JP3130870B2 - Memory dump file reconstruction method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a memory dump file reconstructing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is a diagram showing search information in a failure analysis processing method using a conventional memory dump.

When a failure occurs in a computer system, a memory dump at the time of the failure is effective information for investigating the cause. However, as the memory capacity of the computer system has increased, the memory dump capacity has also increased, and during the period until the cause of the failure is identified, a large area for storing the memory dump file and a medium for carrying the memory dump file are required. there were.

[0004] Conventionally, various techniques have been disclosed regarding a method of analyzing a failure using a memory dump taken when a failure occurs in a computer system. In the example of JP-A-3-271946 shown in FIG. 7, the memory dump search information is referred to by designating the program name or the path name in which the fault has occurred, and a fault analysis operation according to the search information stored therein is performed. This is a method of searching and outputting the information of the minimum necessary area used in. Thus, the efficiency of the analysis work is improved.

[0005]

However, in the case of the above-mentioned conventional example, if the name of the program or path that caused the failure is not known, an area necessary for the failure analysis cannot be searched. . Further, it is necessary to record information in a memory dump search information file in advance, but in a large-scale system, recording the information requires a lot of man-hours. Further, the memory dump search information file itself requires many areas, which is contrary to the purpose of area reduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a system for collecting and saving a memory dump in order to investigate the cause of a failure in a computer system. It is to provide a configuration scheme.

[0007] The features of the present invention are as follows. (1) At the time of dump collection In the memory dump file, information indicating the intended use and information indicating the position where the page exists in the memory dump file shall be provided for each page. (2) The management table is referred to at the time of analysis to search for usages unrelated to the cause of the failure, and unnecessary information is deleted from the memory dump file. (3) When collecting a memory dump, do not collect information that is determined to be unnecessary in advance.

[0008]

According to a first dump file reconstructing method of the present invention, a dump collecting device for collecting a memory dump when a failure occurs, an input device such as a keyboard, and a memory dump file reconstructing device under program control. In a memory dump file reconstructing method including a reconstructing device for performing configuration and an external storage device such as a magnetic disk, the dump collecting device includes a table creating unit and a dump file creating unit. A search unit, a page deletion unit, and a table update unit, wherein the external storage device stores a memory dump including a page table and dump data created by the dump collection device and the reconfiguration device ;

[0009] The table search means may determine the cause of the failure.
Page tables that are irrelevant and are no longer needed
Page deletion means, and the table deletion means
Deleted pages from memory dump file
Then, the table updating means determines that the page is
In the page table item corresponding to, describe that it was deleted
And updating the page position.

The second dump file reconstructing method of the present invention is different from the first dump file reconstructing method in that the dump collecting apparatus removes unnecessary pages for the memory dump before the table creating means. An unnecessary page determination unit that determines in advance that the page is unnecessary so that the page is not collected is provided.

Next, the outline of the operation of the invention described above will be described.

The dump collecting device collects a memory dump in an external storage device when a failure occurs. At this time, the table creation means uses a memory allocation unit (hereinafter referred to as a page).
For each time, a page table is created that holds information indicating the usage of the memory when a failure occurs and information indicating the location of the page in the memory dump file. The dump file creating means creates a memory dump including the page table and the contents of the memory, and stores the created memory dump in the external storage device.

In the course of analyzing the memory dump, if there is a page that can be clearly judged to be unrelated to the cause of the failure, the reconstructing apparatus searches the page table for unnecessary pages using the table searching means. The page deletion means deletes the page from the memory dump file. At the same time, the page updating means determines that the page is unnecessary and deletes it in the page table item corresponding to the deleted page, and updates the subsequent page position information. Until the analysis of the memory dump is completed, if there is a page that can be determined to be unnecessary, the process of deleting the page and updating the table is repeated.

Thus, it is possible to reduce the area required for storing the memory dump during the period of investigating the cause of the failure by analyzing the memory dump.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a memory dump file reconstructing method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the present embodiment, and FIG. It is a figure showing the example of the unnecessary page deletion operation of an example.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present embodiment comprises a dump collecting apparatus 1 for collecting a memory dump when a failure occurs,
It includes an input device 2 such as a keyboard, a reconstructing device 3 for reconstructing a memory dump file under program control, and an external storage device 4 such as a magnetic disk.

The dump collection device 1 includes a table creation unit 1
1 and a dump file creating means 12.

The table creating means 11 creates a page table for holding information indicating a use purpose and a page position for each page. The dump file creating means 12 creates a memory dump file including the contents of the memory at the time of the failure and the page table.

The reconstruction device 3 includes a table search means 31
, A page deleting unit 32 and a table updating unit 33.

The table search means 31 searches the page table for pages which are irrelevant to the cause of the failure and which have become unnecessary. The page deletion unit 32 is a table search unit 31
Deletes the page detected by from the memory dump file. The table update means 33 updates the page position by describing the deletion in an item of the page table corresponding to the page determined to be unnecessary and deleted.

The external storage device 4 stores the memory dump created by the dump collection device 1 and the reconstruction device 3.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

First, in the computer system, when a failure occurs for some reason and a memory dump is collected, the dump collecting apparatus 1 creates a page table in the table creating means 11. The page table holds, for each page, information indicating the usage of the memory when a failure occurs and information indicating the position where the page exists in the memory dump file. The dump file creating means 12 creates a memory dump including the contents of the memory at the time of the failure and the page table, and stores the created memory dump in the external storage device 4 (steps A1 to A3 in FIG. 2).

Next, the collected memory dump is analyzed.
The memory dump file contains a lot of information completely unrelated to the failure. In the course of analyzing the memory dump, if information that can be determined to be apparently unrelated to the cause of the failure is present in the memory dump file, the use purpose determined to be unrelated by the input device 2 is listed in the table. This is given to the search means 31 (steps A4 and A5). The table search means 31 searches the page table for the given usage (step A6). If it matches the given usage, the page deletion means 32
Determines an unnecessary page from the page position of the page table and deletes the page from the memory dump file (steps A7 and A8). Table updating means 33
Describes that the page has been deleted for use corresponding to the deleted page, and updates the subsequent page positions (step A
9). As long as there are pages that can be determined to be unnecessary, this process is repeated to reduce the size of the memory dump file.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the operation of this embodiment will be described using a specific example. It is assumed that while the analysis of the memory dump is proceeding, it is determined that the information of the use purpose 0a is not related to the occurrence of the failure (step A4).
The use purpose 0a is given from the input device 2 to the table search means 31 (step A5). The table search means 31 searches the page table for the use application 0a (step A).
6). When the use purpose 0a is detected, the page deletion unit 3
No. 2 determines from the page position of the page table where an unnecessary page exists in the memory dump file, and deletes pages 2 and 5 from the memory dump file (steps A7 and A8). The table updating means 33 describes ff indicating that the page table is used for the page tables corresponding to the pages 2 and 5 which are determined to be unnecessary and deleted, and the page positions of the subsequent page tables are included in the deleted file in the file. Is updated because the existing position is shifted (step A9).

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the second embodiment, and FIG.
Is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of the unnecessary page deletion operation of the second embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, the dump collecting apparatus 5 has an unnecessary page discriminating means 51 in addition to the configuration of the dump collecting apparatus 1 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. Different in that.

The unnecessary page discriminating means 51 excludes a page which can be clearly judged to be unrelated to the cause of the failure from the situation at the time of occurrence of the failure, from the memory dump collection.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The operations of the table retrieving means 31, page deleting means 32 and table updating means 33 in this embodiment shown in steps A4 to A9 in FIG. 5 are the same as those in the first embodiment shown in FIG. Means 31, 32 and 3
Since the operation is the same as the operation of No. 3, the description is omitted. In the first embodiment, the dump collecting apparatus 1 unconditionally collects all information on the memory as a memory dump. However, there is a page that can be determined to be unnecessary when collecting a memory dump from the situation at the time of the failure. In the present embodiment, pages that can be determined to be unnecessary when the unnecessary page determination unit 51 collects a memory dump are not collected in the memory dump file (step B1 in FIG. 5). At this time, the use of the page table corresponding to the page determined to be unnecessary is described as not being collected, an unnecessary page is not collected, and a memory dump is created and stored in the external storage device 4 ( Steps B2 and B
3).

Next, the operation of deleting unnecessary pages according to this embodiment will be described using a specific example.

As shown in FIG. 6, 00 is described in the usage of the page table corresponding to a page which can be determined to be unnecessary when a memory dump is collected.
Unnecessary pages 2 and 5 are not collected for the memory dump (steps B1 to B3). When the memory dump is collected, the area required for storage has already been reduced. Next, in the course of analyzing the memory dump, if it is determined that the information of the use purpose 0a is not related to the occurrence of the failure, the same operation as the embodiment shown in FIG. A4 to A9). The present embodiment has a new effect that the necessary area can be reduced at the time of collecting the memory dump where the area for storing the memory dump is most necessary.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information irrelevant to the cause of the failure is deleted from the memory dump file by limiting the dump collecting device, the reconstructing device and the respective means in the external storage device. Therefore, there is an effect that it is possible to provide a memory dump file reconstructing method capable of reducing an area necessary for storing the memory dump during a period of investigating a cause of failure by analyzing the memory dump.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a memory dump file reconfiguration method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of an unnecessary page deleting operation according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of an unnecessary page deleting operation according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing search information in a conventional failure analysis processing method using a memory dump.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,5 Dump collection device 2 Input device 3 Reconstruction device 4 External storage device 11,52 Table creation means 12,53 Dump file creation means 31 Table search means 32 Page deletion means 33 Page update means 41 Page table 42 Dump data 51 No need Page discriminating means 60 Memory dump search information 61 Path name 62 Number of areas (N) 63 Area name 64 Area type 65 Start address 66 Area size 67 Pointer repetition number offset 68 Pointer repetition number size 69 Pointer offset 70 Pointer size 71 Pointer end condition 72 Comments 73 Memory dump 74, 75, 76 area

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-105050 (JP, A) JP-A-4-273345 (JP, A) JP-A-4-337849 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 11/34

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An input device such as a keyboard, a reconstructing device for reconstructing a memory dump file under program control, and an external storage device such as a magnetic disk. In the memory dump file reconstructing method including the above, the dump collecting device includes a table creating unit and a dump file creating unit, and the reconstructing device includes a table searching unit, a page deleting unit, and a table updating unit. , the said external storage device, the created by dump device and the reconstruction device stores a memory dump containing page table and dump data, the table search unit is independent of the cause of failure
The page which has become unnecessary is searched from the page table, and the page deletion means is detected by the table search means.
Deleted from the memory dump file, and the table updating unit determines that the page is unnecessary and deletes the deleted page.
In the page table item corresponding to, describe that it was deleted
A memory dump file reconstructing method for updating a page position . 2. A device for collecting a memory dump when a failure occurs, an input device such as a keyboard, a reconstructing device for reconstructing a memory dump file under program control, and an external storage device such as a magnetic disk. In the memory dump file reconstruction method including, the dump collection device includes an unnecessary page determination unit, a table creation unit, and a dump file creation unit, wherein the reconstruction unit has a table search unit, a page deletion unit, and a table updating means, the external storage device, the created by dump device and the reconstruction device stores a memory dump containing page table and dump data, said table lookup means, the failure cause Irrelevant
The page which has become unnecessary is searched from the page table, and the page deletion means is detected by the table search means.
Deleted from the memory dump file, and the table updating unit determines that the page is unnecessary and deletes the deleted page.
In the page table item corresponding to, describe that it was deleted
A memory dump file reconstructing method for updating a page position .