Error Log Consolidation for Isolated Server Partitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
In server computers with multiple isolated partitions, gathering comprehensive error information to identify the root cause of faults is challenging due to inter-partition isolation, which prevents direct communication of error logs, making it difficult to analyze and diagnose faults effectively.
Innovation Solution
A server error logging system that consolidates error logs from disparate sources, including system processors, management processors, and administration processors, into a centralized location, parsing relevant information to exclude redundancies and provide a comprehensive consolidated error log for fault analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If error logs are maintained separately in isolated partitions, then partition security and isolation are maintained, but comprehensive fault analysis becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a log consolidation service that acts as an intermediary between isolated partition logs and the external world. This service collects logs from multiple partitions, consolidates them into a unified log store, and provides centralized access without breaking partition isolation boundaries. The intermediary enables comprehensive fault analysis while maintaining security boundaries.
2Loss of information
If multiple separate error logs are maintained across partitions, then comprehensive error coverage is achieved, but log analysis complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate error logs from different partitions into a single consolidated log store. By combining previously scattered log data into one unified structure, the system maintains comprehensive error coverage while significantly reducing analysis complexity. Users can now analyze all error information in one place rather than navigating multiple isolated log sources.
3Reliability
If hardware faults prevent direct logging, then system resilience is maintained, but fault detection capability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary logging actions where the log consolidation service continuously collects and stores error logs from all partitions before hardware faults occur. By pre-establishing this consolidated log infrastructure, the system ensures that even when hardware faults prevent direct logging at the source, the fault information has already been captured and stored in the consolidated log store, enabling subsequent detection and analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for error log consolidation is disclosed herein. A server computer includes a plurality of system processors and error log consolidation logic. The system processors are configurable to form isolated execution partitions. The error log consolidation logic is configured to, based on detection of a fault in the server, retrieve error logs from the system processors, and to consolidate the retrieved logs with server computer information not available to the system processors to generate a consolidated error log. The consolidated error log includes a comprehensive set of server information relevant to identifying a cause of the detected fault.