Methods, systems and computer program products for resolving problems in a business process utilizing a situational representation of component status

Abstract

Problems are resolved in a business process that includes application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having IT components. A symptom is generated that identifies a problem in the business process. Selected application programs and/or IT components in the IT infrastructure that may cause the problem in the business process are identified, based on the symptom. A respective situation for a respective selected application program and/or IT component is obtained. The respective situation is one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with a respective selected application program and/or IT component. The respective situations provide the status of the selected application programs and/or IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories. The respective situations that are obtained are analyzed to identify at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or IT components that may cause the problem in the business process.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to computer systems and more particularly to analysis of problems in a business process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Information Technology (IT) systems, methods and computer program products, including, for example, computer networks, have grown increasingly complex with the use of distributed client/server applications, heterogeneous platforms and multiple protocols all on a single physical backbone. The control of traffic on networks is likewise moving from centralized information systems departments to distributed work groups. The growing utilization of computer networks is not only causing a move to new, high speed technologies, but is, at the same time, making the operation of computer networks more critical to day to day business operations. Furthermore, as computer systems become more distributed and, thereby, more inter-related, the number of different components of a system that may result in problems increases. For example, application integration, including integration across heterogenous systems, has increased the complexity of systems and the interdependence of systems while also increasing reliance on such systems for example, for mission critical applications.

[0004] This increase in the complexity of systems may make problem determination and/or resolution more complex. In conventional systems, components, such as applications, middleware, hardware devices and the like, generate data that represents the status of the component. This component status data will, typically, be consumed by some management function utilized to monitor the system and/or for problem analysis/resolution. The management function may, for example, be a user reading a log file or it may be a management application that is consuming the data for analysis and/or display. In conventional systems, component and component owners are responsible for determining what data is provided, in terms of format, completeness and/or order of the data as well as the meaning of the data.

[0005] Such an ad hoc approach to component status information may be convenient for the component developer, however, the complexity of the management function may be increased. For example, the management function, may need some context for a status message from the component. In particular, the management function will, typically, need to know what a data message from a component represents, the format of the data, the meaning of the data and what data is available. For example, the management function may need to know that a particular message (e.g., message “123”), from a particular component (e.g., component “ABC”) has a certain number of fields (e.g., three fields) and what data is in each of the fields (e.g., a first field is a timestamp, a second field is a queue name and third field is a value for the queue name). Typically, no data other than the data provided by the component can be derived from the management system. Furthermore, this approach also assumes that the consumer of the data knows, not only the significance of the data fields, but also the format of the fields (e.g., the timestamp is in the mm/dd/yy format).

[0006] Furthermore, the cause of the problem that is reported by an error message may be reported by a component other than the component with the problem. Thus, a management function may need to know, not only the existence of the component, but the relationship between the components that are managed. Without such knowledge, the management function may not recognize that the source of the component is not the component reporting the error.

[0007] One difficulty that may arise from the use of differing component status formats is in the analysis of problems for differing components or from different versions of a component. Knowledge bases have conventionally been used to map component status data, such as error log messages, that are reported by components to symptoms and eventually to fixes for problems. For example, there are symptom databases utilized by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., that map WebSphere error log messages to symptoms and fixes. These databases typically work on the assumption that if you see a specified error message (e.g., message “123”) from a specified component (e.g., component “XYZ”), then a particular symptom is occurring (e.g., the performance is slow) and a predefined remedy (e.g., increase the parameter “buffsize” to 10) will likely fix the problem.

[0008] One problem with mapping error messages or combinations of error messages to symptoms and fixes is that such a mapping typically associates specific, component dependent, error messages to specific, component dependent, fixes. Thus, for example, if a new release of a product is released, the symptom database may need to be rewritten or modified to take into account all the new messages. This approach does not lend itself to creating cross-product or cross-component symptom databases as each message for each product must, typically, be known in order to create the symptom database.

[0009] The above problems may be exacerbated when attempting to resolve problems in a business process that uses application programs that run on an IT infrastructure that includes a plurality of IT components. In particular, the application programs can generally run a business application and/or process. It may be difficult to detect and resolve problems occurring in the IT infrastructure and/or the application programs that may cause the business process that is run from the application program to fail. More specifically, a business application/process administrator may not have an in-depth knowledge of the IT infrastructure components and how to detect and resolve problems therein. Moreover, changes in the IT infrastructure components and their characteristics may make even finding relevant IT infrastructure components difficult.

[0010] In one example, a business process or process step may encounter a problem. For example, an account balance may not be retrieved. Conventionally, the business application administrator may need to work with a database administrator, a network administrator, a host/operating system administrator, etc., to figure out the problem. This may make problem identification and resolution difficult, time consuming and/or costly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Some embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for resolving problems in a business process. The business process includes a plurality of application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components. A symptom is generated that identifies a problem in the business process. Selected application programs in the plurality of application programs and/or selected IT components in the IT infrastructure that may cause the problem in the business process are identified, based on the symptom. The selected application programs and/or IT components may be the application programs and/or IT components that are used when implementing the business process. Status of the selected application program and/or IT components can be obtained by obtaining a respective situation for a respective application program and/or IT component. The respective situation is one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with a respective selected application program and/or IT component. It will be understood that every one of the selected application programs and/or IT components need not have a situation present at a given time. The respective situations can provide the status of the selected application programs and/or IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories. The respective situations that are obtained are analyzed to identify at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components that may cause the problem in the business process.

[0012] In some embodiments, the analyzing is followed by automatically identifying corrective action in the IT infrastructure and/or selected application programs based on the at least one problem in the selected IT components and/or selected application programs In other embodiments, a common action format representation of the corrective action that is identified is generated. The common action format representation can be applied to a component in a generic fashion.

[0013] In other embodiments, the symptoms are generated based on an error log for the application program and/or IT component. However, other conventional symptom generating techniques may be employed.

[0014] In other embodiments, the respective situations are analyzed by determining correlations between the respective situations that are obtained, and identifying the at least one problem in the selected IT components and/or selected application programs based on sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations. In some embodiments, time correlation and/or transaction correlation of the respective situations is performed. In other embodiments, the sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations are evaluated, so as to select one of the predefined situation categories based on the sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations. In still other embodiments, the common situation format representation of the status of the IT components and/or application programs is generated based on the one of the predefined situation categories that was selected based on the sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations. In yet other embodiments, the common situation format representation of the status of the IT components and/or application programs is generated based on a historical assessment of situations to generate a composite situation.

[0015] As will further be appreciated by those of skill in the art, while described above primarily with reference to method aspects, the present invention may be embodied as methods, apparatus/systems and/or computer program products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system suitable for use in a system according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0017] FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of a system utilizing a situational representation of component status according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0018] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system for monitoring and/or analyzing system status utilizing a situational representation of component status according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0019] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a tuple that provides situational status and/or actions according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0020] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system for converting conventional status information to a situational representation of component status according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0021] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system for analysis of component status information and/or autonomic generation of status and/or actions according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0022] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations for converting conventional component status to situational component status according to embodiments of the present invention;

[0023] FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations for analysis of situational component status information according to further embodiments of the present invention;

[0024] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of systems, methods and computer program products for resolving problems in an application program that runs on an information technology infrastructure according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0025] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be performed by an application program according to some embodiments of the present invention; and

[0026] FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be performed to resolve problems according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0027] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of systems, methods and computer program products for resolving problems in a business process including a plurality of application programs that run on an information technology infrastructure according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0028] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be performed by a business process according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0029] FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be performed to resolve problems according to some embodiments of the present invention; and

[0030] FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be performed to resolve problems according to further embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031] The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

[0032] As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, data processing system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all generally referred to herein as a “circuit” or “module.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or magnetic storage devices.

[0033] Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java®, Smalltalk or C++. However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

[0034] The present invention is described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

[0035] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

[0036] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

[0037] Embodiments of the present invention use a common situation format representation of component and/or system status in order to resolve problems in a business process including a plurality of application programs that runs on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components. Accordingly, situational representation of component status as described in the above-referenced application (Attorney Docket No. 5577-263/RSW920030070US1), assigned to the assignee of the present application, will first be described. Then, the use of situational representations of component status to resolve problems in an application program that runs on an IT infrastructure that includes a plurality of IT components as described in the above-referenced application (Attorney Docket No. 5577-262/RSW920030067US1), to which the present application is a continuation-in-part, will then be described. Finally, the use of a common situation format representation of component and/or system status in order to resolve problems in a business process including a plurality of application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components according to embodiments of the present invention, will be described.

[0038] Situational Representation of Component Status

[0039] Embodiments of the present invention provide for and/or use a common situation format representation of component and/or system status. The common situation format may provide for the characterization of component and/or system status as one of a predefined set of categories of situations and, thereby, provide device independent status information. Thus, analysis of the status of a component and/or a system may be based on the predefined categories of information and, therefore, may be made substantially independent of the component specific error reporting of individual components.

[0040] Various embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the figures. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system 30 suitable for conversion of component status and/or analysis of component status in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The data processing system 30 typically includes input device(s) 32 such as a keyboard or keypad, a display 34, and a memory 36 that communicate with a processor 38. The data processing system 30 may further include a speaker 44, and an I/O data port(s) 46 that also communicate with the processor 38. The I/O data ports 46 can be used to transfer information between the data processing system 30 and another computer system or a network. These components may be conventional components, such as those used in many conventional data processing systems, which may be configured to operate as described herein.

[0041] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of data processing systems that illustrate systems, methods, and computer program products in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The processor 38 communicates with the memory 36 via an address/data bus 48. The processor 38 can be any commercially available or custom microprocessor. The memory 36 is representative of the overall hierarchy of memory devices containing the software and data used to implement the functionality of the data processing system 30. The memory 36 can include, but is not limited to, the following types of devices: cache, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, SRAM, and DRAM.

[0042] As shown in FIG. 2, the memory 36 may include several categories of software and data used in the data processing system 30: the operating system 52; the application programs 54; the input/output (I/O) device drivers 58; and the data 56. As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the operating system 52 may be any operating system suitable for use with a data processing system, such as OS/2, AIX or System390 from International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., Windows95, Windows98, Windows2000 or WindowsXP from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash., Unix or Linux. The I/O device drivers 58 typically include software routines accessed through the operating system 252 by the application programs 54 to communicate with devices such as the I/O data port(s) 46 and certain memory 36 components. The application programs 54 are illustrative of the programs that implement the various features of the data processing system 30 and preferably include at least one application which supports operations according to embodiments of the present invention. Finally, the data 56 represents the static and dynamic data used by the application programs 54, the operating system 52, the I/O device drivers 58, and other software programs that may reside in the memory 36.

[0043] As is further seen in FIG. 2, the application programs 54 may include a common format generation 60 and/or a common format analysis module 61. The common format generation module 60 may carry out the operations described herein for converting conventional component status information to situational component status information so as to provide a common formation representation of component status. The common format analysis module 61 may carry out the operations described herein for analyzing situational component status information and may provide additional status information in a common formation representation for further analysis and/or may provide a remedial course or action.

[0044] The data portion 56 of memory 36, as shown in the embodiments of FIG. 2, may, optionally, include common format data 62 and/or device specific data 63. The common format data 62 and/or the device specific data 63 may be utilized by the common format generation module 60 to provide the situational component status information and/or by the common format analysis module 61 to provide a common format representation of component and/or system status and/or a suggested remedial course of action.

[0045] While the present invention is illustrated, for example, with reference to the common format generation module 60 being an application program in FIG. 2, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, other configurations may also be utilized while still benefitting from the teachings of the present invention. For example, the common format generation module 60 may also be incorporated into the operating system 252, the I/O device drivers 58 or other such logical division of the data processing system 30. Thus, the present invention should not be construed as limited to the configuration of FIG. 2 but is intended to encompass any configuration capable of carrying out the operations described herein.

[0046] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system incorporating situational representations of component status according to embodiments of the present invention. As seen in FIG. 3, an analysis engine 100 that may, for example, be provided by the common format analysis module 61 of FIG. 2, receives component status and/or system status information in a common situation format. Thus, for example, the components 102, such as applications, middleware, and/or hardware, provide common situation format messages 110 to the analysis engine 100. Similarly, an adapter 104, which may be provided by the common format generation module 60 of FIG. 2, may receive component specific information, for example, from one or more symptom databases 106 and/or a component 108, and convert the component specific format information to the common situation format. The adapter 104 may combine information from multiple databases and/or components into situation information for a component, components and/or a system. The common situation format information may be provided to the analysis engine 100 as a common situation format message 112.

[0047] The common situation format messages 110 and 112 may be provided to the analysis engine 100 in real time and/or non-real time. Furthermore, the messages may take any form suitable for communicating the common situation format information. For example, the message may take the form of a datagram(s) from, for example, the components 102 and/or the adapter 104 to the analysis engine 100 to provide real-time or near real-time information. The messages could also take the form of a log file, data stored in memory accessible by the analysis engine 100 or other such technique for communicating information. Thus, the present invention should not be construed as limited to a particular messaging technique but may be used with any technique capable of communicating the common situation format information.

[0048] As is further illustrated in FIG. 3, the analysis engine 100 receives the common situation formation messages 110 and/or 112 and, optionally, outputs analysis of the common situation format information as a further common situation format representation or a common action format representation 114 of the results of the analysis. The analysis engine 100 may evaluate the common situation format messages 110 and/or 112 based on a situation category identified in the messages. The messages 110, 112 and/or 114 may take the form of the tuple described with reference to FIG. 4 below. A common action format representation is similar to a common situation format representation, however, the situation category may be replaced with an action category. The action category defines an action to be taken or what needs to be done, whereas the situation category defines status or what has happened. The results of the analysis may be a further characterization of the status or may be an identification of an action to be taken. In either case, the common situation format or common action format may be utilized to provide information about the results of the analysis. Furthermore, the results may be provided by one or more messages or appended messages in the common situation format.

[0049] Because the common situation format messages utilize a situational representation of status, rather than a component specific error message, the analysis engine 100 may be based on an analysis of common situations experienced by one or more components. Thus, for example, a symptom database of situations that correlates situational information to specific responses or further situations may be utilized in the analysis engine 100. Furthermore, information from multiple databases may be combined by the analysis engine 100 to result in an action and/or additional situation information. Such a symptom database may be provided, for example, by modifying a conventional symptom database to utilize situational information rather than component specific information. Accordingly, the need to revise the analysis engine as a result of changes in the error reporting of components may be reduced or avoided. Furthermore, the need to customize the analysis engine 100 based on a specific system configuration may also be reduced or eliminated.

[0050] FIG. 4 illustrates portions of a common situation format message 200 according to certain embodiments of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 4, in addition to or as a substitute for conventional status information in a status message, the common situation format message 200 includes an identification of the component reporting the status (Reporting ID 202), an identification of the component about which the status is reported (Component ID 204) and an identification of the situation category that identifies the status of the component (Situation Category 206). The common situation format message 200 may be utilized to provide data from a variety of heterogenous sources in a canonical format as a set of canonical semantics (situations). Thus, the situation data including a category 206 may represent a situation associated with a component as one of a predefined set of situation identifications. If the common situation format message 200 is modified to be a common action format message, the situation data including a category 206 may be replaced by situation data that includes an action category which is one of a predefined set of action identifications. The predefined situation identifications may represent the status of a component or system and predefined action identifications may represent an action to be taken. The predefined situation identifications may include, for example, START_SITUATION, STOP_SITUATION, FEATURE_SITUATION, DEPENDENCY_SITUATION, CONFIGURE_SITUATION, CREATE_SITUATION, DESTROY_SITUATION, CONNECT_SITUATION, REPORT_SITUATION, AVAILABLE_SITUATION, REQUEST_SITUATION, and/or CONFLICT_SITUATION.

[0051] FIG. 5 illustrates a system for converting component specific information into common situation format. In certain embodiments of the present invention, the system of FIG. 5 may provide the adapter 104 of FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the adapter 300 may obtain component information about a component 302 from a log 304, such as an error log. Additionally, or alternatively, the adapter 300 may receive component information directly from the component 302. The adapter 300 may also obtain or be provided product specific filter rules 308 and/or common situation filter format information 306.

[0052] The product specific filtering rules 308 may be used to filter and/or parse the log files and/or messages so as to convert and/or categorize one or more error log entries into one of a predefined set of situational categories. For example, the product specific filtering rules 308 may be used to convert from one or more error codes of a component to situations associated with the one or more error codes.

[0053] The common situation filter format 306 may be used to specify the common situation format for the common situation format representation 310 provided by the adapter 300. For example, the common situation filter format 306 may specify the use of the common situation format illustrated in FIG. 4. Thus, for example, the reporting ID 202, the component ID 204 and the situation data including a category 206 may be specified by the common situation filter format 306.

[0054] As described above, the adapter 300 may provide a common set of data that is collected about situations or events. Thus, the tuple of the identification of the component that is reporting the situation, the identification of the component that is experiencing the situation and an identification of the situation may be provided by the adapter 300. Thus, much of the data for the three tuple need not be obtained from the log 304 and/or component 302 but only data that is useful in the scope to which it is reported need be provided. Accordingly, a reduced amount or minimum amount of data only need be provided by a component and the remainder of the information may be obtained from the context of the message and/or scope of the function receiving or forwarding the information.

[0055] For example, for a management function running on a local machine, a component of the machine can report that a drive, such as the “C:” drive has failed. When the component of the machine reports this information, because the receiver of the information is local, “C:” uniquely identifies the failed component. When this information is passed to a management function beyond the bounds of the local machine, the data may be augmented so that a unique identifier for the local machine is added, thus, the failing component becomes “machine :C:”. This augmentation allows for reduced and/or minimal amounts of data to be generated by the component which may increase the performance and/or simplify the operation of the component.

[0056] For example, in the system illustrated in FIG. 5, the adapter 300 may augment the information from the log file 304 so as to provide a unique identification within the scope of the system in which the adapter resides. Thus, if the component 302 is a server, such as “ServerA”, and the log file 304 is for ServerA, the adapter 300 may augment the data from the log file 304 to add a unique server identification to the identification from the log file. For example, if a process, such as ProcessA on ServerA stops, the log file 304 may only indicate that ProcessA has stopped. However, the adapter 300 may know the context or scope of the log file 304 and generate a component identification of “ServerA:ProcessA” and a reporting identification of “ServerA.”

[0057] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system for analysis of component status information and/or autonomic generation of status and/or actions according to embodiments of the present invention. In particular embodiments of the present invention, the system of FIG. 6 provides some or all of the analysis engine 100 of FIG. 3. As seen in FIG. 6, a correlation engine 402 may receive common situation format representations 408 of component status, for example, from a component, such as components 102 of FIG. 3 or from an adapter, such as the adapter 104 of FIG. 3 or the adapter 300 of FIG. 5. The correlation engine 402 determines a correlation between common situation format representations of component status and provides sufficiently correlated ones of the common situation format representations to an analysis engine 404.

[0058] The common situation format representations may, for example, be component, transaction and/or time correlated by the correlation engine 404. For example, common situation format representations within a predefined time of an event or other status message may be considered sufficiently correlated and provided to the analysis engine 404 as a correlated set of common situation format representations and/or may be combined into common situation format representation of the correlated common situation format representations. The correlation engine 404 could also correlate common situation format representations based on a transaction associated with the common situation format representations. Thus, common situation format representations associated with the same transaction could be provided to the analysis engine 404.

[0059] The analysis engine 404 analyzes the sufficiently correlated common situation format representations of component status and autonomically generates a common situation format representation 408 and/or a common action format representation 410 based on the correlated information. The output of the analysis engine 404 may be a further situational categorization that may, for example, be provided to a subsequent analysis engine 406. The subsequent analysis engine 406 may further analyze the common situation format representation and provide results based on its analysis as a further situation identification that may be further analyzed. The output of the analysis engine 404 and/or the analysis engine 406 could also be an action identification where the action identification is a canonical action identification from a predefined set of action situations as described above.

[0060] For example, for situational identifications of START and STOP, the correlation engine 402 may determine a START of component X and a STOP of component Y are correlated and provide the two correlated representations to the analysis engine 404. The analysis engine 404 may determine that “if a START for component X is followed by a STOP for component Y, then take action Z” and may output as a result a common action format representation that indicates that action Z is to be taken. Thus, an action may be automatically generated based on the situational information, rather than component specific status message IDs.

[0061] As a further example, if an identified component fails to start because of an unmet dependency, common situation format messages for the failure may be generated. For example, messages of (Component ID, START, UNSUCCESSFUL) and (Component ID, DEPENDENCY, FAILED, Dependent Component ID) may be generated and correlated by the correlation engine 402 based on the common Component ID, a common transaction associated with the messages or a timing of the messages. The analysis engine 404 may then identify the dependency failure as the problem based on the situational information provided and automatically generate messages to an installer that indicate the actions to be taken to remedy the dependency problem. For example, messages of (Component ID, DEPENDENCY, SATISFY, Dependent Component ID) followed by (Component ID, START) may be automatically generated. Such analysis may be provided, for example, by providing a symptom database as described. Such a database may utilize conventional techniques utilized in symptom databases, however, utilizing the situational information provided in embodiments of the present invention rather than the component specific information of a conventional symptom database.

[0062] Embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to a particular common situation format. However, the term “common situation format” is used herein in its generic sense and should not be construed as limited to a particular format but is intended to include other formats the utilize situational information to categorize status and/or actions. Thus, for example, additional information may be provided in a common situation format message or multiple messages may be combined to a single message having additional information. Furthermore, multiple situational information may be provided in a single message while still providing a common situation format representation of the status and/or action.

[0063] While embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to particular systems illustrated in FIGS. 3, 5 and 6, the present invention should not be construed as limited to such systems. Thus, for example, embodiments of the present invention may be provided in a stand-alone application, as part of a component monitoring system or as part of a network monitoring system. Accordingly, the present invention should not be construed as limited to a particular system configuration but may be utilized in any system capable of carrying out the operations described herein.

[0064] Operations according to embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be carried out according to embodiments of the present invention for the generation of a common situation format representation of component status.

[0065] As seen in FIG. 7, component information is obtained (Block 500). As discussed above, component information may, for example, be obtained by receiving messages from a component, inspecting a log file, or other techniques for obtaining component status information known to those of skill in the art. An identification of the component reporting the status is made (Block 502) as well as an identification of the component for which the status is reported (Block 504). As discussed above such an identification may be either explicit or implicit. For example, the reporting component may expressly identify itself or it may be implied based on the context and/or scope of the reporting and/or receiving component.

[0066] The component information is also categorized as one of a predefined set of common situation categories (Block 506). Such a categorization may, for example, be provided by a correlation between component specific status codes and the situational categories. For example, an error code of “1234” may be translated to a situational category of “START” for the specific component. Thus, an identification of the reporting and/or reported on component and/or the error code reported may be used to categorize the component information as one of the predefined situations. Additionally, multiple component messages may be combined to determine the situation category. For example, different sequences of error codes may map to different situations.

[0067] Utilizing the reporting component identification, the reported on component identification and the situational category, a common situation format message is generated (Block 508). The format of the message may be described above or may take different forms that may also convey the tuple of information described above.

[0068] FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations that may be carried out according to embodiments of the present invention for the analysis of common situation format representations of component status. As seen in FIG. 8, situational component information is obtained (Block 600). The situational component information may be obtained, for example, from a component, such as components 102 of FIG. 3 or from an adapter, such as the adapter 104 of FIG. 3 or the adapter 300 of FIG. 5.

[0069] The situational component information may also be correlated with other common situation format representations (Block 602). As discussed above, such a correlation may be based on component identification, time and/or transaction. The common situation format information that is sufficiently correlated is then analyzed (Block 604). This analysis may, as discussed above, be a comparison of the correlated information to determine further situational information and/or may be performed to determine actions to be taken. For example, the correlated information may be evaluated to determine that the combination of situations reflected in the correlated information indicates the presence of an additional situation. This additional situation may be associated with the components of the correlated information or may be associated with a different component.

[0070] Additionally, the combination of components represented in the correlated information may comprise a subsequent component in a hierarchy of components. Thus, for example, if situational information from components of a server are correlated and indicate a failure situation, the failure situation may be associated with the server rather than the individual components. The analysis of the situational information may, therefore, lead to an aggregation of components to identify a higher level abstraction of the components associated with a situation. Such a higher level abstraction may, for example, range from components of a server to networked systems to networks. Accordingly, aggregation may be within a single device or across multiple devices to thereby provide system status of, for example, a network and/or a networked system. Thus, system status (e.g., status of a server) may be generated based on an aggregation of component status (e.g., status of hard drives, network interfaces, applications, processes etc.).

[0071] Likewise, the analysis of the situational information may also isolate a component from a group of components based on the situational information for the group of components. For example, situational information may indicate that a server has failed, applications have failed and a hard drive has failed. The analysis may result in determining that the failure of the hard drive is the cause of the other failures and, thereby, generate situational information only for the hard drive and/or indicate that corrective action for the hard drive should to taken.

[0072] As is further seen in FIG. 8, if the analysis is to determine additional situational information, then a common situation format representation of the results of the analysis of the correlated information may be generated (Block 604) and provided for further analysis (Block 606). The analysis may also determine corrective action to be take (Block 608) based on the situational information as described above.

[0073] Use of Situational Representation to Resolve Problems in an Application Program

[0074] Having described the generation of situational representations of component status, the use of situational representations to resolve problems in an application program that runs on an IT infrastructure, according to embodiments of the present invention, now will be described. In general, in embodiments of the present invention, an application program which may run a business application or process, can indicate the detection of a problem that may be due to the IT infrastructure. The indication is used to identify the IT infrastructure components that may have encountered problems that cause the application program to fail. A set of candidate situations are derived from the identified IT components. These situations are then analyzed to identify at least one problem in the IT components that may have caused the problem in the application program. The IT component problems then may be corrected.

[0075] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of systems, methods and/or computer program products according to some embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9, an IT infrastructure 910 includes a plurality of components, such as one or more enterprise, application, personal, pervasive and/or embedded computer systems, one or more local and/or wide area, wired and/or wireless networks that interconnect these computer systems, and at least one operating system that runs on the IT infrastructure. The components of the IT infrastructure may correspond to the components 102 of FIG. 3 or 302 of FIG. 5.

[0076] Still referring to FIG. 9, an application 920 runs on the IT infrastructure 910. The application 920 may implement a business process, such as a banking process, a manufacturing process and/or other process. Application programs that run on an IT infrastructure are known to those having skill in the art and need not be described further herein.

[0077] Still referring to FIG. 9, a problem resolver 930 is also provided that resolves problems in the application program 920 utilizing a situational representation of the status of components of the IT infrastructure 910, according to embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9, the problem resolver 930 comprises a circuit that includes hardware and/or software, that can be independent of the application 920 and/or the IT infrastructure 910. However, in other embodiments, the problem resolver 920 comprises a circuit that includes hardware and/or software that is contained at least partly within the application 920 and/or the IT infrastructure 910.

[0078] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of operations that may be performed by the application 920 according to some embodiments of the present invention. More specifically, referring to FIG. 10, at Block 1010, when a problem is detected, the application 920 generates a symptom at Block 1020, which identifies a problem in the application program. In some embodiments, the problem is identified based on an error log for the application program. In other embodiments, notification by an application program user may be used to detect errors.

[0079] Still referring to FIG. 10, at Block 1030, the symptom is sent to the problem resolver 930. It will be understood that, as used herein, the term “symptom” can refer to the symptoms described in connection with symptoms database 106 of FIG. 3. However, as used herein, a symptom also refers to any indication of the problem by the application program 920.

[0080] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of operations that may be performed by a problem resolver, such as the problem resolver 930 of FIG. 9, to resolve problems in an application program using a situational representation of component status. As shown at Block 1110, when a symptom is received, selected IT components in the IT infrastructure 910 that may cause the problem in the application program 920, are identified at Block 1120, based on the symptom that is received at Block 1110. In some embodiments, the set of IT components that may be used when running the application or business process is identified.

[0081] Then, at Block 1130, the status of the selected IT components is obtained by obtaining a respective situation for a respective selected IT component. The respective situation is one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with a respective selected IT component, as was described, for example, in connection with FIGS. 1-8 above. The respective situations provide the status of the selected IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories.

[0082] Stated differently, in some embodiments, the problem resolver retrieves all the situations in the identified IT components that could have caused the problem in the business process. In some embodiments, these situations can be selectively retrieved by time, failure situations of particular types and/or other criteria.

[0083] Then, at Block 1140, the respective situations that are obtained are analyzed to identify, at Block 1150, at least one problem in the selected IT components that may cause the problem in the application program. In some embodiments, as shown at Block 1160, corrective action in the IT infrastructure is automatically identified based on the at least one problem in the selected IT components that was identified at Block 1150. Moreover, as part of identifying the corrective action of Block 1160, a common situation format representation of the corrective action that is identified may be generated, as was described, for example, in FIG. 8 above. In one specific example, if the situation data indicates that an identified database is stopped, perhaps accidently by an operator, then the action would be to restart the database automatically.

[0084] Additional discussion of techniques for analyzing the respective situations that are obtained to identify at least one problem in the selected IT components that may cause the problem in the application program (Blocks 1140 and 1150) now will be provided. In particular, in some embodiments, the analyzing is performed by determining correlations between the respective situations that are obtained and identifying the at least one problem in the selected IT components based on sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations. In other embodiments, time correlation and/or transaction correlation of the respective situations is performed. In other embodiments, the sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations are evaluated, so as to select one of the predefined situation categories based on the sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations, as was described, for example, in FIG. 8 above. Similarly, a common situation format representation of the status of the application program based on the one of the predefined situation categories that was selected, as also described in FIG. 8 above, also may be provided.

[0085] Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention can use the situational representation of component status to resolve problems in an application program that runs on an IT infrastructure and which may implement a business process. The business process detection of error is mapped to potential situations, and potential fixes are thereby generated. In other embodiments of the present invention, the operations FIG. 11 can be generalized to obtain a respective ones of a set of component-independent predefined status categories that are associated with respective selected ones of the IT components, so as to provide status of the respective selected ones of the IT components in a common component-independent format. The respective status categories that are obtained are analyzed to identify at least one problem in the selected ones of the IT components that may cause the problem in the application program.

[0086] Use of Situational Representation to Resolve Problems in a Business Process

[0087] The generation of situational representations of component status and the use of situational representations to resolve problems in an application program that runs on an IT infrastructure are described above. The use of situational representations to resolve problems in a business process that includes a plurality of application programs that run on an IT infrastructure, according to embodiments of the present invention, now will be described. In general, in embodiments of the present invention, business processes that include a plurality of application programs can indicate the detection of a problem that may be due to one of the application programs and/or the IT infrastructure. The indication is used to identify the application programs and/or IT infrastructure components that may have encountered problems that cause the business process to experience a problem. Situations are derived from the identified application programs and/or IT components. These situations are then analyzed to identify at least one problem in the application programs and/or the IT components that may have caused the problem in the business process. The application program and/or IT component problems then may be corrected.

[0088] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of systems, methods and/or computer program products according to some embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 12, an IT infrastructure 1210 includes a plurality of components, such as one or more enterprise, application, personal, pervasive and/or embedded computer systems, one or more local and/or wide area, wired and/or wireless networks that interconnect these computer systems, and at least one operating system that runs on the IT infrastructure. The IT infrastructure 1210 may correspond to the IT infrastructure 910 of FIG. 9. The components of the IT infrastructure may correspond to the components 102 of FIG. 3 or 302 of FIG. 5.

[0089] A plurality of applications 1220a run on the IT infrastructure 1210. The applications 1220a, 1220b, and 1220c implement a business process 1240. The business process 1240 can be any business process that can be automated in part or automated entirely, such as a banking process, a manufacturing process, a sales process and/or other processes. It will be understood that although three applications 1220 are shown in FIG. 12, fewer or mor applications 1220 may be present.

[0090] As shown in FIG. 12, a problem resolver 1230 is also provided that resolves problems in the business process 1240 utilizing a situational representation of the status of components of the application programs 1220 and/or the IT infrastructure 1210, according to embodiments of the present invention. The problem resolver 1230 comprises a circuit that includes hardware and/or software, that can be independent of the applications 1220 and/or the IT infrastructure 1210. However, in other embodiments, the problem resolver 1230 comprises a circuit that includes hardware and/or software that is contained at least partly within the application 1220 and/or the IT infrastructure 1210.

[0091] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of operations that may be performed by the business process 1240 according to some embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 13, at Block 1310, when a problem is detected, the business process 1240 generates a symptom at Block 1320, which identifies a problem in the business process. For example, the symptom can be generated by one or more of the application programs 1220 or one or more of the IT components in the IT infrastructure 1210. In some embodiments, the problem is identified based on an error log for one or more of the application programs 1220 and/or an error log for one or more of the IT components in the IT infrastructure 1210. In other embodiments, notification by a user of the business process or a user of one or more of the application programs may be used to detect errors. In still further embodiments, performance indications of an application and/or business process can be used to detect a problem. For example, the time duration of a business process and/or application can be used to identify a problem, such as when a business process and/or application takes more than a threshold amount of time. As shown in FIG. 13, the symptom is sent to the problem resolver 1230 at Block 1330.

[0092] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of operations that may be performed by a problem resolver, such as the problem resolver 1230 of FIG. 12, to resolve problems in a business process using a situational representation. As shown at Block 1410, when a symptom is received, selected IT components in the IT infrastructure 1210 and selected application programs 1220 that may cause the problem in the business process 1240, are identified at Block 1420, based on the symptom that is received at Block 1410.

[0093] At Block 1430, the problem resolver 1230 obtains a respective situation for a respective selected application and/or IT component. The respective situation is one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with a respective selected application and/or IT component, as was described, for example, in connection with FIGS. 1-8 above. The respective situations provide the status of the selected applications and/or IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories. For example, the problem resolver can retrieve all the situations in the identified applications and/or IT components that could have caused the problem in the business process. In some embodiments, these situations can be selectively retrieved by time, failure situations of particular types and/or other criteria. In some embodiments, the situations for all of the applications and/or IT components that are used to implement the business process can be retrieved.

[0094] At Block 1440, the respective situations that are obtained are analyzed to identify, at Block 1450, at least one problem in the selected applications and/or IT components that may cause the problem in the business process. In some embodiments, the respective situations are further analyzed at Block 1440 to identifying a business impact in the business process. Examples of a business impact include performance impacts on the business process, such as reduced speed or efficiency, components of the business process that may be impacted by the problem, and/or customer impacts caused by the business process problem.

[0095] In some embodiments, as shown at Block 1460, responsive action in the business process is automatically identified based on the at least one problem in the selected application and/or IT components that were identified at Block 1450. A common situation format representation of the responsive action that is identified may be generated, as was described, for example, in FIG. 8. The responsive action can include communicating the business impact in the business process to a customer. For example, if the situation data indicates that an electronic catalog order would be delayed, then the business impact is that a customer may not receive an ordered item on time. The responsive action would be to send the customer an electronic notice that the order would be delayed. Responsive action could also include giving the customer a discount in response to the order delay, sending the order by express deliver, giving the order processing priority over other orders, or any suitable response to the problem in the business process based on the business impact.

[0096] Moreover, as shown at Block 1440, the respective situations that are obtained can be analyzed to identify corrective action in the application programs and/or IT infrastructure based on the problem in the selected applications and/or IT components. In one specific example, if the situation data indicates that an application program in the business process is slow, and the application program is using a processor that is over utilized, the corrective action could be to move the application program to a processor with available resources.

[0097] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of operations according to further embodiments that may be performed by a problem resolver, such as the problem resolver 1230 of FIG. 12, to prioritize problems in a business process using a situational representation. At Block 1510, the problem resolver 1230 determines if there is more than one problem associated with the business process. If there is more than one problem, then the problem resolver 1230 prioritizes the resolution of the problems in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on the business impact of the problem at Block 1520.

[0098] For example, if the business impact of the problem involves customer service in a relatively important area, resolving the problem would receive a higher priority than if the business impact of the problem involves internal business processing. In one specific example, in an electronic catalog ordering business process, resolving problems that impact the receipt of orders could be given a higher priority than resolving problems that impact sending confirmation notices of received orders.

[0099] The flowcharts and block diagrams of FIGS. 1 through 15 illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products utilizing situational representations of component status according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flow charts or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems which perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

[0100] In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed typical illustrative embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A method of resolving problems in a business process, the business process including a plurality of application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components, the method comprising: generating a symptom that identifies a problem in the business process; identifying selected application programs in the plurality of application programs and/or selected IT components in the IT infrastructure that may cause the problem in the business process, based on the symptom; obtaining a respective situation for a respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, the respective situation being one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with the respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, so as to provide status of the selected application programs and/or selected IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories; and analyzing the respective situations that are obtained to identify at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components that may cause the problem in the business process.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the analyzing the respective situations further comprises identifying at least one business impact in the business process that may be caused by the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the at least one business impact includes a performance impact on the business process.

4. A method according to claim 2 wherein the analyzing is followed by automatically identifying responsive action in the business process based on the at least one business impact.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein the responsive action includes communicating the business impact to a customer.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the at least one problem is a plurality of problems, the method further comprising prioritizing the resolution of the plurality of problems in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on the business impact.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the generating comprises generating a symptom that identifies a problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on an error log for the respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the analyzing is followed by automatically identifying corrective action in the application programs and/or IT infrastructure based on the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the analyzing comprises: determining correlations between the respective situations that are obtained; and identifying the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on sufficiently correlated ones of the respective situations.

10. A method according to claim 9 further comprising identifying the at least one business impact based on a performance impact of the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

11. A method according to claim 9 wherein the determining comprises time correlating and/or transaction correlating the respective situations that are obtained.

12. A computer program product for resolving problems in a business process, the business process including a plurality of application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components, the computer program product comprising: a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code that is configured to generate a symptom that identifies a problem in the business process; computer readable program code that is configured to identify selected application programs in the plurality of application programs and/or selected IT components in the IT infrastructure that may cause the problem in the business process, based on the symptom; computer readable program code that is configured to obtain a respective situation for a respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, the respective situation being one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with the respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, so as to provide status of the selected application programs and/or selected IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories; and computer readable program code that is configured to analyze the respective situations that are obtained to identify at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components that may cause the problem in the business process.

13. A computer program product according to claim 12 wherein the computer readable program code that is configured to analyze the respective situations further comprises computer readable program code that is configured to identify at least one business impact in the business process that may be caused by the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

14. A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising computer readable program code that is configured to automatically identify responsive action in the business process based on the at least one business impact.

15. A computer program product according to claim 12 wherein the at least one problem is a plurality of problems further comprising computer readable program code that is configured to prioritize the resolution of the plurality of problems in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on the business impact.

16. A system for resolving problems in a business process, the business process including a plurality of application programs that run on an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure having a plurality of IT components, the system comprising: a problem resolver configured to generate a symptom that identifies a problem in the business process, to identify selected application programs in the plurality of application programs and/or IT components in the IT infrastructure that may cause the problem in the business process, based on the symptom, to obtain a respective situation for a respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, the respective situation being one of a set of component-independent predefined situation categories that is associated with the respective selected application programs and/or selected IT components, so as to provide status of the selected application programs and/or selected IT components in a common situation format that includes the associated one of the component-independent predefined situation categories, and to analyze the respective situations that are obtained to identify at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components that may cause the problem in the business process.

17. A system according to claim 16 wherein problem resolver is further configured to analyze the respective situations to identify at least one business impact in the business process that may be caused by the at least one problem in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components.

18. A system according to claim 17 wherein the problem resolver is further configured to automatically identify responsive action in the business process based on the at least one business impact in the selected business component after analyzing the respective situations.

19. A system according to claim 16 wherein the at least one problem is a plurality of problems, and the problem resolver is further configured to prioritize the resolution of the plurality of problems in the selected application programs and/or selected IT components based on the business impact.