Diagnosing a Problem of a Software Product Running in a Cloud Environment

• US 20140122935A1
• Filed: 10/22/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ni, Yong, Wang, Wen Jun, Li, Jun Hong, Niu, Ai Jie, Wang, Hai Tao
• Granted Patent: US 9,218,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/38.1
• 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 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• 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

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for diagnosing a problem of a software product running in a cloud environment and a corresponding apparatus, the method comprising: receiving a problem in the operation of the monitored software product from a diagnosis agent deployed on a node in the cloud environment; capturing the cloud environment including the software product, and deploying the captured cloud environment in a diagnosis cloud, and the step comprising: deploying the image of each node of the cloud environment in the diagnosis cloud; and applying corresponding configuration data for a cluster system deployed in the cloud environment to configure each node in the diagnosis cloud. The method and apparatus of the present invention can diagnose problems of a software product running in a cloud environment, and rebuild the cloud environment to facilitate the diagnosis of the problems.

Claims

1. A method for diagnosing a problem of a software product running in a cloud environment, comprising:

receiving a problem in the operation of the monitored software product from a diagnosis agent deployed on a node in the cloud environment;

capturing the cloud environment including the software product, and deploying the captured cloud environment in a diagnosis cloud, and the step comprising;

deploying the image of each node of the cloud environment in the diagnosis cloud; and

applying corresponding configuration data for a cluster system deployed in the cloud environment to configure each node in the diagnosis cloud.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of capturing the cloud environment including the software product, and deploying the captured cloud environment in a diagnosis cloud further comprises:

capturing the image of each node in the cloud environment of the software product; and

collecting the relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment from the diagnosis agent deployed on each node of the cloud environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment comprises:

node configuration data, cluster database configuration data and node association configuration data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein it further comprises:

determining whether to replicate the entire cloud environment of the software product according to the data collected from the nodes and predefined rules of the diagnosis controller of the cloud environment; and

in response to the determination of yes, capturing the entire cloud environment including the software product and deploying the cloud environment in the diagnosis cloud.

5. A method for diagnosing a problem of a software product running in a cloud environment, the method comprising:

in response to a node joining the cloud environment, deploying a diagnosis agent on the node;

the diagnosis agent determining whether a problem in the operation of the software product occurs; and

in response to determining that a problem in the operation of the software product occurs, the diagnosis agent reporting to a diagnosis controller.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprises:

in response to that the diagnosis agent is deployed on the node, the diagnosis agent dynamically collecting relevant configuration data for a cluster system deployed in the cloud environment, and sending the relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment to the diagnosis controller.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment comprises:

node configuration data, cluster database configuration data and node association configuration data.

8. The method of claim 5, the method further comprises:

the diagnosis agent obtaining diagnosis configuration data from the diagnosis controller, the diagnosis configuration data including a trigger condition, and wherein the diagnosis agent determining whether a problem in the operation of the software product occurs comprises;

the diagnosis agent determining whether the output of the software product operation matches the trigger condition.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the trigger condition includes an exception and/or a trace pattern in the operation of the software product.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the diagnosis configuration data further comprises an action corresponding to the trigger condition, and in response to determining that a problem in the operation of the software product occurs, the diagnosis agent reporting to the diagnosis controller further comprises:

in response to determining that the output of the software product operation matches the trigger condition, executing the action corresponding to the trigger condition.

11. The method of claim 8, in response to determining that a problem in the operation of the software product occurs, the diagnosis agent reporting to the diagnosis controller further comprises:

communicating with the diagnosis agents on other nodes in the cloud environment to obtain operation conditions of the software product monitored by the diagnosis agents on the other nodes.

12. An apparatus for diagnosing a problem of a software product running in a cloud environment, comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive a report on a problem in the operation of the monitored software product from a diagnosis agent deployed on a node in the cloud environment;

a capturing and deploying module configured to capture the cloud environment including the software product, and deploy the captured cloud environment in a diagnosis cloud, and the capturing and deploying module comprises;

a deploying module configured to deploy the image of each node of the cloud environment in the diagnosis cloud; and

a configuring module configured to apply corresponding configuration data for a cluster system deployed in the cloud environment to configure each node in the diagnosis cloud.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the capturing and deploying module further comprises:

a capturing module configured to capture the image of each node of the cloud environment of the software product; and

a collecting module configured to collect relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment from the diagnosis agent deployed on each node of the cloud environment.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the relevant configuration data for the cluster system deployed in the cloud environment comprises:

node configuration data, cluster database configuration data and node association configuration data.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein it further comprises:

a determining module configured to determine whether to replicate the entire cloud environment of the software product according to the data collected from the nodes and predefined rules of the diagnosis controller of the cloud environment; and

and wherein, the capturing and deploying module is configured to, in response to the determination of yes, capture the entire cloud environment including the software product and deploy the cloud environment in the diagnosis cloud.