Identifying the cause of detected errors

The author presents an approach to the consistent diagnosis of error monitoring observations in a distributed fault-tolerant computing system, even when the faulty source produces arbitrary errors. He describes the online algorithm used in the multicomputer architecture for fault tolerance (MAFT) to diagnose faulty system elements. By the use of syndrome information which categorizes detected errors as either symmetric or asymmetric, bounds for correct diagnosis can be deduced. Finally, an interactive consistency algorithm is employed to guarantee consistent diagnosis in a distributed environment and to provide online verification of all diagnostic units.<>