Failure cause identification assisting apparatus, failure cause identification assisting method, and failure cause identification assisting program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024281317-A1
Application number	US-202318240376-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 31, 2023
Priority date	Feb 22, 2023
Publication date	Aug 22, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A management computer 100 which assists in identifying a cause of failure concerning execution of an application includes a CPU 101 and an HDD 103. The HDD 103 stores configuration information (configuration information, configuration change history) concerning configurations at a plurality of time points regarding a given target configuration object concerning execution of the application. The CPU 101 calculates a viewpoint-based difference score that is a difference score in each of a plurality of viewpoints between a current configuration and a past configuration regarding the given target configuration object concerning execution of the application.

First claim

1 . A failure cause identification assisting apparatus configured to assist in identifying a cause of failure concerning execution of an application, the failure cause identification assisting apparatus comprising:
a processor; and a storage device, wherein the storage device stores configuration information concerning configurations at a plurality of time points regarding a given target configuration object concerning execution of the application, and the processor calculates a viewpoint-based difference score that is a difference score in each of a plurality of viewpoints between a current configuration and a past configuration regarding the given target configuration object concerning execution of the application.

2 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the target configuration object is a container configured to execute the application, and
the plurality of viewpoints include any two or more of a viewpoint regarding software included in the application executed by the container, a viewpoint regarding a peripheral container that is a container existing at a periphery of the container, and a viewpoint regarding a time window during which the application is executed by the container.

3 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor displays the calculated viewpoint-based difference score.

4 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor calculates the viewpoint-based difference score between the current configuration and each of past configurations at a plurality of time points.

5 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor determines a recommended past configuration and a recommended viewpoint based on the plurality of viewpoint-based difference scores, the recommended past configuration being a past configuration suitable for identifying a cause of failure of the target configuration object, and the recommended viewpoint being a viewpoint to be focused on.

6 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor calculates the viewpoint-based difference scores of the past configurations at the plurality of time points by accumulating, in an order from the past configuration at a time point closer to a current time point, the difference score with respect to the configuration at the time point immediately prior, and
when the configuration at one time point includes a part that is the same as a part in the configuration at any time point closer than the one time point to the current time point, the difference score is assumed not to exist in the part.

7 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processor displays the recommended past configuration and the recommended viewpoint.

8 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the processor receives, from a user, feedback information indicating that the recommended past configuration and the recommended viewpoint are appropriate, and
the processor determines, in accordance with the feedback information, a coefficient used to adjust the viewpoint-based difference score regarding the viewpoint corresponding to the recommended viewpoint in terms of the target configuration object.

9 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein when the calculated viewpoint-based difference score is larger than a given value, the processor displays the viewpoint-based difference score to be highlighted.

10 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the storage device stores measurement value information concerning a given measurement value at the plurality of time points, the given measurement value being measured in execution of the application, and
the processor calculates, based on the measurement value information, a measurement value difference score that is a difference score between the current configuration and the past configuration regarding the measurement value in execution of the application.

11 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor detects occurrence of failure during execution of the application, and identifies a suspected configuration object that is a configuration object suspected to be a cause of the failure, and
the suspected configuration object is the target configuration object.

12 . The failure cause identification assisting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the storage device stores past case information that is information concerning a past case occurred during execution of the application, and
the processor is adapted to:
detect occurrence of failure during execution of the application;
display the past case information when the past case information includes a case similar to the detected failure; and
calculate the viewpoint-based difference score by setting a suspected configuration object as the target configuration object when the past case information does not include the case similar to the detected failure, the suspected configuration object being a configuration object suspected to be a cause of the failure.

13 . A method of assisting failure cause identification by a failure cause identification assisting apparatus configured to assist in identifying a cause of failure concerning execution of an application, comprising the steps of:
storing configuration information concerning configurations at a plurality of time points regarding a given target configuration object concerning execution of the application; and calculating a viewpoint-based difference score that is a difference score in each of a plurality of viewpoints between a current configuration and a past configuration regarding the given target configuration object concerning execution of the application.

14 . A failure cause identification assisting program configured to cause a computer to execute processing to assist in identifying a cause of failure concerning execution of an application, wherein
the computer stores configuration information concerning configurations at a plurality of time points regarding a given target configuration object concerning execution of the application, and the failure cause identification assisting program causes the computer to calculate a viewpoint-based difference score that is a difference score in each of a plurality of viewpoints between a current configuration and a past configuration regarding the given target configuration object concerning execution of the application.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Masuda Mineyoshi
• Murayama Kouichi
• Mizuno Jun

Classifications

• G06F11/3466

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title

• G06F11/3072

  where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting · CPC title

• G06F11/3452

  Performance evaluation by statistical analysis · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · 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