Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Bob Bethke

Srikanth Natarajan

A method of compiling causal rules into continuations for use in root cause analysis of a system comprising a plurality of inter-related elements, comprising defining observable events occurring on system elements; defining at least one of a cause and a result of each of the events; defining causal rules, each rule describing a causal relationship between an event and one of its cause and its result; and compiling the causal relationships as continuations in a continuation passing style (CPS) for use in analyzing the root cause of subsequent observed events symptomatic of at least one problem on the system.

Compilation of causal rules into continuations

An engine for performing root cause analysis on a system comprising a plurality of elements in a modeled domain, the engine comprising a module loader and parser for loading modules of computer code containing computer language statements modeling elements of the system, including one or more of model type definitions, conditions, causal rules, and continuations; and for parsing the computer language statements; a storage for storing the parsed computer language statements; a receiver for receiving conditions representing state changes of system elements, accessing the storage, and determining one or more parsed computer language statements to apply to the received conditions; a hypothesis generator for instantiating one or more hypotheses of potential causes of each received condition consistent with the received conditions and the parsed computer language statements; a blackboard for receiving the instantiated hypotheses, and determining a root cause of the received conditions based on the hypotheses consistent with the received conditions and the parsed computer language statements; and an output for outputting the determined root cause.

Engine for performing root cause and effect analysis

A method of performing root cause analysis for use in a system comprising a plurality of inter-related elements, wherein at least some of the elements experience one or more abnormal conditions, comprising defining one or more conditions for more than one element symptomatic of abnormal operation of the element; defining one or more causal relationships between the conditions and results on one or more related elements; compiling the conditions and causal relationships of each element for which conditions and relationships have been defined, as at least one continuation in a continuation passing style (CPS); receiving one or more observed events symptomatic of abnormal operation of at least one element of the system; processing the received events using the conditions and the continuations; concluding at least one root cause of the received events consistent with the received events; and outputting the root cause.

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Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

Bob Bethke