1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fault detection and resolution in software-based systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the complexity of software-based systems increases, so too does the difficulty of identifying the source of faults, referred to as “crashes” or other anomalous behavior, within such systems. Often, when a particular software application is used across an entire organization, the same fault within the software application may be experienced by more than one user. This can lead to a significant amount of wasted time as users cope with “crashing” software applications. The possibility of data loss or corruption also exists. Presently, however, there is no reliable way of correlating software faults across an organization or to diagnose and solve the problem.
One attempted solution has been to rely upon the computer operating system to collect system and/or application execution information within a user's computer system. Upon detecting a fault condition, collected information is sent to a specified location. A typical implementation of this technique is when an application unexpectedly quits; the user is asked whether he or she wishes to send information about the fault condition. The fault information is sent as an electronic message to the manufacturer of the operating system.
This technique, however, does have disadvantages. One disadvantage is that whether information about the software fault is actually sent depends upon the user's decision to follow through with sending the information. If the user chooses not to send the information, the fault goes unreported. If the problem is widespread within a large organization, and users continually choose not to report the fault, the problem may go unnoticed for a significant period of time. As noted, this can lead to wasted time as well as possible data loss.
Another disadvantage is that even if a user chooses to send the fault information, it is provided to the operating system manufacturer. Neither the organization that is experiencing the software fault nor the developer of the software application causing the fault may be privy to the fault information. Both parties are likely to remain unaware of the frequency of any recurring software problems. As such, the problem can go unnoticed by system administrators of the organization experiencing the fault resulting in loss of productivity.
It would be beneficial to provide a mechanism for diagnosing and solving fault conditions within software-based systems which overcomes the limitations described above.