more issues at the at least one storage device, or one or more issues at the tunneling interface between the host computer and the storage device.

17. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the one or more identified issues include one or more hardware, configuration, or software issues.

18. The IHS of claim 13 wherein:

the configuration information includes at least one hardware characteristic, software characteristic, environmental characteristic, configuration characteristic, or network characteristic;

the one or more identified issues include an issue with at least one of;

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, configuration condition, firmware, firmware version, software, software version, software configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, multipath input/output (MPIO) configuration, or performance characteristic; and

the one or more identified action plans include an action plan to correct or update at least one of;

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, configuration condition, firmware, firmware version, software, software version, software configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, multipath input/output (MPIO) configuration, or performance characteristic.

19. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the IHS analyzes the snapshot operation data from two or more performed snapshot operations, the IHS comprising:

a data module configured to locate the snapshot operation data associated with the two or more performed snapshot operations associated with the at least one storage device and the at least one host computer;

the data module further configured to assemble configuration information from the snapshot operation data;

the data module further configured to store debug data associated with the two or more performed snapshot operations;

a computing module configured to perform an analysis including the snapshot operation data, the assembled configuration information, and the stored debug data;

the computing module further configured to identify one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis; and

a reporting module configured to provide a report to one or more users including the assembled configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more identified action plans.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when loaded and executed by a processor coupled to an apparatus, causes the apparatus to:

configure to a quiescent state, at least one host computer, at least one storage device, and a tunneling interface positioned between the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

perform one or more snapshot operations to retrieve snapshot operation data from (i) the tunneling interface positioned between the host computer and the at least one storage device and (ii) zero or more of;

the at least one host computer and the at least one storage device;

locate snapshot operation data associated with one or more performed snapshot operations;

assemble configuration information from the snapshot operation data;

store debug data associated with the one or more performed snapshot operations;

perform an analysis including the snapshot operation data, the assembled configuration information, and the stored debug data;

identify one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis; and

provide a report to one or more users including the assembled configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more identified action plans.