COMPUTER FLIGHT RECORDER WITH ACTIVE ERROR DETECTION

• US 20150205654A1
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gregg, Leon E., Tilbury, James L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• 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 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence

Abstract

A method, apparatus and program product utilize a flight recorder having active error detection functionality to proactively detect errors in a computer or a sub-system or component thereof. The active error detection may be based on one or more trends detected in the trace data logged by the flight recorder and reflective of particular types of errors that may be present in a computer during operation, such that an error may be logged, and in some instances, an exception may be triggered.

Claims

1. A method of detecting errors in a computer, the method comprising:

logging trace data in a flight recorder during operational use of the computer;

detecting a trend in the logged trace data with the flight recorder; and

determining an error with the flight recorder based on the detected trend in the logged trace data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the logged trace data comprises a plurality of logged trace points.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting the trend includes detecting a plurality of trace points in the logged trace data that meet a trend criterion.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points includes a trace point identifier, and wherein detecting the plurality of trace points in the logged trace data that meet the trend criterion includes detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points having the same trace point identifier.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points is associated with an operation, and wherein detecting the plurality of trace points in the logged trace data that meet the trend criterion includes detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same operation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points includes an operation identifier, wherein detecting the plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same operation includes detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points having the same operation identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operation identifier for each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points includes a major operation identifier and a minor operation identifier, wherein detecting the plurality of consecutive trace points having the same operation identifier includes detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points having the same major operation identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting the plurality of consecutive trace points having the same operation identifier further includes detecting that the plurality of consecutive trace points having the same operation identifier have the same major and minor operation identifiers.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points is associated with an entity from among a plurality of entities in the computer, and wherein detecting the plurality of trace points in the logged trace data that meet the trend criterion includes detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same entity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of entities comprises a task, and wherein detecting the plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same entity comprises detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same task.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of entities is identified by an entity identifier, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points includes an entity identifier, and wherein detecting the plurality of consecutive trace points associated with the same entity comprises detecting a plurality of consecutive trace points having the same entity identifier.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein detecting the plurality of trace points in the logged trace data that meet the trend criterion includes detecting a plurality of trace points matching a predetermined pattern.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the error includes determining that the detected plurality of logged trace points meeting the trend criterion meet an error criterion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein detecting the trend includes counting a number of logged trace points that meet the trend criterion, and wherein determining that the detected plurality of logged trace points meeting the trend criterion meet the error criterion includes comparing the number of logged trace points that meet the trend criterion against an error threshold value.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer includes a removable media system, wherein the flight recorder is configured to log trace data associated with work requests issued to the removable media system, wherein the logged trace data comprises a plurality of logged trace points, wherein each logged trace point in the plurality of logged trace points is associated with a work request issued to the removable media system, and wherein detecting the trend includes detecting a plurality of trace points in the logged trace data associated with the same work request.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising asserting an exception with the flight recorder in response to determining the error.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising terminating a work request with the flight recorder in response to determining the error.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging the error with the flight recorder in response to determining the error.

19-20. -20. (canceled)