Publications Repository - Gdańsk University of Technology

Monitoring and repair are two sides of the on-the-fly maintenance of IT systems.Monitoring is well supported by automatic tools. In contrast, repairs involve much higherhuman intervention which negatively affects reliability and efficiency. The paper intro-duces a method of automating repairs of IT systems which can be integrated with any ofthe existing monitoring mechanisms. The method is described as a collection of modelsand algorithms. The monitored system is modelled as a multi-hierarchy of components,and predicates are used to detect problems and to trigger the corresponding repairs. Repairprocedures are represented using flow diagrams. Graphical notations are used to specify thearchitecture of the runnable component of the proposed method and the correspondingrepair API. Formal notation (the Z language) is used to provide for precision and unam-biguity of the specifications. The formal specification facilitates reuse of the method indifferent target environments. For validation purposes, the method has been instantiated(using the PERL language) in an industrial helpdesk supporting the operation of severalhundred IT systems. The validation data demonstrate the significant positive impact of theproposed method on the efficiency of the performed repairs.

Authors

• prof. dr hab. inż. Janusz Górski link open in new tab ,
• Marek Kamiński