DIAGNOSTIC ANALYSIS TOOL FOR DISK STORAGE ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

• US 20150074462A1
• Filed: 11/22/2013
• Published: 03/12/2015
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 9,720,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/37
• 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 11/079 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 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing 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 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices

Abstract

The invention pertains to a method and information handling system (IHS) for reducing storage device vulnerability to degraded performance, data unavailability or data loss. An embodiment of the method of the present invention begins by storing debug data associated with at least one storage device and obtaining diagnostic data for the at least one storage device. Next, an analysis is performed using the obtained data and the stored debug data. Then, one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution may be identified. Finally, a report is provided to one or more users including the one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.

Claims

1. A method for reducing storage device vulnerability to degraded performance, data unavailability or data loss, the method comprising:

storing debug data associated with at least one storage device;

obtaining data for the at least one storage device;

performing an analysis including the obtained data 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 one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtained data includes device configuration information and the obtained data comprises data of at least one of:

Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) data;

processor utilization;

cache and memory utilization;

disk reliability data;

hardware information or environmental information;

or

firmware version information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtained data includes diagnostic logfile data based upon one or more hardware or software characteristics of the at least one storage device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the stored debug data includes at least one of:

known bug footprint, known hardware issue, known environmental problem, known software issue, known network problem, or known configuration problem.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more issues include one or more potential issues.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis includes at least one of:

hardware analysis;

software panic analysis;

root cause analysis;

or

performance analysis.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the obtained data 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 configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration; and

the one or more 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 configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis includes a hardware analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one hardware or software characteristic;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, or firmware version; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, or firmware version.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis includes a software panic analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one of;

core dump file, memory dump, or stack trace;

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

hardware component, hardware module, firmware, or firmware version; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, firmware, or firmware version.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis includes a root cause analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one of;

hardware characteristic, software characteristic including firmware version, environmental characteristic, configuration characteristic, network characteristic including network connectivity information, network group information, or network group lead information;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, firmware version, software configuration, memory, network connectivity, network configuration, environmental condition, configuration condition, or storage array configuration; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, firmware version, software configuration, memory, network connectivity, network configuration, environmental condition, configuration condition, or storage array configuration.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis includes a performance analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one hardware, software, or network characteristic that includes at least one of;

flow control information, write speed, read speed, latency, input size, output size, number of faults, number of retransmits, number of packet errors, transaction frequency, cache utilization, input/output (IO) wait state data, or network throughput;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, firmware, firmware version, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, firmware, firmware version, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the storage device comprises two or more storage devices and the method for each of the two or more storage devices comprises:

storing debug data associated with the two or more storage devices;

obtaining data for the two or more storage devices;

performing an analysis including the obtained data and the stored debug data for the two or more storage devices;

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 of the one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.

13. An Information Handling System (IHS) comprising:

a data module configured to store debug data associated with at least one storage device;

the data module configured to obtain data for the at least one storage device;

a computing module configured to perform an analysis including the obtained data and the stored debug data;

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

a display module configured to provide a report to one or more users including the one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.

14. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the obtained data includes device configuration information and the obtained data comprises data of at least one of:

Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) data;

processor utilization;

cache and memory utilization;

disk reliability data;

hardware information or environmental information;

or

firmware version information.

15. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the obtained data includes diagnostic logfile data based upon one or more hardware or software characteristics of the at least one storage device.

16. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the stored debug data includes at least one of:

known bug footprint, known hardware issue, known environmental problem, known software issue, known network problem, or known configuration problem.

17. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the one or more issues include one or more potential issues.

18. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the analysis includes at least one of:

hardware analysis;

software panic analysis;

root cause analysis;

or

performance analysis.

19. The IHS of claim 13 wherein:

the obtained data 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 configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration; and

the one or more 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 configuration, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration.

20. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the analysis includes a hardware analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one hardware or software characteristic;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, or firmware version; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, or firmware version.

21. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the analysis includes a software panic analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one of;

core dump file, memory dump, or stack trace;

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

hardware component, hardware module, firmware, or firmware version; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, firmware, or firmware version.

22. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the analysis includes a root cause analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one of;

hardware characteristic, software characteristic including firmware version, environmental characteristic, configuration characteristic, network characteristic including network connectivity information, network group information, or network group lead information;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, firmware version, software configuration, memory, network connectivity, network configuration, environmental condition, configuration condition, or storage array configuration; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware configuration, firmware version, software configuration, memory, network connectivity, network configuration, environmental condition, configuration condition, or storage array configuration.

23. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the analysis includes a performance analysis, wherein:

the obtained data includes at least one hardware, software, or network characteristic that includes at least one of;

flow control information, write speed, read speed, latency, input size, output size, number of faults, number of retransmits, number of packet errors, transaction frequency, cache utilization, input/output (IO) wait state data, or network throughput;

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, firmware, firmware version, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration; and

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

hardware component, hardware module, hardware interconnect, environmental condition, firmware, firmware version, memory, disk space, network connectivity, network configuration, load balancing, performance characteristics, host side, or storage array configuration.

24. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the storage device comprises two or more storage devices, the IHS comprising:

a data module configured to store debug data associated with the two or more storage devices;

the data module configured to obtain data for the two or more storage devices;

a computing module configured to perform an analysis including the obtained data and the stored debug data;

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

a display module configured to provide a report to a user including the one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.

25. 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:

store debug data associated with at least one storage device;

obtain data for the at least one storage device;

perform an analysis including the obtained data 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 one or more identified issues and the one or more action plans.