System and method for detecting false positive information handling system device connection errors
View Patent ↗False positive error warnings associated with hot insertion or removal of a device with an SAS link are filtered by comparing the timing of error warnings with the timing of hot insertion or removal of the device. An SCSI Enclosure Processor monitors physical device presence events through a side band bus, such as an I2C bus interfaced with physical devices. Upon detection of an error associated with the SAS link, an error filter module retrieves time stamped physical device presence events from the SCSI Enclosure Processor, compares the time stamp of the physical device presence event and suppresses the warning if the time stamp falls within a predetermined time of the error.
1. An information handling system comprising:
plural processing components operable to process information;
an SAS link controller interfaced with the processing components and operable to communicate information between the processing components and an SAS link;
an SAS link interfaced with the SAS link controller, the SAS link operable to communicate information between the SAS link controller and one or more devices interfaced with the SAS link;
an SCSI enclosure processor interfaced with the SAS link and a management bus, the SCSI enclosure processor operable to communicate with the one or more devices through the management bus to monitor the status of the devices;
a error detector interfaced with the SAS link and operable to determine if errors associated with communication of information through the SAS link exceed a predetermined error threshold; and
an error filter module interfaced with the error detector and the SCSI enclosure processor, the error filter module operable to filter errors determined by the error detector if a predetermined status is detected for a device by the SCSI enclosure processor.
2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the error filter module filters errors by:
retrieving time stamped physical device presence information from the SCSI enclosure processor;
comparing the time of a physical device presence event with the time of the error; and
filtering out the error if the physical device presence event is within a predetermined time period of the error.
3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the error filter module filters errors further by:
allowing the error to issue if the physical device presence event is greater than the predetermined time period.
4. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the physical device presence event comprises a hot insertion of a device to the SAS link.
5. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the physical device presence event comprises a hot removal of a device from the SAS link.
6. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the management bus comprises an I2C bus.
7. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the device comprises a hard disk drive.
8. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the device comprises a tape drive.
9. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the device comprises an optical drive.
10. A method for filtering errors associated with a link, the method comprising:
communicating information across a link;
detecting a predetermined link error threshold of errors associated with the communicating of information across the link;
determining if a physical device presence event occurred within a predetermined time of the detecting a predetermined link error threshold of errors; and
filtering the predetermined link error threshold of errors if the physical device presence event occurred within the predetermined time.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
issuing an error message if a physical device presence event did not occur within the predetermined time.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein the determining if a physical device presence event occurred within a predetermined time of the detecting a predetermined link error threshold of errors further comprises:
retrieving time stamped physical device presence information from a side band link end device monitoring subsystem;
comparing the time of a physical device presence event with a time of the error.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the link comprises an SAS link and the side band link end device monitoring subsystem comprises an SCSI Enclosure Processor that interfaces with physical devices through a side band bus.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the side band bus comprises an I2C bus.
15. The method of claim 12 wherein communicating information further comprises communicating information with a storage device.
16. A system for managing communication across an SAS link with one or more devices, the system comprising:
an error detector operable to detect errors in communication of information across the SAS link and to issue error warnings if the detected errors exceed a predetermined threshold;
a link end device monitoring subsystem interfaced with the SAS link and interfaced with the one or more devices through a side band bus, the link end device monitoring subsystem operable to determine device presence events associated with the devices; and
an error filter module interfaced with the error detector and the link end device monitoring subsystem, the error filter module operable to filter an error warning if the error warning occurs within a predetermined time of a device presence event.
17. The system of claim 16 wherein the link end device monitoring subsystem comprise an SCSI Enclosure Processor.
18. The system of claim 17 wherein the side band bus comprises an I2C bus.
19. The system of claim 16 wherein the device presence events comprise a hot insertion of a device to the SAS link.