Patent ID: 8291063

Claim:
A processing system comprising: control circuitry operable to control the processing system; a remote management module including dedicated circuitry configured to allow a remote processing system to manage the processing system via a network; a physical agent to operate as an intermediary between the remote management module and the control circuitry, wherein the agent is operable to monitor the processing system to detect a plurality of events in the processing system, the agent includes a buffer and is operable to create an event record in the buffer for each detected event, and the agent is operable to detect a prespecified critical event and to respond to the prespecified critical event by asserting an immediate interrupt to the remote management module; and a link coupling the agent to the remote management module, wherein the agent and the remote management module are configured to cooperatively implement an abstraction layer, at least in part by using a command packet protocol to communicate event record data over the link, through which the agent and the remote management module communicate, and the remote management module is operable to receive event record data from the buffer through the abstraction layer in response to an event record being stored in the buffer.