Methods and Arrangements to Collect Data

A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

• receive an identification of the event at a data identifier;
• retrieve, by the data identifier, from a file, an identification of the data to collect and an associated sequence by which to collect the data based upon an association between the identification and the event, to relate the event to the data to collect in response to the event, the file comprising more than one identifications, each identification being associated with a different event, wherein at least two of the identifications of data to collect associated with at least two different corresponding events are different from each other such that different data is collected depending upon which of the at least two events occurs;
• and
• collect, by a data collector, the data to collect based upon the identification, to store the data to collect in an output file in accordance with the associated sequence, wherein the sequence specifies priorities associated with the collection of different types of data or data at different addresses in the data to collect.

A method to gather data from a system in response to an event of the system, the method comprising:

• accessing, by a data collector via a data identifier, a file to relate the event to data to collect in response to the event, the file comprising more than one data identifications, each identification being associated with a different event;
• retrieving, by the data collector via the data identifier, from the file, an identification of the data to collect and an associated sequence by which to collect the data based upon an association between the identification and the event, wherein the identification comprises at least one memory location related to the event;
• and
• collecting, by the data collector, based upon the identification, the data to collect related to the event from the at least one memory location in accordance with the sequence associated with the retrieved identification of the data to collect, wherein the data identifier comprises a rule module, a binary file, an event identifier, a trigger list, and an output file, and wherein:
• the event identifier compares events against the trigger list to determine whether the event should trigger collection of the data to collect;
• in response to the event identifier determining that the event should trigger collection of data to collect, the rule module accesses the binary file to determine whether code or information in the binary file is associated with the event;
• in response to the code or information in the binary file being associated with the event, the rule module communicates the code or information in the binary file to the data collector to thereby instruct the data collector to collect the data to collect;
• and
• the output file comprises a data structure to contain the data collected in response to the event.