Methods and systems for monitoring a hardware component in a computer system

1. A method for monitoring a hardware component in a computing system, the method comprising:

sampling a utilization of the hardware component, to obtain sampled values, at a predefined sampling rate for a predefined sampling period;

determining the proportion of the sampled values taken during the sampling period that fall within a predefined range of values; and

storing a value representative of the proportion and time information identifying the time of the sampling period.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of storing is carried out if the value representative of the proportion exceeds a predefined threshold.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein a user defines the predefined threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of deleting the stored information after a predefined length of time has elapsed.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the predefined length of time is a user-defined length of time.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sampling rate is a user-defined sampling rate.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sampling period is a user-defined sampling period.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predefined range of values is a user-defined predefined range of values.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sampling is scheduled to occur between a start time and an end time.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of repeating the method for subsequent sampling periods.

11. A system for monitoring a hardware component in a computing system, the system comprising:

sampling means for sampling a utilization of the hardware component at a predefined sampling rate for a predefined sampling period;

determination means for determining the proportion of the sampled values taken during the sampling period that fall within a predefined range of values; and

storage means for storing a value representative of the proportion along with time information identifying the time of the sampling period.

12. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising: defining means to allow any one of the sampling rate, the sampling period, or the range of values to be defined by a user.

13. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising scheduling means to schedule the sampling to occur between a start time and an end time.

14. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising deletion means for deleting the stored information after a predefined length of time has elapsed.

15. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, for instructing a computing system to operate in accordance with a method, the method comprising the steps of:

sampling a utilization of a hardware component at a predefined sampling rate for a predefined sampling period;

determining the proportion of the sampled values taken during the sampling period that fall within a predefined range of values; and

storing a value representative of the proportion along with time information identifying the time of the sampling period.

16. A computer-readable medium storing computer instructions according to a method, the method comprising the steps of:

sampling a utilization of a hardware component at a predefined sampling rate for a predefined sampling period;

determining the proportion of the sampled values taken during the sampling period that fall within a predefined range of values; and

storing a value representative of the proportion along with time information identifying the time of the sampling period.