Event-based automated diagnosis of known problems
View Patent ↗System events preceding occurrence of a problem are likely to be similar to events preceding occurrence of the same problem at other times or on other systems. Thus, the cause of a problem may be identified by comparing a trace of events preceding occurrence of the problem with previously diagnosed traces. Traces of events preceding occurrences of a problem arising from a known cause are reduced to a series of descriptive elements. These elements are aligned to correlate differently timed but otherwise similar traces of events, converted into symbolic representations, and archived. A trace of events leading to an undiagnosed a problem similarly is converted to a symbolic representation. The representation of the undiagnosed trace is then compared to the archived representations to identify a similar archived representation. The cause of the similar archived representation is presented as a diagnosis of the problem.
1. A system for determining a cause of an encountered problem occurring during operation of a computer system, comprising:
a tracer configured to log events processed by the computer system preceding the encountered problem;
a preprocessor configured to create a representation of at least a portion of the events logged, wherein the creating of the representation includes sequentially aligning the events with occurrence of corresponding events included in a base sequence of events; and
a classifier configured to:
compare the representation with a plurality of stored representations, each of the stored representations signifying a plurality of events associated with a known cause of a catalogued problem; and
identify the cause of the encountered problem as the known cause associated with a similar stored representation for solving an identified problem found to be comparable with the representation.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a diagnostic interface operable to at least one of:
direct the tracer to at least one of start and stop logging events; or
communicate the cause of the encountered problem to the user.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each of the stored representations includes a vector including elements indicating correspondence and lack of correspondence with elements of a base sequence for a known cause with which each of the representations is associated; and
the representation includes a vector including elements indicating correspondence and lack of correspondence of the events logged with the base sequence associated with the stored representations.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the classifier and the plurality of stored representations resides on a diagnostic server in communication with the system.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the functions are performed by using a program stored on a computer-readable media.
6. A system for determining a cause of an encountered problem occurring during operation of a computer system, comprising:
a diagnostic interface to receive identification of an encountered problem;
a tracer configured to log events processed by the computer system preceding the encountered problem;
a preprocessor configured to create a representation of at least a portion of the events logged; wherein the creating of the representation includes:
sequentially aligning the events with occurrence of corresponding events included in a base sequence of events and
generating a vector representing instances of correspondence and lack of correspondence of the aligned events with the base sequence; and
a classifier configured to:
compare the representation with a plurality of stored representations, each of the stored representations signifying a plurality of events associated with a known cause of a catalogued problem; and
identify the cause of the encountered problem as the known cause associated with a similar stored representation comparable with the representation.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the diagnostic interface comprises at least one of:
direct the tracer to at least one of start and stop logging events;
communicate the cause of the encountered problem to the user.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
each of the stored representations includes a vector including elements indicating correspondence and lack of correspondence with elements of a base sequence for a known cause with which each of the representations is associated; and
the representation includes a vector including elements indicating correspondence and lack of correspondence of the events logged with the base sequence associated with the stored representations.
9. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
identifying the cause of the encountered problem includes comparing the vector with a plurality of stored vectors, each of the stored vectors representing the plurality of stored representations.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the classifier and the plurality of stored representations resides on a diagnostic server in communication with the system.
11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the wherein the functions are performed by using a program stored on a computer-readable media.