Device driver telemetry

• US 10,452,459 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2016
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mielke, Markus W., Lichtenberg, Jakob F., Levin, Vladimir A., De Weduwe, Remy L., Kwon, Hyuk Joon, Deisinger, Nathan L., Pabreja, Vikas, Li, Juncao
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jigar P
• Application Number:
  US15/374,780
• Publication Number:
  US 20180165145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0745 in an input/output transactions management context input/output processing in general G06F13/00
• 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 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• 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 11/3041 where the computing system component is an input/output interface interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for verifying functionality of a computing device. Rules are received that are usable to configure a driver verifier function to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the rules. The configured driver verifier function is run on a computing device. The information is captured in response to driver conditions identified by the rules. The computing device is allowed to continue operation when the driver condition includes an error condition of the identified device driver. A communication is initiated to transmit the captured information to a driver verification analysis service.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for verifying functionality of a computing device during production use of the computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the computing device from a driver verification analysis service, one or more rules usable to configure a driver verifier function executing on the computing device, the driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the one or more rules during the production use of the computing device;

configuring, on the computing device, the driver verifier function to capture the information associated with the identified device driver in accordance with the one or more rules;

executing, on the computing device, the configured driver verifier function;

capturing, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;

allowing the computing device and the driver verifier function to continue operation if the one or more driver conditions include an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;

initiating a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and

disabling the driver verifier function on the computing device when instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more rules are received from a driver verification telemetry manager.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a data capture mode or a logging mode.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the specified classes of drivers comprise one or more of audio, NDIS, and camera drivers.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the capturing comprises detecting a violation of one of the rules and, in response, logging an event and storing associated driver data.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more rules implement general driver checks and rule-based checks.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the general checks include one or more of I/O verification and memory management.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein only one of the rules are enabled at one time.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a learning mode where driver issues are collected and a baseline profile is created rather than generating a system error.

12. A system comprising:

at least one memory having stored therein computer instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of the system, at least cause the system to;

execute a driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver executing on the system and identified by one or more rules remotely received from a driver verification analysis service;

capture, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;

continue operation without allowing a bug check if the one or more driver conditions includes an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;

initiate a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and

disable the driver verifier function when remotely instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more rules implement general driver checks and rule-based checks.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a driver verification analysis service, one or more rules usable to configure a driver verifier function executing on the computing device, the driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the one or more rules during production use of the computing device;

configuring the driver verifier function to capture the information associated with the identified device driver in accordance with the one or more rules;

executing the configured driver verifier function;

capturing, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;

allowing the computing device and the driver verifier function to continue operation if the one or more driver conditions include an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;

initiating a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and

disabling the driver verifier function on the computing device when instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a data capture mode or a logging mode.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers and implement general driver checks and rule-based checks, wherein the specified classes of drivers comprise one or more of audio, NDIS, and camera drivers.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a learning mode where driver issues are collected and a baseline profile is created rather than generating a system error.