Methods and systems to identify log write instructions of a source code as sources of event messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10061566-B2
Application number	US-201615286291-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 5, 2016
Priority date	Oct 5, 2016
Publication date	Aug 28, 2018
Grant date	Aug 28, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems to identify log write instructions of a source code as potential sources of an event message of interest are described. Methods identify non-parametric tokens, such as text strings and natural language words and phrases, of an event message of interest. Candidate log write instructions and associated line numbers in a source code are identified. Non-parametric tokens of each event message of the one or more candidate log write instructions are determined. A confidence score is calculated for each candidate log write instruction based the number of non-parametric tokens the event message of interest and event message of the candidate log write instruction have in common. The candidate log write instructions are rank ordered based on the corresponding one or more confidence scores and the rank ordered candidate log write instructions and associated line numbers of the source code may be displayed in a graphical user interface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method stored in one or more data-storage devices and executed using one or more processors to identify log write instructions of a source code that are potential sources of an event message of interest, the method comprising:
identifying non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest read from an event-log file stored in the one or more data-storage devices;
determining one or more log write instructions and associated line numbers in a source code as candidates for generating the event message of interest based on a name and version of the source code;
identifying non-parametric tokens of each event message of the one or more candidate log write instructions;
for each of the one or more candidate log write instructions, calculating a confidence score based the number of non-parametric tokens the event message of interest and event message of the candidate log write instruction have in common;
rank ordering the one or more candidate log write instructions based on the one or more confidence scores; and
displaying rank ordered candidate log write instructions, confidence scores, and associated line numbers of the source code in a graphical user interface, the confidence score of each candidate log write instruction represents a level of confidence that each log write instruction in the source code is the source of the event message of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest comprises:
identifying non-printed characters that separate parametric-valued and non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest;
identifying parametric-valued tokens of the event message of interest;
discarding the parametric-valued tokens of the event message of interest;
identifying punctuation and separation symbols of the event message of interest and of the non-parametric tokens of event message of interest; and
discarding the punctuation and separation symbols leaving the non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest without punctuation and separation symbols.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more log write instructions and associated line numbers in the source code as candidates for generating the event message of interest comprises:
searching a source code data base stored in a data-storage device for one or more source codes having a name that is the same as the name of the source code;
searching the source code data base for a source code of the one or more source codes having a version that is the same as the version of the source code; and
identifying candidate log write instructions and corresponding lines in the source code.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the non-parametric tokens of each of the one or more candidate log write instructions comprises:
for each of the one or more candidate log write instruction,
identifying non-printed characters that separate parametric-valued and non-parametric tokens of the event message of the candidate log write instruction;
identifying parametric-valued tokens of the event message of the candidate log write instruction;
discarding the parametric-valued tokens of the event message of the candidate log write instruction;
identifying punctuation and separation symbols of the event message of interest and of the non-parametric tokens of event message of the candidate log write instruction; and
discarding the punctuation and separation symbols leaving the non-parametric tokens of the event message of the candidate log write instruction without punctuation and separation symbols.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the confidence score for each of the one or more candidate log write instructions comprises:
for each candidate log write instruction,
determining which non-parametric tokens of an event message of the candidate log write instruction and non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest are common to the candidate log write instruction and the event message of interest;
calculating a confidence score for each of the candidate log write instruction as a sum of a number of text matched non-parametric tokens of the event message of the candidate log write instruction and the event message of interest divided by a total number of non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest; and
recording the confidence scores and lines numbers of the log write instructions in a data-storage device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein calculating the confidence score comprising calculating a weighted confidence score based on different types of the non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying rank ordered candidate log write instructions and associated lines numbers of the source code in the graphical user interface further comprises providing one or more links, each link associated with one of the candidate log write statements that when clicked on displays lines of the source code surrounding the candidate log write instruction associated with the link.

8. A system to identify log write messages that are potential sources of an event message of interest, the system comprising:
one or more processors;
one or more data-storage devices; and
machine-readable instructions stored in the one or more data-storage devices that when executed using the one or more processors controls the system to carry out
identifying non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest read from an event-log file stored in the one or more data-storage devices;
determining one or more log write instructions and associated line numbers in a source code as candidates for generating the event message of interest based on a name and version of the source code;
identifying non-parametric tokens of each event message of the one or more candidate log write instructions;
for each of the one or more candidate log write instructions, calculating a confidence score based the number of non-parametric tokens the event message of interest and event message of the candidate log write instruction have in common;
rank ordering the one or more candidate log write instructions based on the one or more confidence scores; and
displaying rank ordered candidate log write instructions, confidence score, and associated line numbers of the source code in a graphical user interface, the confidence score of each candidate log write instruction represents a level of confidence that each log write instruction in the source code is the source of the event message of interest.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein identifying the non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest comprises:
identifying non-printed characters that separate parametric-valued and non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest;
identifying parametric-valued tokens of the event message of interest;
discarding the parametric-valued tokens of the event message of interest;
identifying punctuation and separation symbols of the event message of interest and of the non-parametric tokens of event message of interest; and
discarding the punctuation and separation symbols leaving the non-parametric tokens of the event message of interest without punctuation and separation symbols.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein determining the one or more log write instructions and associated line numbers in the source code as candidates for generating the event message of interest comprises:
searching a source code data base stored in a data-storage device for one or more source codes having a name that is the same as the name of the source code;
searching the source code data base for a sour

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Brown Darren
• Kushmerick Nicholas
• McLaughlin Matt Roy
• Gada Dhaval
• Lin Junyuan

Classifications

• G06F9/542 Primary

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F8/34 Primary

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title

• G06F9/5077

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title

• G06F11/362

  Debugging of software · CPC title