Windows Hardware Error Architecture
Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is an operating system hardware error handling mechanism introduced with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 as a successor to Machine Check Architecture (MCA) on previous versions of Windows.[1] The architecture consists of several software components that interact with the hardware and firmware of a given platform to handle and notify regarding hardware error conditions.[2] Collectively, these components provide: a generic means of discovering errors, a common error report format for those errors, a way of preserving error records, and an error event model based up on Event Tracing for Windows (ETW).[3]
WHEA "builds on the PCI Express Advanced Reporting to provide more detailed information about system errors and a common reporting structure."[4]
WHEA allows third-party software to interact with the operating system and react to certain hardware events. For example, when a new CPU is added to a running system—a Windows Server feature known as Dynamic Hardware Partitioning—the hardware error component stack is notified when a new processor is installed.[5]
Linux supports the ACPI Platform Error Interface (APEI) which is introduced in ACPI 5.0.[6]
References
- "Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) design guide". Microsoft Docs.
- "Components of the Windows Hardware Error Architecture". Microsoft Docs.
- "Introduction to the Windows Hardware Error Architecture". Microsoft Docs.
- Sosinsky, Barrie (2008). Microsoft Windows Server 2008: Implementation and Administration. John Wiley & Sons. p. 11. ISBN 978-0470174593.
- Mark E. Russinovich; David A. Solomon; Alex Ionescu (2009). Windows® Internals (Fifth ed.). p. 441. ISBN 978-0735625303.
- "APEI Error INJection — The Linux Kernel documentation". www.kernel.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.