Activity tracing diagnostic systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10162727-B2
Application number	US-201615194265-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2016
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for logging encoded diagnostic information from a sequence of processing operations, the processing operations generated by an activity in a computing environment. Diagnostic information is tracked by activity, across process boundaries where the processes can be in computationally isolated, or “sandboxed”. Within each process, diagnostic information for an activity is stored in an activity-specific buffer registered with a kernel in the computing environment. For each activity in the computing system, the kernel keeps a list of all processes that have performed, or are performing, a processing task of the activity. The kernel also keeps a reference to the activity-specific log buffers for the activity for each process associated with the activity. If a processing operation for an activity fails, all activity-specific logs from all processes that are associated with the activity can be collected. A report can be generated from the collected logs for the activity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method, the computer comprising a processing system having at least one hardware processor coupled to a memory programmed with executable instructions that when executed by the processing system, perform the operations of the method, the operations comprising:
in response to detecting a failure of a processing operation of a process associated with an activity having an activity ID, receiving a request for a log of processing operations associated with the activity having the activity ID, wherein a first process performed one or more processing operations on the activity, and the one or more processing operations of the first process were logged in a first log buffer associated with the first process and activity, and wherein a second process performed one or more processing operations on the activity, and the one or more processing operations of the second process were logged in a second log buffer associated with the second process and the activity, wherein the first process runs in a first sandbox and the second process runs in a second sandbox, different from the first sandbox, the first log buffer is not accessible by the second process, and the second log buffer is not accessible by the first process;
in response to a kernel of an operating system receiving the request:
extracting, by a kernel process, from the first log buffer in the first sandbox, a log entry of each of one or more processing operations of the first process having the activity ID;
extracting, by the kernel process, from the second log buffer in the second sandbox, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the second process having the activity ID;
generating, by the kernel process, a combined log of operations for the activity ID, including one or more processing operations of the first process and one or more processing operations of the second process, the combined log of operations providing information to diagnose a cause of the detected failure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second processes are registered with the kernel as associated with the activity ID.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first log buffer is registered with the kernel as associated with the first process, and the second log buffer is registered with the kernel as associated with the second process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information about a processing operation comprises a code indicating a message, and one or more parameters of the message.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein generating the combined log further comprises, for one or more log entries of the combined log, including a text of the message having the message code and further including text associated with the one or more parameters.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is received in response to a failure condition of one or more of a processing operation of the first process or a processing operation of the second process.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each log entry of a processing operation further includes an instance value of the activity ID.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
extracting from the first log buffer, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the first process having the activity ID further includes extracting only those log entries of the first process having the activity ID and the instance value, and
extracting from the second log buffer, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the second process having the activity ID further includes extracting only those log entries of the second process having the activity ID and the instance value.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the combined log further comprises sorting the combined log by time stamp order.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating one or more attributes of the first process to the second process in response to the second process being called to perform one or more processing operations on the activity on behalf of the first process, wherein the one or more attributes include the activity ID and an instance value for the activity;
logging the calling of the second process.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium programmed with executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system having at least one hardware processor, cause operations to be performed, the operations comprising:
in response to detecting a failure of a processing operation of a process associated with an activity having an activity ID, receiving a request for a log of processing operations associated with the activity having the activity ID, wherein a first process performed one or more processing operations on the activity, and the one or more processing operations of the first process were logged in a first log buffer associated with the first process and activity, and wherein a second process performed one or more processing operations on the activity, and the one or more processing operations of the second process were logged in a second log buffer associated with the second process and the activity, wherein the first process runs in a first sandbox and the second process runs in a second sandbox, different from the first sandbox, the first log buffer is not accessible by the second process, and the second log buffer is not accessible by the first process;
in response to a kernel of an operating system receiving the request:
extracting, by a kernel process, from the first log buffer, a log entry of each of one or more processing operations of the first process having the activity ID;
extracting, by the kernel process, from the second log buffer, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the second process having the activity ID;
generating, by the kernel process, a combined log of operations for the activity ID, including one or more processing operations of the first process and one or more processing operations of the second process, the combined log of operations providing information to diagnose a cause of the detected failure.

12. The medium of claim 11 , wherein the first process and second processes are registered with the kernel as associated with the activity ID.

13. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the first log buffer is registered with the kernel as associated with the first process and the second log buffer is registered with the kernel as associated with the second process.

14. The medium of claim 11 , wherein the information about a processing operation comprises a code indicating a message, and one or more parameters of the message.

15. The medium of claim 14 , wherein generating the combined log further comprises, for one or more log entries of the combined log, including a text of the message having the message code and further including text associated with the one or more parameters.

16. The medium of claim 11 , wherein each log entry of a processing operation further includes an instance value of the activity ID.

17. The medium of claim 16 , wherein:
extracting from the first log buffer, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the first process having the activity ID further includes extracting only those log entries of the first process having the activity ID and the instance value, and
extracting from the second log buffer, a log entry of each of the one or more processing operations of the second process having the activity ID further includes extracting only those log entries of the second process having the activity ID and

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Clements Eric Russell
• Steffen Daniel Andreas
• Shah Jainam Ashokkumar
• Patel Vishal
• Sorresso Damien P

Classifications

• G06F11/0778

  Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis · CPC title

• G06F11/34

  Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation {; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment} · CPC title

• G06F11/3476 Primary

  Data logging (G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06F9/46

  Multiprogramming arrangements · CPC title

• G06F2201/865

  Monitoring of software · CPC title