Finding and fixing stability problems in personal computer systems

• US 8,407,189 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Drews, Clemens, Haber, Eben M., Smith, Mark A., Tang, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital, Pierre
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Taelor
• Application Number:
  US12/626,207
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,217 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/690
• 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 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

A method for assisting an administrator to identify files suspected of causing instability on a personal computer comprises periodically creating file content sharing logs concurrently with archiving files of a plurality of personal computers by de-duplicating, when a notification is received regarding instability of a personal computer, then analyzing archive file content sharing log of the personal computer made immediately after receiving the notification for unique system and program files, missing files and newly installed files to generate an instability report. A missing or corrupted file can be restored back on the unstable personal computer by performing a backup restore operation on the unstable personal computer.

Claims

1. A method for finding a cause of a stability problem and restoring stability in an unstable computer that is one of a plurality of computers connected to a computer network, at least one of which is designated a system administrator, said method comprising creating a plurality of file content sharing logs for files from said unstable computer and for files from said plurality of computers,

wherein each of the file content sharing logs contains a list of files that are unique to the unstable computer, and wherein the file content sharing logs contain a list of files which the plurality of computers share with one another;

if a notification of an instability in said unstable computer is received in one of the file content sharing logs from the unstable computer, then selecting a candidate file content sharing log to analyze by either choosing a post-instability file content sharing log or if no post-instability file content sharing log is available then by creating a new file content sharing log and using the new file content sharing log as the candidate file content sharing log;

analyzing said candidate file content sharing log for instability of said unstable computer;

generating an instability analysis report comprising a list of unstable files as a result of the analyzing of said candidate file content sharing log; and

performing a backup restore operation on said unstable computer in which at least one file listed in said instability analysis report is restored on said unstable computer, wherein said at least one file listed in said instability analysis report is selected from a de-duplicated backup archive.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing comprises analyzing at least one program file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing comprises analyzing at least one system file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing further comprises checking, for at least one file, if another file with a same name exists on a stable computer from the plurality of computers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing further comprises determining, for at least one file, a number of versions of said at least one file on a stable computer from the plurality of computers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing further comprises deciding, for at least one file, if there is significance sharing of said at least one file with a stable computer from the plurality of computers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing further comprises performing a missing file analysis to determine files missing from said unstable computer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said instability analysis report comprises a name of at least one of a missing file or a suspicious file.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one system file is selected from a de-duplicated backup archive created at a time prior to receiving said notification of instability.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said act of analyzing comprises analyzing at least one of a program file or a system file.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said backup restore operation deletes at least one system file on said unstable computer;

said at least one system file reported in said instability analysis report as being installed on said unstable computer within a predetermined time window prior to receiving said notification of instability.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said backup restore operation deletes at least one program file on said unstable computer;

said at least one program file reported in said instability analysis report as being installed on said unstable computer within a predetermined time window prior to receiving said notification of instability.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said backup restore operation is performed using a de-duplicated backup archive created before receiving said notification of instability.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein said backup restore operation is performed using a de-duplicated backup archive created after receiving said notification of instability.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein said at least one program file is selected from a de-duplicated backup archive created at a time after receiving said notification of instability.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including a computer program, wherein the computer program when performed on a stable computer connected to a computer network causes the computer to implement a method of finding a cause of a stability problem and restoring stability in an unstable computer that is connected to the computer network;

said computer program product including;

computer usable program code for creating a plurality of file content sharing logs for files from said unstable computer and for files from said plurality of computers,

wherein each of the file content sharing logs contains a list of files that are unique to the unstable computer, and wherein the file content sharing logs contain a list of files which the plurality of computers share with one another;

if a notification of an instability in said unstable computer is received in one of the file content sharing logs from the unstable computer, then selecting a candidate file content sharing log to analyze by either choosing a post-instability file content sharing log or if no post-instability file content sharing log is available then by creating a new file content sharing log and using the new file content sharing log as the candidate file content sharing log;

computer usable program code for analyzing said candidate file content sharing log for instability of said unstable computer;

computer usable program code for generating an instability analysis report comprising a list of unstable files as a result of the analyzing of said candidate file content sharing log; and

computer usable program code for performing a backup restore operation on said unstable computer in which at least one file listed in said instability analysis report is restored on said unstable computer, wherein said at least one file listed in said instability analysis report is selected from a de-duplicated backup archive.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein said act of analyzing comprises analyzing at least one of a program file or a system file.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein said act of analyzing comprises determining a hardware profile of said unstable computer.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising computer usable program code for checking, for at least one file, if another file with a same name exists on said unstable computer connected to said computer network.

13. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising computer usable program code for determining, for at least one file, a number of versions of said at least one file on said unstable computer connected to said computer network.

14. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising computer usable program code for deciding, for at least one file on said unstable computer connected to said computer network, if there is significance sharing of said at least one file with said unstable computer connected to said computer network;

said deciding responsive to a predetermined threshold of significance.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising computer usable program code for performing a missing file analysis to determine files missing from said unstable computer connected to said computer network.