Systems and methods for gathering debug information

• US 20070074082A1
• Filed: 09/23/2005
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Logic Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Paresh, Thangaraj, Senthil
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,627 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program

Abstract

System and methods are disclosed for gathering debug information of a storage system of a computer system without requiring additional external hardware directly connected to the controller of the storage system.

Claims

1. A method for gathering debug information of a storage system of a computer system without requiring additional external hardware directly connected to a controller of the storage system, the method comprising the step of:

responsive to receiving a standard debug command, preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command;

sending the controller command to the controller of the storage system of the computer system; and

responsive to data received from the controller of the storage system, displaying the data received from the controller to a user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command comprises the step of:

mapping the standard debug command to a proprietary command associated with a controller of the storage system, wherein the controller command is the proprietary command.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of:

putting the proprietary command into an IOCTL format.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

determining if the standard debug command is supported by the controller.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of:

responsive to a determination that the standard command is not supported by the controller, requesting input of a different standard debug command.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data comprises status data indicating that the controller command was successfully completed.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the data comprises READ data obtained from the successful execution of the controller command.

8. A computer system capable of gathering debug information of a storage system of the computer system without requiring additional external hardware directly connected to the controller, said system comprising:

a host processor;

an issuing module, operated by the host processor, for issuing debug commands to the storage system of the computer system; and

a receiving module, operated by the host processor, for receiving data from the storage system; and

the storage system of the computer system comprising a controller, communicatively coupled to the host processor and an array of storage devices, communicatively coupled to the controller;

wherein the issuing module performs the steps of;

responsive to receiving a standard debug command, preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command; and

sending the controller command to the storage system of the computer system;

and, wherein the receiving module performs the step of;

responsive to data received from the controller of the storage system, displaying the data received from the controller to a user.

9. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the step of preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command comprises the step of:

mapping the standard debug command to a proprietary command associated with a controller of the storage system, wherein the controller command is the proprietary command.

10. The computer system of claim 8 further comprising the step of:

determining if the controller command is supported by the controller.

11. The computer system of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

responsive to a determination that the controller command is not supported by the controller, requesting input of a different standard debug command.

12. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the data comprises status data indicating that the controller command was successfully completed.

13. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the data comprises READ data obtained from the successful execution of the controller command.

14. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium for gathering debug information of a storage system of a computer system without requiring additional external hardware directly connected to a controller of the storage system, the computer program for performing the method comprising the steps of:

responsive to receiving a standard debug command, preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command;

sending the controller command to the controller of the storage system of the computer system; and

responsive to data received from the controller of the storage system, displaying the data received from the controller to a user.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the step of preparing a controller command based upon the standard debug command comprises the step of:

mapping the standard debug command to a proprietary command associated with a controller of the storage system, wherein the controller command is the proprietary command.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising the step of:

putting the proprietary command into an IOCTL format.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

determining if the standard debug command is supported by the controller.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 further comprising the step of:

responsive to a determination that the standard command is not supported by the controller, requesting input of a different standard debug command.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the data comprises status data indicating that the controller command was successfully completed.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the data comprises READ data obtained from the successful execution of the controller command.