Patent ID: 8700669

Claim:
A computer implemented method for obtaining information about a data storage system comprising: booting the data storage system by executing boot code; determining, by said executing boot code, whether a flag has a first setting indicating that the data storage system is enabled for automated information gathering about said data storage system whereby, to facilitate the automated information gathering when the data storage system is enabled, the data storage system subsequently retrieves work items, performs processing for retrieved work items to gather information about the data storage system, and transmits gathered information about the data storage system, wherein the automated information gathering obtains data about the data storage system including problem information indicating hardware and/or software errors that have occurred on the data storage system over a time period; in response to determining that said flag has said first setting, performing processing for the automated information gathering, said processing for the automated information gathering comprising: executing an agent on the data storage system, wherein execution of the agent is not otherwise commenced in response to determining that said flag does not have said first setting, said agent being configured to communicate with a central location at predetermined time intervals; at a first predetermined time interval, sending a first message from said agent to the central location polling for a pending work item; determining whether there are any pending work items for the data storage system; and in response to determining that there are work items pending for the data storage system, performing first processing, said first processing including: sending, by said central location to the data storage system in response to the first message, a second message indicating whether there are any pending work items for the data storage system, said second message including at least one work item if there are any pending work items for the data storage system, said at least one work item describing second processing to obtain first information including said problem information about a state of the data storage system; performing, by the data storage system, said second processing; and sending, to the central location, work item results including said first information produced by performing said second processing.