Preventing software component timer processing issues

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10379928-B2
Application number	US-201715635362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2017
Priority date	Jun 28, 2017
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

Method and system are provided for preventing local processing problems interfering with a time-sensitive validation process. The method monitors an elapsed time of an instance of a time-sensitive validation process of a software component including dispatching of the process instance and determines if the elapsed time is significantly greater than a preset processing time. If so, the method may dynamically alter error processing of the time-sensitive validation process of the software component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for preventing local processing problems interfering with a time-sensitive validation process comprising:
monitoring an elapsed time of a process instance of a time-sensitive validation process of a software component including dispatching of the process instance and determining if the elapsed time is greater than a preset processing time, wherein the time-sensitive validation process includes a request and response communication with an external system; and
dynamically altering error processing of the time-sensitive validation process of the software component.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a signal has been received in the preset processing time indicating that the time-sensitive validation process has executed correctly; and
exiting the time-sensitive validation process.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the elapsed time is not greater than the preset processing time and a signal has not been received in the preset processing time indicating that the time-sensitive validation process has executed correctly, initiating a normal error processing logic for the time-sensitive validation process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the elapsed time records a start time prior to initiating the instance of a time-sensitive validation process and records an end time when prompted by the end of the preset processing time of the time-sensitive validation process.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the elapsed time is greater than a preset processing time; and
applying an adjustment factor to the elapsed time, wherein the adjustment factor is configured for a particular time-sensitive validation process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein dynamically altering error processing of the time-sensitive validation process of the software component includes determining from an operating system dispatching component processor usage or dispatching statistics to determine that there is a local dispatch problem.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method repeats the monitoring of another instance of the time-sensitive validation process to determine if this is a temporary condition or a permanent condition.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein repeating instances of the time-sensitive validation process continues until the elapsed time is close to the preset processing time.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time-sensitive validation process is a heartbeat process which is used to validate a connection status between interconnected software components by the sending and receiving of a portion of data.

10. A system for preventing local processing problems interfering with a time-sensitive validation process comprising:
a processor and a memory configured to provide computer program instructions to the processor to execute the function of the following component;
an elapsed time monitoring component for monitoring an elapsed time of an instance of a time-sensitive validation process of a software component including dispatching of the process instance, wherein the time-sensitive validation process includes a request and response communication with an external system;
a threshold component for determining that the elapsed time is greater than a preset processing time; and
an error processing component for dynamically altering error processing of the time-sensitive validation process of the software component.

11. The system of claim 10 , including a signal receiving component for determining that a signal has been received in the preset processing time indicating that the time-sensitive validation process has executed correctly, and exiting the time-sensitive validation process.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the threshold component determines that the elapsed time is not greater than the preset processing time and the signal receiving component determines that a signal has not been received in the preset processing time indicating that the time-sensitive validation process has executed correctly, and the error processing component initiates normal error processing logic for the time-sensitive validation process.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the elapsed time monitoring component monitoring the elapsed time records a start time prior to initiating the instance of a time-sensitive validation process and records an end time when prompted by the end of the preset processing time of the time-sensitive validation process.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the threshold component applies an adjustment factor to the elapsed time, wherein the adjustment factor is configured for a particular time-sensitive validation process.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the error processing component determines from an operating system dispatching component processor usage or dispatching statistics to determine that there is a local dispatch problem.

16. The system of claim 10 , including a repeat component for repeating the monitoring of another instance of the time-sensitive validation process to determine that this is a temporary condition or a permanent condition.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the repeat component repeats instances of the time-sensitive validation process until the elapsed time is close to the preset processing time.

18. A computer program product for preventing local processing problems interfering with a time-sensitive validation process, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:
monitor an elapsed time of an instance of a time-sensitive validation process of a software component including dispatching of the process instance and determine if the elapsed time is greater than a preset processing time, wherein the time-sensitive validation process includes a request and response communication with an external system, and, if so,
dynamically alter error processing of the time-sensitive validation process of the software component.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Brooks Michael D
• Hollingshead Alan
• Horn Julian C
• Pocock Mark
• Wakelin Philip I

Classifications

• G06F11/302

  where the computing system component is a software system · CPC title

• G06F11/0757 Primary

  by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs · CPC title

• G06F11/079

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title

• G06F11/3495

  for systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0706

  the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment · CPC title