Cognitive Analysis for Healing an IT System

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016132372-A1
Application number	US-201414534772-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 6, 2014
Priority date	Nov 6, 2014
Publication date	May 12, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A cognitive computing hardware system receives an error log from an IT system. The error log comprises a record of errors currently being detected by sensors in the IT system. The cognitive computing hardware system receives an error history log, which 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 that is currently experiencing the errors. The cognitive computing hardware system receives a record of real-time events that are external to the IT system, and generates a prioritized set of solutions to heal the IT system, based on the error history log, the listing of alternative IT systems, and the record of real-time events. The cognitive computing hardware system transmits a highest prioritized solution to the IT system.

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 log from an IT system, wherein the error log comprises a record of one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, an error history log, wherein the error history log describes a history of past errors that have occurred in the 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 that is currently experiencing the one or more errors; receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a list of incidents and changes that have occurred on the IT system; receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a record of real-time events from at least one external event server, wherein the real-time events are external to the IT system; generating, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a prioritized set of solutions to heal 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 transmitting, from the cognitive computing hardware system to the IT system via an implementer system, a highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
further prioritizing the solutions based on a cost of implementing each of the solutions.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the cost is from a group consisting of a monetary cost, time utilized, and a degradation of functionality of other IT systems.

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 said 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 said 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 computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, wherein said computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, and wherein said program code is readable and executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:
receiving an error log from an IT system, wherein the error log comprises a record of one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; receiving an error history log, wherein the error history log describes a history of past errors that have occurred in the IT system; receiving a listing of alternative IT systems from a configuration management database (CMDB) server, wherein the alternative IT systems have been predetermined to have a same functionality as the IT system that is currently experiencing the one or more errors; receiving, by the cognitive computing hardware system, a list of incidents and changes that have occurred on the IT system; receiving a record of real-time events from at least one external event server, wherein the real-time events are external to the IT system; generating a prioritized set of solutions to heal 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 transmitting, to the IT system via an implementer system, a highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions.

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 said 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 said at least one sensor in the IT system; and in response to the cognitive computing hardware system receiving the failure code, transmitting a next highest prioritized solution from the prioritized set of solutions to the IT system.

15 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
data mining a social media database, a weather reporting database, and a political news reporting website to identify the record of real-time events.

16 . A system comprising:
a hardware processor, a computer readable memory, and a computer readable storage media; first program instructions to receive an error log from an IT system, wherein the error log comprises a record of one or more errors currently being detected by at least one sensor in the IT system; second program instructions to receive an error history log, wherein the error history log describes a history of past errors that have occurred in the IT system; third program instructions to receive a listing of alternative IT system

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

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

Classifications

• 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

• 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

• G06F11/0709

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

• G06F11/079 Primary

  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