Patent ID: 7136918

Claim:
A computer monitoring system comprising: a manager computer; and a plurality of agent computers coupled to the manager computer over a network, wherein said manager computer, in response to an abnormal state occurring on one of said plurality of agents computers: presumes a first cause of said abnormal state; requests said plurality of agent computers to collect logs to prove said presumed first cause; receives said collected log from each of said plurality of agent computers; compares said collected logs with each other; presumes a second cause which caused the first cause; and requests said plurality of agent computers to collect logs to prove said presumed second cause; and wherein each of said plurality of agent computers: collects a log to prove said presumed first cause in response to a request from said manager computer; sends said collected log to said manager computer, and collects a log to prove said presumed second cause in response to a request from said manager computer.