Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Detail Action
This office action is in response to the application filed on 12/22/2023.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected because claim 9 recites the limitation "the system statistics" in “wherein the system statistics comprise performance and activity data for applications executed by the networked nodes”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claim 10 depends on claim 9 and inherits the limitation and deficiency of claim 9. Claim 10 recites the limitation of “the logs”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by K et al. (US 2023/0140208 Al)
Per claim 1,
K discloses
A method of debugging problems in a cluster system operated by a user and having a plurality of nodes executing containerized applications, comprising:
providing a centralized set of debugging tools in a service pod of a node of the cluster system, wherein the service pod contains one or more containers for applications executed by the cluster system, and wherein each debugging tool of the set is associated with a respective application; ([0014], discloses Pod 104…the support user 106 that allow debug access to application code 102 of application 112 [0025] In some embodiments, debugging system 102 may set up or generate two computing containers 124A, 124B, as part of pod 104, through which support user 106 may be provided access to the requested functionality. Container 124A may include or provide access to an app instance 126 which may be an executable instance of application 112 corresponding to the proper version as provided in ticket 108 and/or request 122. Container 124B may include or provide
access to a debugger 128 and application code 120 corresponding
to the proper version of app instance 126.)
and executing, by a vendor providing support for the cluster network, a corresponding debugging tool of the set of debugging tools to address a problem encountered by a node executing an application. ([0028], see support user of application provider)
([0029]-[0031] the debugger is aware of the support user 106 and tenant or customer/client for which the debugger is set up, these details may be cross checked. The support user may then see the breakpoint hit in the user interface only if the breakpoint is hit for that particular user and tenant. [0031], he links 126A, 126B may require or retrieve authentication information from the support user device 116 from which the links 126A, 126B is selected. Also see Fig. 4, [0048]-[0057] discloses debugging infrastructure service via providing dedicated debug environment unique to tenant and K8S container running node JS App in a cloud)
Per claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated.
K discloses
wherein each node of the cluster executes the applications from respective pods in a corresponding cluster, and wherein debugging the problem from the service pod impacts a debugged application on the service node and the respective pods. ([0027-0028], discloses place a breakpoint in the app code, where breakpoint impacts the debugged application via start and stop…skipping program flow)
Per claim 3, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated.
K discloses
wherein each node of the cluster has installed or accesses the debugging tools. ([0025], container 124B may include or provide access to a debugger)
Per claim 4, the rejection of claim 3 is incorporated.
K discloses
triggering the debugging tools on other applications on the service node and the respective pods. ([0036], see new pods for different support users appears to disclose other application used other support users.)
Per claim 5, the rejection of claim 4 is incorporated.
K discloses
executing first tools from the service pod to pause, stop, or restart the other services; ([0014], discloses entering breakpoint corresponding to pause/stop.) and executing second tools from the service pod to adjust configuration parameters for the other services. ([0048], discloses setting access role “Debug” corresponding to a configuration parameter for the other services. [0055], see attaching business application to debugger.)
Per claim 6, the rejection of claim 4 is incorporated.
K discloses
wherein the debugging tools comprise at least one of a dump utility, a connection checker, and a log search utility, the method further comprising providing a graphical user interface allowing service personnel to view log information, status information, or statistics from the other applications. ([0024], see browser based user interface, [0014], create logs for the application;[0027], discloses breakpoint…evaluate variables corresponding to status information and audit log.)
Per claim 19, see rejection of claim 1.
Per claim 20, see rejection of claim 2.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 11-12, 15-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over K et al. (US 2023/0140208 Al) in view of Chen et al. (WO 2022/165168) and further in view of Lin et al. (CN 110781065 A)
Per claim 11,
K discloses
and providing a centralized set of debugging tools in a service pod of the cluster system, wherein each debugging tool of the set is associated with a respective containerized application for use by the vendor to debug program code causing the error condition. ([0014], discloses Pod 104…the support user 106 that allow debug access to application code 102 of application 112; [0016], see reporting a bug or error, [0025] In some embodiments, debugging system 102 may
set up or generate two computing containers 124A, 124B, as part of pod 104, through which support user 106 may be provided access to the requested functionality. Container
124A may include or provide access to an app instance 126 which may be an executable instance of application 112 corresponding to the proper version as provided in ticket 108
and/or request 122. Container 124B may include or provide access to a debugger 128 and application code 120 corresponding to the proper version of app instance 126.)
K does not, however, Chen discloses
collecting data for each node to form collected data that is combined together in a single support bundle for transmission to the vendor; ([0189]-[0190], discloses log data from three systems…vendor can obtain insight)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Chen into the teachings of K to include the limitation disclosed by Chen. The modification would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to want to obtain collected data from different sources so as to gain system insight to identify problem.
K/Chen does not, however, Lin discloses
monitoring system operation to detect occurrence of an error condition for an application, and that triggers a request from the vendor to obtain the support bundle from the user;(pp. 4, discloses determining if there is a fault/ and obtaining information associated with failure node)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Lin into the teachings of K/Chen to include the limitation disclosed by Lin. The modification would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to want to rapidly respond to fault/error to solve problem as suggested by Lin (pp. 4)
Per claim 12, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated.
K/Chen/Lin discloses
wherein the collected data comprises system statistics, system information, and logs for each node, and further wherein the system statistics comprise performance and activity data for applications executed by the networked nodes, (Chen, [0028], discloses application performance data)
including read/write latencies, read/write throughputs, replication throughput, and garbage collection performance, (…[0209], see performance metrics…throughput…read/write…) and yet further wherein
the system information comprises total storage capacity, currently utilized storage capacity, and remaining storage capacity, and further wherein [0220], discloses memory size, available disk memory
the logs comprise information related to at least one of:
component availability state changes, component failures and errors, configuration changes, changes to source code in production, or configuration changes in a production system. (Chen, , network performance data… error logs…[0220], discloses memory size, available disk memory)
Per claim 15, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated.
K/Chen/Lin discloses
wherein each node of the cluster executes the applications from respective pods in a corresponding cluster, and wherein debugging the problem from the service pod impacts a debugged application on the service node and the respective pods. (K, [0027-0028], discloses place a breakpoint in the app code, where breakpoint impacts the debugged application via start and stop…skipping program flow)
Per claim 16, the rejection of claim 15 is incorporated.
K/Chen/Lin discloses
wherein each node of the cluster has installed or accesses the debugging tools. (K, [0025], container 124B may include or provide access to a debugger)
Per claim 17, the rejection of claim 16 is incorporated.
K/Chen/Lin discloses
triggering the debugging tools on other applications on the service node and the respective pods. (K, [0036], see new pods for different support users appears to disclose other application used other support users.)
Per claim 18, the rejection of claim 17 is incorporated.
K/Chen/Lin discloses
executing first tools from the service pod to pause, stop, or restart the other services; (K, [0014], discloses entering breakpoint corresponding to pause/stop.) and executing second tools from the service pod to adjust configuration parameters for the other services. ([0048], discloses setting access role “Debug” corresponding to a configuration parameter for the other services. [0055], see attaching business application to debugger.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-10 and 13-14 (when correcting the 112 issue associated with claims 9 and 10) are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims and further overcome issues identified in this office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
It is noted that any citation [[s]] to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. [[See, MPEP 2123]]
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Philip Wang whose telephone number is 571-272-5934. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday 8:00AM -4:00PM. Any inquiry of general nature or relating to the status of this application should be directed to the TC2100 Group receptionist: 571-272-2100.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lewis Bullock, can be reached at 571-272-3759. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHILIP WANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2199