1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to return code management in autonomic systems and more particularly to managing execution of operations in data processing systems on the basis of return code tracking.
2. Description of the Related Art
The creation of increasingly powerful computer (or computing) systems and a continuously improved information technology (IT) infrastructure contribute to a progressive automation of key tasks and processes in today's businesses. Such complex computing systems require a quick and reliable adaptation to frequent changes in the digital environment set up by the IT infrastructure in order to guarantee their failure-free operation. Consequently, today's businesses have a particular need for reliable management and maintenance methods for complex computing systems.
One form of information that reflects the operation of data processing systems is return codes. A return code gives information on the execution of an operation and indicates whether the execution was successful or whether a problem occurred. Different types of return codes may be provided, e.g., notification return codes, warning return codes, and critical return codes. While the notification and warning return codes may be more informational and instructional, the critical return codes generally indicate errors which occur during execution and affect performance or cause failure of the data processing system.
Conventionally, post-processing tools merely format the return code, e.g., in the form of a summary; no automatic action is taken on the return code. Any action taken is explicitly initiated by a human operator. Whether the operator takes action will depend upon an analysis, by the operator, of the relative importance of the return code since simply using the knowledge of the meaning of the received return code is frequently not sufficient. More specifically, while in several cases warning return codes may continuously be ignored, in other cases an appropriate action needs to be taken immediately. For instance, in a programming environment warnings may be reported with respect to a program on problems that can be ignored by a corresponding compiler without changing the semantics of the program. The existence of a warning does not affect the execution of the program. In other words, the program code executes as if it were written correctly (for example, detecting unreachable code does not prevent running it). In contrast, warnings indicating a possible lack of system resources which may affect a subsequent execution of the specific operation can generally not be ignored and require performance of an appropriate action to avoid the lack of system resources.
However, because of the increasing complexity of inter-networked computing systems, the IT infrastructure is becoming too large and complex for the world's technicians to manage. Even the sheer number of computer devices inter-networked in large complex computing systems rises continuously. Thus, the ever-increasing demands placed on IT infrastructure threaten to undermine the very benefits information technology aims to provide.
Therefore, there is a need for an effective return code management in an autonomic data processing system.