Processing main cause errors and sympathetic errors in devices in a system

• US 9,959,163 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2016
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Padilla, Ricardo S., Sorenson, Todd C., Valverde, David V., He, Wang Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): Kudirka, Joseph R
• Application Number:
  US15/145,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20160299811A1
• Time in Patent Office: 728 Days
• Field of Search: 714 26, 714 37, 714 381, 714 3814, 714 471
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• 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 11/0793 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: G06F 11/16 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware

Abstract

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for processing main cause errors and sympathetic errors in devices in a system. Error data for the devices in the system are analyzed to determine a main cause error for one of the devices that cause at least one sympathetic error in the system. A main cause event object for the determined main cause error and at least one sympathetic event object for the determined at least one sympathetic error resulting from the main cause error are generated. A determination is made from the at least one sympathetic event object of at least one sympathetic event action to perform. The determined at least one sympathetic event action is performed to recover from the at least one sympathetic error represented by the at least one sympathetic event object providing the at least one sympathetic event action.

Claims

1. A computer program product for handling errors in a system having devices, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to cause operations, the operations comprising:

generating a main cause event object for a main cause error for a device of the devices that causes at least one sympathetic error in the system;

generating at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error resulting from the main cause error, wherein each sympathetic event object of the at least one sympathetic event object indicates a sympathetic event action comprising specific event code to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear the sympathetic error represented by the sympathetic event object;

performing the sympathetic event action to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear the sympathetic error for each of the at least one sympathetic event object.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

using the main cause event object to determine whether the main cause error represented by the main cause event object is active, wherein the sympathetic event action is performed in response to determining that the main cause error is active.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the using the main cause event object to determine whether the main cause error is active comprises determining from the main cause event object for the main cause error an active function pointer;

and

executing the active function pointer to check state information in the system or at least one of the devices in the system to determine whether the main cause error is active.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

indicating the main cause error as active in persistent information in the system; and

generating sympathetic event objects for sympathetic errors resulting from the main cause error indicated in the persistent information as active.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

indicating the main cause event object as inactive in response to determining that system and device state information indicates that the main cause error represented by the main cause event object is not present.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error at the device causing the main cause error.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error for at least one device that does not cause the main cause error.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein at least one device that does not cause the main cause error having the at least one sympathetic error comprises at least one of a redundant partner device providing redundancy for the device having the main cause error and a device comprising a child device to the device having the main cause error.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the sympathetic event action comprises either a cancel of the at least one sympathetic error or performing operations in the system to recover from the at least one sympathetic error represented by the at least one sympathetic event object.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the operations performed in the system for the sympathetic event action comprise at least one of setting system flags, resetting system flags, and calling a sympathetic event handler function.

11. A system having devices, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium having code executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

generating a main cause event object for a main cause error for a device of the devices that causes at least one sympathetic error in the system;

generating at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error resulting from the main cause error, wherein each sympathetic event object of the at least one sympathetic event object indicates a sympathetic event action comprising specific event code to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear the sympathetic error represented by the sympathetic event object;

and

performing the sympathetic event action to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear the sympathetic error for each of the at least one sympathetic event object.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

using the main cause event object to determine whether the main cause error represented by the main cause event object is active, wherein the sympathetic event action is performed in response to determining that the main cause error is active.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

indicating the main cause error as active in persistent information in the system; and

generating sympathetic event objects for sympathetic errors resulting from the main cause error indicated in the persistent information as active.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error at the device causing the main cause error.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error for at least one device that does not cause the main cause error.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the sympathetic event action comprises either a cancel of the at least one sympathetic error or performing operations in the system to recover from the at least one sympathetic error represented by the sympathetic event object.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations performed in the system for the sympathetic event action comprise at least one of setting system flags, resetting system flags, and calling a sympathetic event handler function.

18. A method, comprising:

generating a main cause event object for a main cause error for a device that causes at least one sympathetic error in a system;

generating at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error resulting from the main cause error, wherein each sympathetic event object of the at least one sympathetic event object indicates a sympathetic event action comprising specific event code to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear the sympathetic error represented by the sympathetic event object;

and

performing the sympathetic event action to process the sympathetic error to recover from and clear sympathetic error for each of the at least one sympathetic event object.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

using the main cause event object to determine whether the main cause error represented by the main cause event object is active, wherein the sympathetic event action is performed in response to determining that the main cause error is active.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

indicating the main cause error as active in persistent information in the system; and

generating sympathetic event objects for sympathetic errors resulting from the main cause error indicated in the persistent information as active.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error at the device causing the main cause error.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the main cause event object indicates the at least one sympathetic event object for the at least one sympathetic error for at least one device that does not cause the main cause error.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the sympathetic event action comprises either a cancel of the at least one sympathetic error or performing operations in the system to recover from the at least one sympathetic error represented by the at least one sympathetic event object.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the operations performed in the system for the sympathetic event action comprise at least one of setting system flags, resetting system flags, and calling a sympathetic event handler function.