Cognitive analysis for healing an IT system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10387241-B2
Application number	US-201715477232-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2017
Priority date	Nov 6, 2014
Publication date	Aug 20, 2019
Grant date	Aug 20, 2019

Abstract

A computer-implemented embodiment heals an information technology (IT) system. A cognitive computing hardware system receives an error history log that describes a history of past errors that have occurred in the IT system. The cognitive computing hardware system receives a listing of alternative IT systems that have been predetermined to have a same functionality as the IT system and that have a history of experiencing one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system. The cognitive computing hardware system receives a record of real-time events, which are external to the IT system and which impact a performance of the alternative IT systems. The cognitive computing hardware system generates a prioritized set of solutions to overcome the one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system, based on the error history log, the listing of alternative IT systems, and the record of real-time events.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for healing an information technology (IT) system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a cognitive computing hardware system, an error history log, wherein the error history log describes a history of past errors that have occurred in an information technology (IT) system;
receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a listing of alternative IT systems, wherein the alternative IT systems have been predetermined to have a same functionality as the IT system, and wherein the alternative IT systems have a history of experiencing one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system;
receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a record of real-time events, wherein the real-time events are external to the IT system, and wherein the real-time events impact a performance of the alternative IT systems;
generating, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a prioritized set of solutions to overcome the one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system, wherein solutions from the prioritized set of solutions are prioritized based on the error history log, the listing of alternative IT systems, and the record of real-time events; and
implementing, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions in order to overcome the one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system, wherein the highest prioritized solution transfers operations from the IT system to one or more of the alternative IT systems.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
further prioritizing the solutions based on a cost of implementing each of the solutions wherein the cost is based on a combination of a monetary cost of implementing a particular solution to resolve the one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system, time utilized to implement the particular solution, a decrease in a reputation of the IT system caused by implementing the particular solution, an amount of manpower required to implement the particular solution, a wait time required until a particular person is available to implement the particular solution, and a degradation of functionality of other IT systems used to back up the IT system in response to implementing the particular solution.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the cognitive computing hardware system, that the highest prioritized solution failed to heal the one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; and
in response to determining that the highest prioritized solution failed to heal the one or more errors currently being detected by said at least one sensor in the IT system, implementing, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a next highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions in the IT system.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, the listing of alternative IT systems from a configuration management database (CMDB) server.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a clearing code from the IT system, wherein the clearing code indicates that the highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions healed said one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; and
in response to receiving the clearing code, adding, by the cognitive computing hardware system, the highest prioritized solution to a log of successful solutions for healing errors in the IT system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a failure code from the IT system, wherein the failure code indicates that the highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions failed to heal said one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; and
in response to receiving the failure code, transmitting, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a next highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions to the IT system.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
data mining, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a social media database to identify the record of real-time events.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
data mining, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a weather reporting database to identify the record of real-time events.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
data mining, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a political news reporting website to identify the record of real-time events.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
data mining, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a power grid database to identify the record of real-time events.

11. A computer program product for healing an Information Technology (IT) system, wherein said computer program product comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program code stored thereon, and wherein said program code is read and executed by a processor to perform a method comprising:
receiving an error history log, wherein the error history log describes a history of past errors that have occurred in an information technology (IT) system;
receiving a listing of alternative IT systems, wherein the alternative IT systems have been predetermined to have a same functionality as the IT system, and wherein the alternative IT systems have a history of experiencing one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system;
receiving a record of real-time events, wherein the real-time events are external to the IT system, and wherein the real-time events impact a performance of the alternative IT systems;
generating a prioritized set of solutions to overcome the one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system, wherein solutions from the prioritized set of solutions are prioritized based on the error history log, the listing of alternative IT systems, and the record of real-time events; and
implementing a highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions in order to overcome the one or more errors currently being detected in the IT system, wherein the highest prioritized solution transfers operations from the IT system to one or more of the alternative IT systems.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
further prioritizing the solutions based on a cost of implementing each of the solutions, wherein the cost is a combination of a monetary cost and a degradation of functionality of other IT systems.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a clearing code from the IT system, wherein the clearing code indicates that the highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions healed said one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; and
in response to receiving the clearing code, adding the highest prioritized solution to a log of successful solutions for healing errors in the IT system.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a failure code from the IT system, wherein the failure code indicates that the highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions failed to heal said one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; and
in response to a cognitive computing hardware system receivin

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Anderson Eric M
• Davis Robert A
• Dawson Christopher J
• Foley Patricia

Classifications

• G06F11/0709

  in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0793 Primary

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• G06N5/02

  Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/0778

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