Administrative user communication and error recovery

• US 10,437,663 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2017
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Symington, Dylan, Stern, Ricardo S., Davenport, Duncan L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Guyton, Philip
• Application Number:
  US15/487,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20180300198A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

A computing system in a server environment receives a diagnostic data package, corresponding to a problem, from a client computing system and runs a problem-specific analyzer to generate additional problem-specific data. A root cause for the problem is identified along with a recovery action, based on the diagnostic data package and the additional problem-specific data. The recovery action indicates whether it can be performed by an end user or an administrative user. Communication with the end user and administrative user is controlled based on the recovery action.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the at least processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, provide;

a communication system configured to receive a diagnostic data package from a client computing system, the diagnostic data package including;

a problem scenario identifier that identifies a problem scenario indicative of a problem associated with the client computing system, and

first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system;

a state-based diagnostic system configured to;

select, from a plurality of problem-specific diagnostic analyzers based on the problem scenario identifier, a problem-specific diagnostic analyzer that is specific to the problem associated with the client computing system; and

run the selected problem-specific diagnostic analyzer to obtain second problem-specific diagnostic data from a server environment in which the computing system is deployed, the second problem-specific diagnostic data being specific to the problem associated with the client computing system;

data analysis logic configured to;

obtain aggregated diagnostic data that includes the first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system and the second problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the server environment;

identify an estimated root cause for the problem scenario based on the aggregated diagnostic data; and

identify a suggested recovery action, based on the estimated root cause; and

recovery actor identification logic configured to;

identify an actor to perform the recovery action, and

wherein the communication system is configured to communicate the suggested recovery action to an actor computing system corresponding to the identified actor.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the data analysis logic comprises:

root cause identifier logic configured to access a set of root cause-to-recovery action mappings to identify the suggested recovery action based on the estimated root cause.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the root cause-to-recovery action mappings map a root cause to a corresponding recovery action and include an actor identifier identifying an actor to perform the corresponding recovery action.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the recovery actor identification logic is configured to access the actor identifier on a matching root cause-to-recovery action mapping that matches the estimated root cause to identify the actor to perform the recovery action.

5. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the identified actor comprises an administrative user with a corresponding administrative computing system, the communication system communicating the estimated root cause and suggested recovery action to the administrative computing system.

6. The computing system of claim 5 wherein the instructions, when executed, provide:

service functionality logic configured to host a service accessed by the client computing system.

7. The computing system of claim 6 wherein the administrative user performs administrative tasks within the service functionality logic in the computing system for a tenant having a plurality of users, and wherein the instructions, when executed, provide:

administrative management portal logic configured to expose an interface for access by the administrative user, through the administrative computing system, to obtain trending information indicative of issues encountered by the plurality of users over time.

8. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the administrative management portal logic comprises:

report configuration logic that exposes a report configuration interface for configuring parameters for the communication component to communicate the estimated root cause and suggested recovery action to the administrative computing system.

9. The computing system of claim 8 wherein the report configuration logic is configured to expose a roll-up interface that is actuatable to configure the communication component to send a single message indicating that multiple users have encountered a same issue.

10. The computing system of claim 8 wherein the report configuration logic is configured to expose a roll-up interface that is actuatable to configure the communication component to send a single message indicating that a same set of users has encountered one or more issues.

11. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the administrative management portal logic comprises:

feedback logic that exposes an interface with a feedback actuator that is actuatable to indicate whether the recommended recovery action addressed the estimated root cause.

12. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a diagnostic data package from a client computing system, the diagnostic data package including;

a problem scenario identifier that identifies a problem scenario indicative of a problem associated with the client computing system, and

first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system;

selecting, from a plurality of problem-specific diagnostic analyzers based on the problem scenario identifier, a problem-specific diagnostic analyzer that is specific to the problem associated with the client computing system;

running the selected problem-specific diagnostic analyzer to obtain second problem-specific diagnostic data from a remote server environment in which the computing system is deployed;

obtaining aggregated diagnostic data that includes the first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system and the second problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the server environment;

identifying an estimated root cause for the problem scenario based on the aggregated diagnostic data;

identifying a suggested recovery action, based on the estimated root cause;

identifying an actor to perform the recovery action; and

communicating the suggested recovery action to an actor computing system corresponding to the identified actor.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein identifying an estimated root cause comprises:

accessing a set of root cause-to-recovery action mappings to identify the suggested recovery action based on the estimated root cause.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13 wherein the root cause-to-recovery action mappings map a root cause to a corresponding recovery action and include an actor identifier identifying an actor to perform the corresponding recovery action and wherein identifying an actor comprises:

accessing the actor identifier on a matching root cause-to-recovery action mapping that matches the estimated root cause to identify the actor to perform the recovery action.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 13 wherein the identified actor comprises an administrative user with a corresponding administrative computing system, wherein communicating the suggested recovery action to an actor computing system comprises:

communicating the estimated root cause and suggested recovery action to the administrative computing system.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15 wherein the administrative user performs administrative tasks within service functionality logic in a computing system for a tenant having a plurality of users, and further comprising:

exposing an interface for access by the administrative user, through the administrative computing system, to obtain trending information indicative of issues encountered by the plurality of users over time.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 16 wherein exposing the interface comprises:

exposing a report configuration interface for configuring parameters for communicating the estimated root cause and suggested recovery action to the administrative computing system.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 16 wherein exposing the interface comprises:

exposing an interface with a feedback actuator that is actuatable to indicate whether the recommended recovery action addressed the estimated root cause.

19. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the at least processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computing system to;

receive a diagnostic data package from a client computing system, the diagnostic data package including;

a problem scenario identifier that identifies a problem scenario indicative of a problem associated with the client computing system, and

first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system;

select, from a plurality of problem-specific diagnostic analyzers based on the problem scenario identifier, a problem-specific diagnostic analyzer that is specific to the problem associated with the client computing system;

run the selected problem-specific diagnostic analyzer to obtain second problem-specific diagnostic data from a remote server environment in which the computing system is deployed;

obtain aggregated diagnostic data that includes the first problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the client computing system and the second problem-specific diagnostic data obtained from the server environment;

identify an estimated root cause for the problem scenario based on aggregated data;

identify, based on the estimated root cause, a suggested recovery action;

identify, as an actor to perform the recovery action, an administrative user with a corresponding administrative computing system; and

communicate the estimated root cause and suggested recovery action to the administrative computing system.

20. The computing system of claim 19 wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computing system to:

access a set of root cause-to-recovery action mappings to identify the suggested recovery action based on the estimated root cause, wherein the root cause-to-recovery action mappings map a root cause to a corresponding recovery action and include an actor identifier identifying an actor to perform the corresponding recovery action; and

access the actor identifier on a matching root cause-to-recovery action mapping that matches the estimated root cause to identify the actor to perform the recovery action.