Collaborative collection of diagnostics data of software programs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016259677-A1
Application number	US-201514918775-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 21, 2015
Priority date	Mar 4, 2015
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A computing environment includes multiple software programs running on multiple endpoint computing machines. Each software program has associated diagnostics data. Each endpoint machine is running a diagnostics agent. The diagnostics agents are in communication with each other. A monitoring server interacting with the multiple software programs detects a malfunctioning associated with a software program running on a target endpoint, and submits a request to collect the diagnostics data of the malfunctioning software program. This collecting request is submitted to a service software program different from the malfunctioning program. The service software program may be running on a service endpoint different from the target endpoint. The requested diagnostics data is retrieved by the service software program from a diagnostics agent running on the target endpoint. The monitoring server then receives the requested diagnostics data from the service software program.

First claim

1 . A method for performing diagnostics activities in a computing environment, the computing environment including a plurality of software programs running on a plurality of endpoint computing machines, the method comprising:
interacting with the plurality of software programs, each of the plurality of software programs associated with diagnostics data, each of the plurality of endpoint computing machines running a diagnostics agent of a plurality of diagnostics agents, the plurality of diagnostics agents in communication with each other; detecting a malfunctioning of the interacting with a malfunctioning software program of the plurality of software programs, the malfunctioning software program running on a target endpoint computing machine of the plurality of endpoint computing machines; submitting, in response to the detecting the malfunctioning, a collecting request for the diagnostics data of the malfunctioning software program to a service software program of the plurality of software programs, the service software program different from the malfunctioning software program; and receiving the diagnostics data of the malfunctioning software program from the service software program, the diagnostics data retrieved by the service software program from a target diagnostics agent of the plurality of diagnostics agents running on the target endpoint computing machine.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the service software program is running on a service endpoint computing machine of the plurality of endpoint computing machines, the service endpoint computing machine different from the target endpoint computing machine.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the diagnostics data is retrieved by the service software program through a service diagnostics agent of the plurality of diagnostics agents, the service diagnostics agent running on the service endpoint computing machine.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
forwarding, by the service software program to the service diagnostics agent, the collecting request; submitting, by the service diagnostics agent to the target diagnostics agent, a retrieving request for the diagnostics data; receiving, by the service diagnostics agent from the target diagnostics agent, the diagnostics data; and returning, by the service diagnostics agent to the service software program, the diagnostics data.

5 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
retrieving the diagnostics data by the target diagnostics agent; and returning, by the target diagnostics agent to the service diagnostics agent, the diagnostics data.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
deploying a new software program onto a new endpoint computing machine; determining that none of the plurality of software programs are deployed on the new endpoint computing machine; deploying a new diagnostics agent onto the new endpoint computing machine; and establishing, by the new diagnostics agent, communication with the plurality of diagnostics agents.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
sharing, by the new diagnostics agent with the plurality of diagnostics agents, one or more memory structures storing the diagnostics data of the new software program, the sharing according to configuration information associated with the new software program.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the establishing the communication with the plurality of diagnostics agents comprises discovering the diagnostics agent of each of the plurality of diagnostics agents.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting, before the submitting the collecting request, the service software program according to one or more selection criteria.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the interacting with the plurality of software programs comprises receiving operative data from each software program periodically, the method further comprising:
missing a receiving of the operative data, the detecting the malfunctioning of the interacting with the malfunctioning software program in response to the missing the receiving of the operative data.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of software programs is a monitoring agent of a monitoring application, and wherein the receiving the operative data comprises receiving monitoring data of the corresponding endpoint computing machine from each monitoring agent by a monitoring server of the monitoring application.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the submitting the collecting request and the receiving the diagnostics data are performed by a remote entity having no access to the plurality of endpoint computing machines apart from interacting with the plurality of software programs.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the interacting with the plurality of software programs comprises accessing a software application provided as a service in a cloud computing environment.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Della Corte Gianluca
• Delle Cese Giancarlo
• Sgro Antonio M
• Toro Pia
• Trovato Ignazio F

Classifications

• G06F11/0787 Primary

  Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

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

• G06F11/0706

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

• G06F11/0748

  in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault (remote testing G06F11/2294) · CPC title