Isolating hardware and network failures in a computing environment

• US 9,747,154 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Barzik, Zah, Chen, Lior, Kalaev, Maxim, Matosevich, Rivka M.
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US14/840,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20170060655A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• 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 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• 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 11/079 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 11/26 Functional testing

Abstract

Various embodiments for method for detecting network and hardware failures in a computing environment, by a processor device, are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises isolating component failures by deploying a diagnostic code within an Operating System (OS) of both a first node and a connected appliance, and executing a set of diagnostic tests using the diagnostic code to determine if the source of the failure is within the first node or the connected appliance.

Claims

1. A method for detecting network and hardware failures in a computing environment, by a processor device, comprising:

isolating component failures by deploying a diagnostic code within an Operating System (OS) of both a first node and a connected appliance, and executing a set of diagnostic tests using the diagnostic code to determine if the source of the failure is within the first node or the connected appliance; and

executing the set of diagnostic tests during the deployment of the connected appliance, the set of diagnostic tests configured to execute from within the connected appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, further including implementing a platform agnostic diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code, the diagnostic kit configured to execute on one of the first node and the connected appliance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS automatically, without user intervention.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS manually by a user, using a User Interface (UI).

5. The method of claim 1, further including, if the executed set of diagnostic tests indicates a failure, re-executing the set of diagnostic tests on a freshly installed version of the OS, and comparing results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the freshly installed version of the OS to the results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the first node or connected appliance under test.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the connected appliance is a virtual appliance.

7. A system for detecting network and hardware failures in a computing environment, comprising:

a first node,

a connected appliance, and

a processor device, wherein the processor device;

isolates component failures by deploying a diagnostic code within an Operating System (OS) of both the first node and the connected appliance, and executes a diagnostic test using the diagnostic code to determine if the source of the failure is within the first node or the connected appliance; and

executes the set of diagnostic tests during the deployment of the connected appliance, the set of diagnostic tests configured to execute from within the connected appliance.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor device implements a platform agnostic diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code, the diagnostic kit configured to execute on one of the first node and the connected appliance.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS automatically, without user intervention.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS manually by a user, using a User Interface (UI).

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor device, if the executed set of diagnostic tests indicates a failure, re-executes the set of diagnostic tests on a freshly installed version of the OS, and compares results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the freshly installed version of the OS to the results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the first node or connected appliance under test.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the connected appliance is a virtual appliance.

13. A computer program product for detecting network and hardware failures in a computing environment, by a processor device, the computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

a first executable portion that isolates component failures by deploying a diagnostic code within an Operating System (OS) of both a first node and a connected appliance, and executes a diagnostic test using the diagnostic code to determine if the source of the failure is within the first node or the connected appliance; and

a second executable portion that executes the set of diagnostic tests during the deployment of the connected appliance, the set of diagnostic tests configured to execute from within the connected appliance.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further including a third executable portion that implements a platform agnostic diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code, the diagnostic kit configured to execute on one of the first node and the connected appliance.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS automatically, without user intervention.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the diagnostic kit containing the diagnostic code is deployed into the OS manually by a user, using a User Interface (UI).

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further including a third executable portion that, if the executed set of diagnostic tests indicates a failure, re-executes the set of diagnostic tests on a freshly installed version of the OS, and compares results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the freshly installed version of the OS to the results of the set of diagnostic tests executed on the first node or connected appliance under test.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the connected appliance is a virtual appliance.