Acquiring graphical operating system post-failure screen

A method, comprising:

• receiving a stream of uncompressed video data from a computer;
• compressing the video data into a compressed video data and making the compressed video data available to a downstream component configured to display the compressed video data;
• detecting a failure state in the computer by receiving an interrupt from the computer that will cause the computer to self-reboot;
• detecting a signal that indicates the self-reboot;
• performing a screen refresh after detecting the failure state at a time when a graphical post-failure screen will be available in the stream of video data and before the computer performs the self-reboot, the graphical post-failure screen comprising information about the failure state of the computer;
• storing the graphical post-failure screen in a memory configured to retain the graphical post-failure screen after the computer self-reboots;
• and
• providing a link to access the graphical post-failure screen stored in the memory to a remote viewer, the remote viewer being configured to access the computer.

A set of application programming interfaces embodied on a transitory computer readable medium for execution by a management processor in conjunction with acquiring a graphical post-failure screen provided by a graphical operating system running on a self-reset capable server, the graphical post-failure screen comprising information about the failure state of the computer, comprising:

• a first interface for arming the management processor to capture a post failure screen by:
• detecting an unrecoverable error that initiates an automatic self-reset, initiating a screen refresh a pre-defined period of time after entering the failure state, the pre-defined period of time being controlled, at least in part, by a watchdog timer associated with the computer;
• capturing the post-failure screen before the self-reset capable server performs the self-reset;
• and
• compressing a digital video stream containing the graphical post-failure screen into a compressed digital video data;
• a second interface for communicating that the post-failure screen has been captured;
• and
• a third interface for communicating the post-failure screen.

A computing device, comprising:

• a post-failure logic configured to:
• detect a failure in a related computer system that causes a self-reboot to be performed automatically,
• detect a signal that indicates the self-reboot will be performed within a pre-defined period of time, the pre-defined period of time being controlled, at least in part, by a watchdog timer associated with the computer, and
• identify and obtain a graphics mode post-failure screen from the related computer system before the self-reboot is performed, the graphical mode post-failure screen comprising information about the failure state of the computer, the related computer system and the computing device being logically distinct entities, the computing device being able to continue running during the self-reboot of the computer system;
• and
• a memory configured to selectively store the graphics mode post-failure screen.