Bus management card for use in a system for bus monitoring

A bus monitoring apparatus for tracking operation of a bus in a host system comprising:

• at least one of a local clock and a local reset which are separate and independent from the host system;
• a bus monitor having operations controlled by at least one of said local clock and said local reset, for tracking events on the bus;
• a local reset and clock generator which generates said local reset and said local clock that is separate and independent from a bus clock of the host system;
• a power supply source which provides said power supply;
• a memory which stores configuration information and an operating system that is separate and independent from the host system;
• a processor which processes said configuration information and said operating system from the memory for operation;
• and
• a network controller which provides an interface to a computer network for communications with a remote system over said computer network.

A bus monitoring apparatus for tracking operation of a bus in a host system comprising:

• at least one of a local clock and a local reset which are separate and independent from the host system;
• and
• a bus monitor having operations controlled by at least one of said local clock and said local reset, for tracking events on the bus and reporting occurrence of said events including error and fault conditions, wherein said bus monitor comprises:
• a reset snoop which snoops the bus for a bus reset;
• a clock snoop which snoops the bus for a bus clock changing frequency;
• a cycle timer which begins when a bus cycle starts, resets when said bus cycle ends, and triggers an alarm indicating a hung cycle when the bus cycle has not ended after a predetermined time period;
• a cycle snoop which snoops the bus for any illegal handshake and any hung cycle triggered from the cycle timer;
• and
• an error capture which captures all error and failure conditions snooped from the reset snoop, the clock snoop, and the cycle snoop, and reports such error and failure conditions occurred on the bus for remote system management over a computer network.

A card for tracking a bus in a host system for correct operation, comprising:

• a clock generator which generates a local clock that is separate and independent from a bus clock of the host system;
• a power supply which provides optional power backup;
• a memory which stores configuration information and an operating system that is separate and independent from the host system;
• a processor which processes said configuration information and said operating system from said memory for operation;
• a network controller which provides an interface to a computer network for communications with a remote system over said computer network;
• and
• a bus controller which is operatively connected to said clock generator, said power supply, said processor, and said network controller, and which tracks error and fault conditions on the bus and reports such error and fault conditions to said processor for remote system management over said computer network.

A card for tracking operation of a bus in a host system, comprising:

• an operating system, a power supply, and a local clock which are separate and independent from the host system;
• and
• a bus controller operatively connected to said operating system, said power supply, and said local clock, for tracking error and fault conditions which may occur on the bus, and for reporting such error and fault conditions occurred on the bus for system management, said bus controller comprising:
• a reset snoop which snoops the bus for a bus reset;
• a clock snoop which snoops the bus for a bus clock changing frequency;
• a cycle timer which begins when a bus cycle starts, resets when said bus cycle ends, and triggers an alarm indicating a hung cycle when the bus cycle has not ended after a predetermined time period;
• a cycle snoop which snoops the bus for any illegal handshake and any hung cycle triggered from the cycle timer;
• and
• an error capture which captures all error and failure conditions snooped from the reset snoop, the clock snoop, and the cycle snoop, and reports such error and failure conditions for system management.