Technology for stall detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016004577-A1
Application number	US-201414325331-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 7, 2014
Priority date	Jul 7, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Detecting stalling of a software process in a computer system includes receiving identification of a task thread group executing in a work process executing on a computer system. The task thread group includes one or more threads and the receiving includes receiving identification of the one or more threads by a control process executing on a computer system. The detecting includes detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group, marking the task as running responsive to detecting a thread state change for the task thread group, marking the task as stalled responsive to detecting an absence of a thread state change for at least a predefined amount of time, and marking the work process as stalled responsive detecting an absence of a predetermined signal from the work process for at least a predefined amount of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for detecting stalling comprising:
receiving identification of a task thread group executing in a work process executing on a computer system, wherein the task thread group includes one or more threads and the receiving includes receiving identification of the one or more threads by a control process executing on a computer system; detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as running responsive to detecting a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as stalled responsive to detecting an absence of a thread state change for at least a predefined amount of time; and marking the work process as stalled responsive detecting an absence of a predetermined signal from the work process for at least a predefined amount of time.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread state includes state of at least one thread of the task thread group.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined thread of the task thread group.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined set of threads of the task thread group.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the thread state includes state of all threads of the task thread group.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises:
calculating instances of a hash at respective times responsive to instruction and stack pointer values from at least one of the one or more threads in the task thread group, and wherein detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group comprises: comparing respective instances of the hash.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to detecting the task as stalled, performing a corrective action for the task.

8 . A system for detecting stalling, comprising:
a processor; and computer readable storage media having instructions stored thereon for execution by the processor, wherein the instructions executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving identification of a task thread group executing in a work process executing on a computer system, wherein the task thread group includes one or more threads and the receiving includes receiving identification of the one or more threads by a control process executing on a computer system; detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as running responsive to detecting a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as stalled responsive to detecting an absence of a thread state change for at least a predefined amount of time; and marking the work process as stalled responsive detecting an absence of a predetermined signal from the work process for at least a predefined amount of time.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the thread state includes state of at least one thread of the task thread group.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined thread of the task thread group.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined set of threads of the task thread group.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the thread state includes state of all threads of the task thread group.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein calculating instances of a hash at respective times responsive to instruction and stack pointer values from at least one of the one or more threads in the task thread group, and wherein detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group comprises:
comparing respective instances of the hash.

14 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising:
responsive to detecting the task as stalled, performing a corrective action for the task.

15 . A computer program product for detecting stalling, including a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a computer, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:
receiving identification of a task thread group executing in a work process executing on a computer system, wherein the task thread group includes one or more threads and the receiving includes receiving identification of the one or more threads by a control process executing on a computer system; detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as running responsive to detecting a thread state change for the task thread group; marking the task as stalled responsive to detecting an absence of a thread state change for at least a predefined amount of time; and marking the work process as stalled responsive detecting an absence of a predetermined signal from the work process for at least a predefined amount of time.

16 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the thread state includes state of at least one thread of the task thread group.

17 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined thread of the task thread group.

18 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the thread state includes state of a predetermined set of threads of the task thread group.

19 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the thread state includes state of all threads of the task thread group.

20 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the instructions, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations further comprising:
calculating instances of a hash at respective times responsive to instruction and stack pointer values from at least one of the one or more threads in the task thread group, and wherein detecting whether there is a thread state change for the task thread group comprises:
comparing respective instances of the hash.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Geddes Jeremy R
• Hockett Hugh E
• Quirk Aaron J
• Whetstone Kristin R

Classifications

• G06F9/485 Primary

  Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution (G06F9/4881 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title

• G06F11/0715

  in a system implementing multitasking (multitasking per se G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F11/0757

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

• G06F2209/481

  Exception handling · CPC title