Enhanced error detection in data synchronization operations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016147622-A1
Application number	US-201414551415-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 24, 2014
Priority date	Nov 24, 2014
Publication date	May 26, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and software for enhancing error detection in data synchronization operations. In an implementation, log data reported by a device is received and incorporated into an event database indicating interleaved events related to data synchronization threads on the device. The event database is queried to extract a listing of events in the event database, the listing of events comprising events potentially associated with at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads. The listing of events is processed to identify one or more patterns from among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads. Responsive to identifying the one or more patterns, an indication of the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads is communicated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of enhancing error detection in data synchronization operations, the method comprising:
in a data processing system, receiving log data reported by a device indicating interleaved events related to data synchronization threads on the device and incorporating at least a portion of the log data into an event database; in the data processing system, querying the event database to extract a listing of events in the event database, the listing of events comprising events potentially associated with at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads; in the data processing system, processing the listing of events to identify one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads; and in the data processing system, responsive to identifying the one or more patterns, communicating an indication of the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein querying the event database to extract the listing of events in the event database comprises establishing at least a query comprising target events corresponding to the at least one error condition and identifying ones of the interleaved events that correspond to each of the target events, the listing of events comprising a portion of the interleaved events identified by the target events of the query.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein processing the listing of events to identify the one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads comprises processing the listing of events to find sequential occurrences of the target events for individual ones of the data synchronization threads.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein processing the listing of events to identify the one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads comprises processing the listing of events to find statistically correlated occurrences of the target events among the interleaved events.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the data processing system, communicating the indication of the at least one error condition to an error reporting system; in the error reporting system, processing the indication of the at least one error condition against an error template to identify a selected error message among one or more predetermined error messages, and communicating the selected error message to the device.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
in the error reporting system, identifying at least a faulty operation from among the data synchronization threads as corresponding to the at least one error condition, and reporting the selected error message as associated with the faulty operation.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the data processing system, receiving the log data from the device and responsively incorporating portions of the log data into the event database.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the interleaved events related to the data synchronization threads on the device comprise threads of a data synchronization application that are executed in parallel on the device, and wherein the interleaved events comprise interspersed events related to the threads that are executed in parallel.

9 . An apparatus comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media; and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for at least enhancing error detection in data synchronization operations, that when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to at least: receive log data reported by a device and incorporate at least a portion of the log data into an event database indicating interleaved events related to data synchronization threads on the device; query the event database to extract a listing of events in the event database, the listing of events comprising events potentially associated with at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads; process the listing of events to identify one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads; and responsive to identifying the one or more patterns, communicate an indication of the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein to query the event database to extract the listing of events in the event database, the program instructions direct the processing system to establish at least a query comprising target events corresponding to the at least one error condition and identify ones of the interleaved events that correspond to each of the target events, the listing of events comprising a portion of the interleaved events identified by the target events of the query.

11 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein to process the listing of events to identify the one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads, the program instructions direct the processing system to process the listing of events to find sequential occurrences of the target events among the interleaved events.

12 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein to process the listing of events to identify the one or more patterns among the interleaved events that indicate the at least one error condition in the data synchronization threads, the program instructions direct the processing system to process the listing of events to find statistically correlated occurrences of the target events for individual ones of the data synchronization threads.

13 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing system to:
communicate the indication of the at least one error condition to an error reporting system; process the indication of the at least one error condition against an error template to identify a selected error message among one or more predetermined error messages, and communicate the selected error message to the device.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing system to:
identify at least a faulty operation from among the data synchronization threads as corresponding to the at least one error condition, and report the selected error message as associated with the faulty operation.

15 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing system to:
periodically request the log data from the device and responsively incorporate portions of the log data into the event database.

16 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the interleaved events related to the data synchronization threads on the device comprise operations of a data synchronization application that are executed in parallel on the device, and wherein the interleaved events comprise interspersed events related to the operations that are executed in parallel.

17 . The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising the processing system that reads and executes the program instructions.

18 . A computer system to enhance error detection in data synchronization operations between a user device and a cloud storage system, the computer system comprising:
a network transceiver configured to receive log data comprising a series of events related to the data synchroniza

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Nichols Jack Allen
• Zacher Ryan Gordon
• Schadt György Keresztély
• Jaber Rayyan
• Soderberg Erik Hampton

Classifications

• G06F11/327

  Alarm or error message display · CPC title

• G06F11/3632 Primary

  of specific synchronisation aspects · CPC title

• G06F17/40

  Data acquisition and logging (for input to computer G06F3/00) · CPC title

• G06F16/178

  Techniques for file synchronisation in file 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